Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-05-26
SECRETS OFTHE SEA DEPTHS

! Not Neit nc flkutu, anu MnlsleTeu loNf
ave only been here a month or so"
Guy n. Avery.
! SECRETS OF THE SEA DEPTHi
When Professor w. B. Carpente
placed before Mr.. Goschen, then frs
lord of the British Admiralty, hil
scientific plan for a circumnavigatiol
expedition, which resulted in sending
the Challenger" he expressed the be
lief "that the key to the Interpretation
of much of the past history of oul
globe is at present lying at the bottom
Of the sea waiting TO be brought up
Although the materials of that voyage
have not yet been fully WORKED
up, and it will be some years yet be
tore a general resume of the geological
results can be given, enough is already
known to fully justify Professor Car
pentcr's remarkable prediction. Peo
pie with a cursory idea of geological
science know that the prevalent theory
until recently has been that of Sil
Charles Lyell, who held that the
earths surface had been subject tc
periods of elevation and subsistence, SC
that what had once been continents
had become sea bottom, and Uice Uersa
The investigation Of the ocean bed by
Captain NOW Sir George Mares ha:
utterly disproved this, aud shown the
correctness Of the doctrine propounded
by Professor Dana, that tho existing
continental areas Of dry land anc
ocean basins were formed as such in
the first instance upon the original con
solidation OF the earths crust and III
shrinkage upon the liquid mass within
Or, as Professor Geikle, in his recent
lecture on Geographical Evolution,
puts it:
"The present continental ridges have
probably always existed in some form
and as a corrollary we may infer that
the present deep ocean basins Hkei1ist
date from the remotest geological an
tiquity"
The common idea that the ocear
bed is filling up with the earthly dc.
posits washed off the land is also
shown by the challenger" explora
tions to be entirely erroneous. Such
deposits do not extend into the deer
sea, or the real ocean basins, but are
deposited wholly upon the margina
belt of sea floor skirting the land
This is shallow rip, in reality a sub
merged portion of the continental plat
forms, and "it is here" says Professor
Geikie," "that nature has alwayl
strewn the dust of continents to be.
Professor Carpenter says
ave now know for certain that tht
sands and clays washed off the land
whether by the action of the ice o.
= river-waters on its surface, or by tn,
wearing away Of its margin by tn,
waves Of the sea--sink to the sea-bot
tom long before they reach the deepe
abysses not the least trace Of such sedi
mentS hduing been anychere found at
distance from the continental platforms
And thus the study Of the deposits o.
the ocean sea-bed has fully confirme
the conclusion drawn from the presen
confguration Of the earths surface, q
to the general persistence of thos
original inequalities which have re
spectively served as the bases Of tn
existing continents, and the floors o
the great ocean basins" .
The three great oceanic areas--th
Atlantic, the Indian and Southern, an
the Pacific--all have the same charat
teristic; an abrupt dcc!ivity dividin
the true basin, at few hundred mile
distance, sometimes less, from lanC
from the depressed rim referred t
above. The deepest trustworth
sounding yet made was between Me-
Guinea and Japan-26, $50 feet or owe
FIVE miles--and the average depth 0
the ocean floors is at least two an
one-hali miles, or 10000 feet
striking popularity of the ocean noc
' is its extraordinary flatness, 30 ths
''if the bottom Of the mid.occan wer
laid dry, an observer standing on a
most any spot of it would find himse
surrounded by plain only comparabI
to that Of the North America prairie
or the South American pampas."
Quite as interesting as the topogra
ply of the sea-bed, or the characte
of its deposits-which comprise an
mails living at a depth of over iou
-. A