THE MIGHTY PACIFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19140, 5 October 1925, Page 6

THE MIGHTY PACIFIC.

MAP OF THE OCEAN'S BED.

AN EXTENSIVE UNDERTAKING.

INVENTORY OF ALL RESOURCES

[FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 8.

An announcement that the nations of the world are now engaged on a project for the making of a new map of the globe, coupled with a plea for a complete survey of the Pacific Ocean as an economic necessity, has been made by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Department, which is the oldest scientific organisation in the United States. Colonel Jones, its director, asks that this question be referred to the 22 nations on the Pacific, with a recommendation that they confer respecting its feasibility and settle upon mutually satisfactory term* of international co-operation.

The project for a map on a scale of 1 in 1,000,000 is already under way, according to a statement by Colonel Jones. Projection, symbols, statutes and a programme of co-operation have been agreed upon, but only a few sheets have been issued for the Pacific area. The British General Staff has adopted a scheme, and the United States and Japan are working together. -Nothing of a definite nature can be done from this side until the United States Government provides » seagoing vessel of extensive steaming radius, and the personnel and funds necessary for her operation. The area of the Pacific, 70,000,000 square miles, exceeds the total expanse of all the continents and islands on the globe. Its maximum width, 10,000 miles, is two-fifths the circumference of the world. Geophysical forces are seen in the Pacific in operation on a scale of unparalleled grandeur. Ocean currents sweep around a third of the globe's circumference. Depths of five and a-!ialf and six miles have been located. The periphery of the ocean is outlined by an immense ring of active volcanoes, a veritable ring of fire.

" It is singular," says Colonel Jones, " that, with venerable civilisations of remote antiquity on both sides of the Pacific —China and Japan on one side and the Toltec, Maya and Inca empires on the other—the very existence of the great ocean was not certainly known to Europeans until about four centuries ago, when the new world and the great ocean were discovered not far apart. In fact, the European discovery of the oceanic new world occurred almost simultaneously on both shores, in the first quarter of the sixteenth century.

" The coasts and waters of the Pacific can foed the world. But a geographic survey is necessary before an inventory of such resources may be made. The first essential is to complete our knowledge of the sea bottom, and to obtain data for £> bathvmetric chart, or one made by deeplea soundings. Developments in aerial sttrveyrng and sub-aqueous sound ranging encourage the hope that rapid and thorough methods will soon be practicable and permit the construction of a model map of the ocean bed, "Such & model, showing submarine plateaus, ridges, shelves and pinnacles, as well as valleys, troughs and abysses, will serve not only navigation, but all branches of hydro-physical research. Variations of temperature, density, salinity, acidity, etc., affect ocean currents and the migration of food fish. The circulation of the waters in the great ocean is the climatic balance wheel for many regions, ever striving toward an equilibrium which, fortunately, is never quite attained. The sea has its seasons no less than the land."