The Osceola times., 1880-07-17
Ocean Basins.

One result of the Challenger expedi-
ton, DR.. Carpenter declares in the
Nme'eenh Century, is to necessitate fun
damental notifications in the views
hitherto authoratIvely held as to the
age, depth and contiguration of the pres
ent ocean basins as they are usually
called. 1t now seems that their shape
is not at all that of a basin, but it is more
like that of tea-tray or waiter with a
steeply sloping rim; for it is a general
fact that continents, almost without ex-
ception, rise abruptly from the depressed
oceanic areas, and their bottoms are as
flat as the prairics. From this follows a
conclusion that our own distinguished
geologist. Professor Dana, was right in
the opinion, very early expressed, if
not originated by him, that the elevated
areas now forming continents, and the
depressed area of the present oceanic
floors, were formed as such in the first
instance, and have remained unchanged
in their general relations from that time
TO the present. This conclusion il is not
too much TO say, furnishes new key to
the history of the globe. and will startle
some geological Nestors. Sir Charles
Lyell, for instance, has said that "the
bed Of the ocean has been lifted no the
height of some of the lOftiest mount
aims" and that every part of the space
now covered 10y the deepest ocean has
been land"-(Chapter xii, Principles of
Geology. How extreemly improbable
such geological see-saw as this is APP
pears more clearly from an estimate, first
made accurately possible by the Chal-
eneer expedition Of the relative masses
of land and SEA. The average depth of
the ocean is 1900 feet, the average
height of the land above the sea is 1000
feet, and the area of the sea is about II
that of the land. consequently the total
volume of ocean is (23xl3) 36 times that
of the land above the sea level. There
fore, says DIR. Carpenter, if Australia
should subside to deep sea-bottom
level, and the necessary compensatory
elevation should be confined TO a cor
responding area of existing land. il
would all rise to plateau to the height
of Mount Blanc. Otherwise, the total
land area would be raised far above its
known present height above the sea.
But there is no trace of anything like
such action, and the conclusion is that
popular and scientific notions
on the subject are alike wrong. Another
proof is found in the fact that no land
deposits are found on the mid-sea floor;
indeed, it might almost be said that
nothing falls there, for the silt gathers
so slowly that the metoric star-dust,
which is utterly lost to the surface of the
land, forms an appreciable part of the
clay on the oceans bottom. The tenn
perature soundings brought out this un-
expected rcsult-that the whole body of
oceanic water, except only In the North
Atlantic basin, averages in temperature
Il few degrees above 800 Fahrenheit
The greatest depth of the ocean yet ac-
curately measured, as asceitained by a
sounding, while the Challenger was pro-
cceding due north from New Guinea to
Japan, Is 26,Sj0 feet. Yet, in these ut
terly silent, dark, freezing depths, where
the pressure is four tons to the inch, are
found brilliantly colored organisms. If
inter-steller space ever fails in novelty
and suggestiveness, the ocean, now be-
ginning to be known, can scarcely fail to
give the needed flip to the jaded .mag-
ination of the poet OF the future.