Show new method used to map ocean floor record soundings s made in atlantic near puerto rico fredred prepared by national geographic society washington ashington D C w nu s service e arvice the recent discovery of a new and greater depth in the atlantic ocean establishing a new record of nearly five an and d a half miles feet north of puerto rico and his baniola pa niola has called attention to efforts now being made to make complete contour maps of portions of the bottom of the ocean the new depression has been named the milwaukee deep from the united states cruiser from which the record sounding was made the oceans have been carefully charted near certain land masses for navigation purposes for centuries but it has been only in the past 85 years that soundings have been made extensively ten in efforts to chart the floor of the oceans themselves cable I 1 laying advanced the plan but until no 2 ACROSS AND UNDER THE SEA all nations strive to develop the best possible div diving ng aids pictured above is an I 1 italian diver testing a nelv type of diving suit to be used for rescue and salvage dvork this particular piece of equipment ivas developed by an italian en engineer ginee and official tests disclosed many valuable features recently recordings of depths of 0 more than 6 feet numbered but one to every 23 square miles ocean echoes depth more progress has been ma made e in recent years through new ceasur ing methods for years measure ments had been made by the slow procedure of dropping a plummet suspended by a piano wire to make even one sounding in 12 feet of water required stopping the ship tor for an hour today delicate ins instruments trume ants measure the time it takes the e echo C ho of a s sound at the seas su surface r f ace to ret return u rn from the bottom thus measuring the distance by the speed of sound this can now be done while a ship is moving rapidly and many commercial ves sels equipped with the sonic meas aring devices are speeding the work sound travels almost five times it mes as fast in water as in the air so that the speed under water is close to a mile a second thus indicating the delicate accuracy with which the time of the returning echo must be recorded the problem is corn com by the fact that the speed of sound in water varies with the QZ Z L no ao 4 WHEN THERE IS S LIFE TO RE BE SAVED in the recent is submarine disaster a diving bell similar to the one shown here was used by means of this kind hind of equipment llie file navy was able to rescue 33 men front from a depth of fret feet this tras the first actual life and death test of this particular diving boll bell and it teas found to be very satisfactory i in n such manner of rescue work norfa i no 1 A NEW SAGA OF THE SEA since the first time men have ventured toward the oceans floor they have been using equipment similar to the standard diving suit pictured here although numerous safety devices have been advanced since these beginnings this type is still almost universally used amount of 0 salt in the water its temperature pera ture and varying pressure great changes seen the comparative shallowness of the sea tn in many places has been vividly suggested in the tha great changes that would be made in the boundaries of countries and continents were the surface of the ocean to sink only feet a little more than the height 0 of the washington r monument ireland would then be 1 joined to england except for the 1 north channel england in turn would become part of the main land of europe the water of the english channel having run out A strip 1500 miles wide would connect north america with asia new guinea would become part ol of australla australia the broadest ocean surfaces are in the southern hemisphere but north of the equator occur the greatest submarine upheavals deforming the bottoms of the caribbean sea and the atlantic and pacific oceans in a broad expanse from the latitude of the panama canal to that of philadelphia in these regions especially to in the pa cilc vast plains and plateaus tau tall peaks and deep canyons form another world in the shallower por eions ocean currents are the breezes that sway submarine trees and fish are the variegated birds nitting flitting among the branches while varied coral I 1 formations 0 look like flowers tag ing shrubs s h ru bs atlantic floor uneven down the middle of the atlantic extending miles south from iceland runs a mountainous ridge almost feet above the adjoin ing basins ba s ins soundings already re A EMANS I 1 no 3 FORTUNE LURKS ON OCEAN FLOOR not only do nations seek to develop diving equipment equip equipment men t to aid in rescue work but fortune hunters dream of 01 riches on the ocean poor floor and they too advance the science wence of diving the romano diving bell shoun here is built to enable a diver to crork a mile below belliv the surface this is a depth where the ordinary liver diver could not venture because of the terrific pressure corded indicate that three fourths ot of the atlantic is at least feet deep and over hall half is feet deep the pacific has more great depths than any other ocean according to the records of the hydrographic office of the navy department which show eight in excess of feet the deepest hole in the pacific is feet just northeast of aun mindanao of the philippine islands this is the greatest recorded ocean depth in the world the record in the south pacific ocean is feet north atlantic the new milwaukee deep feet eel southern atlantic feet indian ocean feet A sounding of 0 feet is recorded in the arctic ocean and one of feet near the antarctic continent in the south pa cefic scientists admit there is still much work to be done but look forward forwar ct to the time when ft hen deep soundings will wil I 1 be sufficient to chart all the mountains and the valleys on the ocean floors the as call it some vi sion aries of the jules verne type look forward to the time when great window walled submarines with powerful searchlights will carry photographers and tourists on i n ex tended trips into the deitha |