Submerged Canyon of the Hudson River

Abstract

SCIENCE Service has issued a summary of a recent United States broadcast talk on hydrographic matters, by Lieut.—Comm. R. R. Lukens, of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Among the various interesting topics dealt with, is the remarkable submerged canyon of the Hudson River, about fifty miles at sea off the entrance to New York Harbour. This great gorge, approaching in magnitude the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, is at one place more than 2400 ft. deep, and three miles wide from rim to rim; it is about twenty miles long, and at its opening spreads out fan-like. It is of use during fog, as a ‘seamark’ for vessels equipped with sound-echo apparatus. Springs welling up in the sea are also described, both water springs and oil springs. One of the former, off the Florida coast, sends up millions of gallons of fresh mineral water from a hole about 25 ft. in diameter and 70 ft. deep in the ocean bed, itself 50 ft. deep; the water springs up with considerable force, so that it is difficult to hold a boat over it, and it has a sulphurous smell. Elsewhere; off Alaska, the sea-bottom sounding lead, ‘armed’ with tallow, shows gold dust as a bottom characteristic; but the depth is too great to permit of dredging. Other remarkable ocean features off Alaska are pinnacle rooks, often extending to within a few feet of the surface, which are the cause of many shipwrecks: and a submarine volcano, rising from a depth of nearly 6000 ft., which throws up islands and blasts them again with violent explosions, nearly every year witnessing some change in the appearance of the island.