Soviet Expedition to the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

THE expedition to the Pacific Ocean organised under the joint auspices of the State Hydrological Institute and the Ichthyological Institute of the U.S.S.R. has recently returned from the Far East. The expedition made a detailed investigation of the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, in which thirty-one members of the Hydrological Institute took part. In the Sea of Japan a thorough investigation was made of the region stretching from the border of Korea to the Gulf of Olta. For the first time in the history of oceanographic research, detailed work was carried out in the parts adjoining the Gulf of Peter the Great at a depth of 8,500 m., and at that depth various organic forms of life hitherto unknown to science were discovered. It has been ascertained that the sharp descent of the coast-line—at an angle of 24°—forms a huge ravine overgrown with tree-shaped corals. One such coral was extracted by the expedition. Samples of the sea-bed at a depth of 8,400 m. have been obtained, and also much hydrological material which makes it possible to determine, according to the seasons, the annual hydrological system of the region of the Gulf of Peter the Great.