River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-05-20
THE DEEP BLUE SEA.
Some Measures Which Tell What Its
Actual Depth Is.

Some interesting results OF recent
deep.sea explorations were concisely
stated in late lecture at the Royal in
stitution, London. Four-elevenths, or
nearly three-fourths of the surface of
the eartn is covered by sea. The aver
age depth of the ocean is, according to
the latest calculations of Mr.. Otto
Krummell, about 1877 fathoms, or
somewhere over two miles. The great
est depth known to exist was discovered
by the United States ship Tuscarora,
near the Kurile islands, in the northwest
Pacific. 1t is 4. 655 fathoms. or about
five miles and quarter. The highest
mountain existing is of about the same
height as the deepest sea is deep. Mount
Everett is 4, 1888 fathoms in height. So
insignificant, however, is the total vol
ume of the land raised above sea level,
in proportion to the vast cavity oc-
crpied by the sea, that, we're this cav
ity emptied of its water, the whole of
the land now above sea level could be
shoveled into it and twenty-five and a
half times over, before it W )uld be filled
up to the present sea level.
Nevertheless, the depth of the oceans,
great as it is, is as nothing in compar-
ison with the vastness OF surface. AS
Mr.. Croll has said, the oceans, in rela-
ton to their superficial area, are as
shallow as a sheet of water one hun
dred yards in diameter and only an
inch in depth. The sides of the ocean
basins are not at all steep. They are
most ly so little inclined that an ordi-
nary locomotive engine could run up
them in a straight line with ease. Their
inclination is usually not more than
three or four degrees, or less.
Around some oceanic islands the slope
is greater. The steepest slope known is
at Bermuda, where there is an inclina-
ton of nearly twenty degrees from the
edge of the reef to 2, 600 fathoms. There
are no such things as mountains and
valleys on the deep sea bottom. Ami
mails can not slip down against their
will into the depths, but must move
deliberately into them, and travel a
long journey to reach them. The pres
sure excited by the superintendent
water at great depths is so great as to
be almost beyond conception. 1t
amounts roughly to ton on the square
inch for every 600 fathoms of depth,
about 166 times as much as the pres
sure TO which people are subjected to on
land. AT the greatest depths the pres
sure is about four tons and half. Vast
though this pressure Is, it is, however,
only about one-eighth of that whichProf.
Abel and Capt. Noble have measured
as produced in their experiments on
gun-powder. The deep sea animals,
being completely permeated by flulds,
are probably no more conscious of pres
sure acting upon them than we, and,
so long as they move slowly from one
depth to another, asd most likely unaf-
fected by the consequent changes of
pressure.
With regard to the temperature of
the deep-sea water, the conditions which
would affect animals are comparatively
simple. Nearly all over the ocean the
temperature at five hundred fathoms
is as low as 40 degrees F., and this is
the case Immediately under the uqua-
tor in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Below two thousand fathoms the tenn
perature is never more than few de-
grees above freezing point, excepting in
the peculiar cases of land-locked seas,
such as the Salu sea.