Allyn C. Vine

RECENT RESULTS IN SUBMARINE GEOPHYSICS

During the war period nearly all the established methods of studying submarine geology were found to have military application, and, as a result of the impetus given to such work by government research and development contracts, new techniques were developed. Thus the field work of the war period has added considerably to knowledge gained through established methods and has demonstrated the potential usefulness to submarine geology of entirely new instrumentation. The co-operation of geophysicists, submarine geologists, and oceanographers with the Navy9s research program has been particularly close and effective. It has led to improvements in the methods of both deep-sea and shallow-water seismic surveys, to advances in the techniques of underwater photography, and to the developments of other rapid systems for collecting information about the sediments. Some examples of the results achieved by investigators at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are presented. As an example of an entirely new tool for the exploration of ocean basins, a method of acoustically scanning the floor of the deep ocean is explained. This method is particularly promising for the location of active submarine volcanoes and isolated submerged sea mounts which cannot be easily found by conventional sounding techniques.

Geophysical investigations in the emerged and submerged Atlantic Coastal PlainPART III: BARNEGAT BAY, NEW JERSEY, SECTION

Seismic refraction measurements across the New Jersey Coastal Plain, from Bridgeport on Delaware Bay to Avalon on the Atlantic coast, have been made as a continuation of similar measurements of the depth of the crystalline basement made in 1935 at Cape Henry, Virginia, and Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and in 1937 at Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. The standard technique for seismic refraction measurements was followed. Three seismic discontinuities were determined in addition to the one associated with the bottom of the surface gravels covering this part of New Jersey. These discontinuities appear to have the same geologic equivalents as were noted on the Barnegat Bay seismic section. The observed depths are in agreement with the available well data, and the seismic velocity variations noted for the basement discontinuity indicate similar changes in basement lithology as those found along the Barnegat Bay seismic section.

Satellite Elongation into a True "Sky-Hook"

The theoretical possibility of self-supporting cables extending into space from earth and from extraterrestrial rotating or revolving bodies is examined. In principle, augmentation (and duplication) of the installation and the launching of masses into orbit or into space could be accomplished with energy derived entirely from the rotation of the central body. In practice, a portion of the total energy requirement would probably be supplied by simple mechanical devices.