Evening star., 1932-04-29
DR.. c. S. Piggott Explains
Discovery to American
GeophySicaI Union.
URANIUM OXIDES CITED
AS PROBABLE SOURCE
High Concentration Leads to Ques-
tions on Mechanics of Terres-
trial Phenomena.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

ocean bottoms are rich IN radium.
Samples of sediments from sea floors
collected by the non-magnetic ship
Carnegie on its last voyage show an
average concentration of this precious
element more than five times as great
as that in granite rock, Dr. c. S. Piggot
Of the Carnegie Institution told the
American Geographical Union, meeting
here today. Granite rocks the world
over yield about two parts of radium in
a billion. They are the richest. Basal
tic rocks have only about half this con-
centration.
DR.. Piggot said this concentration on
the sea floors might be explained
through the oxidation of uranium. All
radlum comes from uranium. There
are considerable amounts of this rare
element in sea water, approximately
equal to the amounts of gold and sill
yer. The radium content is the great
est in the deepest water, farthest from
shore. Here, Dr. Piggot said, conditions
would be most favorable for the
uranium oxides, which are richest in
radium, to sink to the bottom and be-
come concentrated in the upper layer
VI tuS ocean uCOr.
Skeletons Absorb Radium.
Something may be added, he pointed
out, by the absorption of the minute
amounts OF radium in sea water in the
bodies and skeletons of sea creatures.
When they die, they sink to the bottom.
This explanation, he pointed out, would
be more valid for the comparatively
minute amounts of radium found near
the shore. Something also may be
added by volcanic dust which falls into
the sea.
The high radium content of the
ocean bottom is the more astonishing,
DR.. Piggot said, when it is considered
that clays and limestone material,
rather than GRANTEES, form the bulk of
the sediment washed into the seas from
the land. They are very low in radium
content.
The discovery of this relatively high
concentration of radium in ocean floors,
he said opens up some far-reaching
questions involving the mechanics Of
terrestrial phenomena. A world Of
strange transparent blue-something so
far outside human sensory experience
that there are no words to describe it
exists under the ocean at depths below
500 feet, E. o. Hulburt of the Naval
Research Laboratory told the geo.
physicists
Hulburt's attention was called to
this phenomenon by the experiences
Of the explorer, William Beebe, who
went to a depth of 1,426 feet in a
metal sphere with a quartz window.
There, in a region utterly devoid Of
life, Beebe had the semi-mystical ex-
perience Of existing In an all-embrac-
ing blueness which seemed infinitely
transparent so that he did not think
of feet or yards of visibility, but of
hundreds of miles of color stretching
over SO much of the world"
Studies Optical Nature.
The Navy scientist set out to solve
the optical nature of Beebe's expert
ence in the laboratory by observing
the passage of light through samples
Of sea water collected from the same
localities. He found it could be ac-
counted for by the progressive selec-
light by sea water until eventually
there would be great blue preponder-
ance.
Some of his laboratory results dis
agreed with those of Beebe'S actual
observations, but, he said, the differ
ence could be accounted for by aSSum-
ing that 25-millionths of the volume of
the water was occupied by some opaque
material This would be provided by
the existence of one small fish per cubic
meter.
Observations Of the tails of shooting
stars in the high atmosphere indicates
the existence of strong winds, with We
locitieS in some cases of nearly 200 kilo-
meters an hour, said DR. Hulburt in
another paper. Night observations of
these meteor trains. he said, has gener-
ally led to the deduction that the winds
are blowing from the West. Thus the
shooting stars actually can give meteor
ologists some information regarding the
region through which they are passing
and which are inaccessible to any hu-
man instruments.
Rainfall over the whole North Ameri-
can region from year to year remains
fairly constant although various To-
periods, said DR.. Oliver L. Passig of the
Weather Bureau, basing his conclusions
on records extending over so years.
Offers New Hypothesis.
1t may be possible to read Mother
Earth's story from the pattern of welts
and burrows on her body, said DR.. w. H.
Bucher of the University of Cincinnati,
offering new hypothesis to account for
the 1ormatlOn ana close association OF
island chains and ocean depths.
The material under the earth's thin
crust, he explained expands for some
reason. This tends to wrinkle the
crust, causing numerous burrows to come
into existence which vary greatly in
length and depth. II Is somewhat like
the cracking of an asphalt pavement.
On land these burrows tend to become
filled with sediment, resulting in dis
balance which pushes the welts up still
higher through the geological phenome-
non of folding" This explains the big
mountain chains Under the sea the
burrows remain comparatively empty.
The "weltS" continue in the earths
crust, but not in such conspicuous
form as the mountain ranges.
This hypothesis, he said, may shed
considerable light on the earth's geo.
logical history when the sea bottoms are
mapped. 1t may prove or dis
prove hypothesis of drifting continents.
Study of the records shows that the
great Japanese earthquake of 1923 orig
mated more than $50 miles under the
earth's surface, DR.. v. c. Stechschulte
Of Xavier University, Cincinnati, re-
ported. The fact that great earth dis
turbances originate so far down, he
said. raises important problems con-
perOinO the structure 0f he