The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1913-11-21
THE OCEAN
Changes In the Sea Floor From
Shore to Shore.
THE BIG MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE.
Il Starts at Iceland and Bisects the
Ocean Down Almost to Cape Horn.
In Places II Rises Above the Surface,
Forming Groups of Islands.


In Places II Rises Above the Surface,
Forming Groups Of Islands.
A sketch OF the landscape" Of the
ocean bed Is given by DR.. A. E. Ship
ley In an article In the Edinburgh Re
view:
THE passengers and the crew OF
liner racing over the surface Of the
Atlantic are apt to imagine that under
them Is a vast layer Of water or vary
ing depth sparsely inhabited by few
fish. AS "a matter Of fact, the whole OF
this great ocean IL teeming with life
II instead OF taking ship we could take
to the water and walk across the bed
OF the Atlantic TO America, starting
from the shores Of western Europe, we
should In effect be travelling through a
succession OF new countries. Not only
would the surrounding physical cOndi-
tions vary as we advanced, but the
animal and plant life would vary In
correlation with the altering physical
conditions.
"Walking farther and farther toward
the depths of the Atlantic, we should
soon lose all sight OF the algae, and the
shallow water ilsh--the plaice and sole,
whiting. skates, dogfish and others and
cod-would give way TO the megrim
and the hake The sea floor would
gradually change from rock or gravel
or stones to sands and ultimately to
mud or oozes OF various tints, their
original colors often modified by the
action OF the decomposition OF organic
particles I'm them and on them. All
these finer deposits are derived from
the neighboring land and are blown
sea ward by offshore winds or washed
down by rains and streams and carried
out to the sea by rivers.
"The distance to which fine matter In
suspension may be carried Is very
great. The Kongo Is said TO carry Its
characteristic mud rs far out 10 sea as
600 miles and the Gnnges and the
Indus as far as 1000 miles
Except I'm the nelghborhood of such
great rivers n subaqueous traveller
would soon pass beyond what Sir John
Murray has called the mud line,
line that limits the terrlgenous deposits
everywhere surrounding dry land
Having reached this limit we must
proceed warily, for Mt the mud line
Mt an average depth of n hundred
fathoms, we shall find ourselves Mt the
edge OF the continental shelf, that rim
which extends seaward to a varying
distance from all land areas. the rim
on which Great Britain rests. Beyond
lies the continental slope, preclpice
more or less abrupt and more or less
high. descending by steep declines or
terraced cliffs until depths of 1000
fathoms are reached
"The Atlantic. compared with the
other great oceans. has an unusually
large area of comparatively shallow
water or its total area 27.5 per cent
Is covered by water less than 1000
fathoms deep: 1S per cent lies between
1000 and 1000 fathoms and AZ per cent
between 1000 and 5000 fathoms; the
remaining 7.5 per cent Is still deeper
AT the foot of the continental slope
lies an illlmltable plain of n uniform
| dull. grayish bun color, fiat and fea-
tureless as the desert, and only dlversi-
fed by an occasional as yet uncovered
rock or wreck or the straight line OF a
recently laid cable. This plain con
tinues with scarcely change I'm seen
cry or I'm level until we approach the
great mid-Atlantic ridge. As Bruce
has shown. this ridge, which roughly
bisects the Atlantic. extends from Ice
land as far south rs fifty-three degrees
OF south latitude, with n slight and
quite inexplicable break just under the
equator The ridge runs almost parallel
with the eastern contour of North and
South America, which. I'm turn, as the
ordinary map will show, roughly cor
responds with the western contour OF
Europe and Africa. From time 10 time
the ridge rises above the surface OF the
water, rs In the Azores group, st
Paul's rocks. Ascension. Tristan da
Cunha and Cough island
Having ascended the eastern and
descended the western slope OF this
mid-Atlantic ridge. we should again
traverse plains Of grayish ooze far
more extensive than any level land
tract known to geographers. and as we
approached the American coast we
should gradually pass through, In re-
verse order. the zones OF life traversed
when leaving Europe. On the eastern
coast OF America the slope Is much
more gradual than on the western
coast OF southern Europe and Africa"
|