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pp. 35-36 · Read in the full issue
Measuring The Deeps
Danish Expedition In East Indies
(Philippines), on August 13. en route to the “Banda Deep,’’ South Java. (For arrival in Port Moresby, see elsewhere in this issue.) The chief scientist, Dr. Anton Bruun, stated before leaving that the Galathea expedition’s echo sounder had traced the outline of the “Philippine Deep,” which is 175 kilometres long, two kilometres wide and a little over 10,000 metres dee P- Dr. Bruun said although living animals had been recovered from
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The frigate Galathea, of the Royal Danish Navy, is in the Pacific to explore the animal life of the greatest ocean depths. The ex pedition left Copenhagen in October, 1950, and is the third Danish round-the-world expedition with scientific purposes. Previous Danish voyages were made by the corvette Galathea, 1845-47, and the Dana, 1928-30. Purposes of the pre cpnt pvDPditinn atp* sent expedition are.— 1. To make a collection of animals living en the sea bottom at depths
from 4,000 metres right down to 10,500 metres. This should, for in stance, solve the question whether animals can live in depths exceed ing about 7,800 metres. 2. Special attention is given to the the 3. By using special gear, such as commercial otter-trawls, long lines with shark or halibut hooks, etc., a special search for larger animals in the deep sea is made 4. By measurement of tempera tures and analysis of sea water for salinity, oxygen content, etc., the life conditions of the deep-sea ani mals are studied. This also includes sampling the sea bottom itself and a study of the bottom configuration by echo sounding, 5 The ouantitv of animalc . nrp sent in various areas is supposed to be c i ose iy correlated to the amount of food available. Hence a study is constantly made of the production of organic matter in the surface layers, this being the food repre sented by the microscopic plant life. A very simple but accurate method, using radio-active tracers, has been worked out by Professor E. Steemann Nielsen, of Copen hagen.
R JMagnetic observations are made afc the surface and a S p ec ial attempt is made to measure the magnetic forces very deep down,
which has never been done before.
The Galathea is provided with Radar and Loran installations, echo-sounding recorder, deep-freeze installations, a laboratory in which 11 scientists can work at the same time, trawl winches, sounding winches, installations for magnetic deep sea research, etc. The crew numbers 100.
Asked to contribute £lO,OOO, Seventh Day Adventists in New Zealand and Australia gave £12,000 on June 2 as a special one-day offering to enable the South Pacific Mission Board of the SDA Church to advance its medical, educational, and evangelical missionary work in the Pacific Islands.
A general meeting of the Austra lian Baptist Union in August was informed that the Baptists’ new mission station in the Baiyer Valley, New Guinea Highlands, is steadily expanding. It has contacted new tribal groups in the Telafomin area, and activities extend almost to the Dutch border.