Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1922-04-20
DEPTH OF THE SEA.
Navy Perfects Device for Finding
Bottom of Oceans.


Explorers and geographers who
have been signing for new lands
I" conquer may find their best
Held OF endeavOr, paradOxically,
IN the sea. Now that the United
safes navy has perfected de-
wee Tor measuring the depths of
water by sound waves without go
ng through the tedious process of
lowering sounding lines it should
be possible to add greatly to the
relatively little we know about
The underwater portion of the
earth. The Importance of this lit
tie explored region is brought out
IL: the following bulletin issued
by the National Geographic So
cicty:
When it is realized that nearly
thrcc-fourths of the surface of
the globe consists Of water it is
rather remarkable how little we
know OF the vast surface Of the
solid sphere which lies under this
screen of liquid. The greater por-
tlCnS OF our continents are map
ped even TO the smallest details,
and our harbOrS and the shallow
waters off shore are fairly we'll
chartcd, but once the edges of
the continental shelves are passed
the features of the sea bottom are
represented by only few some
what vague contour lines laid
down between rather infrequent
points of soundings.
1--WE know without doubt that
the highest point OH the earth is
the peak of Mt. Everest which eX-
tends above sea level for 29,002
feet, or 3S feet less than 5 l-2
miles. On the other hand. we can
only speak of the deepest abyss
YET discovered, for the one great
pit, hidden in the depths of the
ocean, mas scarcely established it's
ttlilc TO first place in recent years
when IL has been surpassed by
deeper one; and it can hardly be
believed that the deepest of all
has yet been discovered.
"School children were taught n
lew years ago that the deepest
depression III the earth s surface
WAS near the Fiji islands and that
it was 30,l33 feet deep. Since
then the deepest hole on earth
has been successfully kermadec
deep, northeast of New Zealand,
3O,J3O feet; Nero deep, southeast
OF Guam, 3l.6l6 feet; and the
present holder of the record, Phil
ippmc deep, east of the Philip
pine islands,, 32,0S9 feet. The
greatest known depth therefore
lies & miles and 400 feet below
the surface of the sea.
1.-The greatest range vertically
of the earth s surface is between
the bottom of Philippine deep and
the top of Mt. Everest, a distance
OF approximately ll.6 miles. This
seems Il tremendous distance until
it is compared with the diameter
OF the earth, which, near the lati-
tudes of these great physical feat
ures, is approximately 5000 miles.
On u globe with diameter of
eight inches, this maximum range
of depressions and heights would
be represented by a scratch little
more Uan Il hundredth of an inch
deep. The smallest division on u
household ruler is one sixteenth
OF an inch. The scratch would be
less than n fifth of such a divis-
ion in depth. On billiard ball
one could hardly scratch lightly
enough with pin to represent
the great Philippine deep, and
few grains of talcum powder
would stand for Mt. Everest. The
smOOthest orange that grows has
much greater irregularities on it's
skin i'll proportion to its size than
those given to the earth by all it's
peaks and valleys.
"One who studies the earth
comes to realize that in sense
the continets are subordinate to
the great ocean basins. The total
volume of these depressions below
sea level is many times greater
than the volume of the land that
rises above the sea. If the entire
land surface were leveled down
and ocean nearly two miles deep
would sweep over every square
foot of the surface of the globe.