their data was scant or lacking, from other sources, such as Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution, Lamont Geological Observatory, the University 

 of Miami, and the Canadian Hydrographic Office. Other sources, as the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, and the petroleum companies, produce com- 

 parable base maps to meet their own special needs; those of industry are 

 excellent but, unfortunately, not generally available. Preparation of the 

 3-sheet base map, which shows the general bathymetric setting, involved 

 cooperation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Office of 

 Naval Research and others, has been completed. (Published during mid- 

 October 1965.) 



As the base maps were being compiled, laboratories were prepared, 

 preliminary analyses of the physiography were made, and a reconnaissance 

 survey of surfacial sediments was initiated. For sampling of the surficial 

 material, K. O. Emery of Woods Hole and director of the program, developed 

 a grid pattern with spacing of 18 kilometers, roughly 10 nautical miles. 

 Sampling stations were taken at grid intersections points. The Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries provided samples which they had collected within the 

 Gulf of Maine; sampling of surficial sediments throughout the rest of the 

 area, from Nova Scotia to Key West, Florida, has been essentially completed. 



Geophysical cruises (sparker and fathometer) have been interspersed 

 with the sediment-sampling cruises. Earlier geophysical information was 

 scattered and thus an effort is being made to obtain a total picture. 



The sediment and geophysical phases are being performed first in order 

 to obtain information that can be used to most effectively carry out studies 

 of the underlying rocks. This phase, which has just begun, involves coring, 

 dredging, and drilling in areas where rocks crop out at the surface or where 

 the surficial sediments are thin. 



The Geological Survey, through its association with Woods Hole, is 

 cooperating in the Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Sampling 

 (JOIDES) Blake Plateau drilling program. The objective is part of the 

 lithology phase of our overall program. We are interested, of course, in 

 the structure of the shelf as it will be revealed by the JOIDES cores. 

 Relative to the JOIDES cores , some data has been released to the newspapers. 

 A USGS man aboard the drilling vessel identified two aquifers that were 

 penetrated in borehole J-1 , 30 kilometers east of Jacksonville and found 

 that both were of artesian nature. In fact, the hydrostatic pressure was 

 much greater than had been anticipated. 



The above is an outline of our approach to the mission with which we 

 ire charged. It seems appropriate to remark that there is much to be done 

 by each of our organizations and there are many opportunities for us to 

 cooperate. Our present arrangement with the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 to determine relations between sessil marine organisms and the sediments on 

 which they live is an example of many that might be cited. 



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