EARTH-CRACK RUNS FROM EUROPE TO AMERICA

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6813, 17 January 1929, Page 5

EARTH-CRACK RUNS FROM EUROPE TO AMERICA

SUBMARINE MOUNTAIN RIDGE SAID TO REACH FROM GREENLAND TO UNITED STATES. COPENHAGEN. The safety of the Atlantc traffic is one of the -problems in the solution of which the Danish natural scientific expedition on board the Godthaab have been engaged during its 11,000 miles expedition of hydrographic research between America and Greenland. Supplemented by the labours of the Marion expedition, an absolutely exact >nd reliable chart has now been obtained of the. currents in the ocean between America and Greenland, which, is of the greatest importance for Atlantic traffic,/inasmuch as it is from these regions that the icebergs emanate.

Basalt was discovered on the American coast, as was intimated by that gallant explorer Laugo Koch, whom tho Godthaab expedition met at Thule. He was of the opinion that there was a “crack” in the earth the whole distance from England via the Faroe islands and Greenland into America. The Godthaab expedition did actually find basalt on those places in America Lauge Koch had indicated. ■The hydrographic investigations purported principally to ascertain the origin of the different volumes of water in those regions. A submarine mountain ridge reaching from Holstensborg in Greenland to the American coast, divides this ocean into two basins of entirely different nature. As proof of the extreme length to which research was carried may be mentioned the fact that chemical analyses proved tho existence of 0.05 milligram nitrite per ton of sea water, and yet such minimum quantities of inorganic substances in sea water are a condition for animal life being found there. The animal life of the northern portion of the area investigated was alentirely unknown, and vast collections have been made there from all depths and through tho medium of all kinds of instruments. As what may be called a by-prodqpt of the expedition’s labours are some observations about the prospects of fishing. Greenland has its own “stock” of cod, but the young or the breeding seem to fall two or three years in succession. Halibut is more abundant in the inletg of South Greenland, and in Disco Bay, also all over Baffin Bay, but at depths far too great for fishing purposes. In Disco Bay it is found only in shallow water in a very limited area.