The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-02-17
ExpIorers' "Cun" Untovers
 Rich Ores on Ocean Floor
By HOWARD W. BLAKEsLEE
Associated Press Science Editor

ASSOcfdttu TEtSS ScftllCt Eultoi
 NEW YORK-The earth's last geo. graphical frontier, the bottom of the sea- has found its Columbus.
 The first explorers this greatest of all frontiers are back in port with samples of wealth undreamed
 They opened this vast area with new kind of big gun, which lowered to the bottom, even as deep as six miles shoots a long, narrow open end steel can which goes 10 feet into the earth and comes up filled with samples.
 They were voyaging only after scientific information. But they have come back with phosphate fertilizer rock from mile deep, and mangan- ese from ocean pavements of this metal which is one of the sinews of steel-making.
 The situation at this moment IS as dramatic as Columbus discover cry of America. For these samples of future resources were found in the first few random shots. Three fourths of the earth's crust on ocean bottoms is still undisturbed and un- sampled.
 pr. F. P. Shepard of the Univer- sity of Illinois found the phosphate, Charles Snowden Piggot, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, reported the manganese, but to whom science will give the title of Columbus of the bottoms is not known. For many persons cooperat- ed in this scientific caravel.
 Four Glacial Periods
 The first job is mapping. First maps brought unexpected results, for the water has protected much of the bottom from the erosion that has wiped out the story of land up- | heavals
 Thus. nine shots" strung in a line across the Atlantic from New foundland to Ireland, reveal layers showing four glacial periods, when this ocean bottom was ice. And in between lie marine shells showing that there were intervals Of water and that it was as warm as today. Selenium, a metal not previously supposed to be in sea bottoms, is found in these samples. The earth's magnetic history has been found "foot-printed, by buried magnetic particles. They point in the direction of what was the magnetic pole when they sank
 Expectation of great things from the sea bottom is not wild dream For within this decade science has four times done the seemingly im- possible with the ocean. Sea Bottom Yields Oil Oil is already taken from the sea bottom, at still shallow depths it is true off California and the Gulf of Mexico coasts. But petroleum eX- perts have discussed going down through 1000 feet of ocean for oil. Gold has been extracted from sea water. Tests indicate that the seas contain enough gold to pave the roads of the world, and enough 1 silver to roof the earth. Bromlne from the sea off North Carolina controls the speed of gasoline in the majority of the American cars. Some of the metal in milk of magnesla comes from Pacific waters.
 The ocean bottom has been a vast storehouse, accommodating siftings from all depths. Once these were thought of as useless muds. Now no one can predict. Within the year for example, radium has been found accommodating there not enough to be useful the very presence Of rad ium and it's accumulation, along with the other riches, begins to make the bottom of the sea resemble Aladdin's lamp.
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