Abstract
For 25 years those interested in the geology of the oceans have stressed our ignorance, and the importance of an understanding of marine geology. Perhaps the time has come to admit that we now do know a great deal and can see where the uncertainties and problems for the next few years probably lie. Many of the questions that were asked in the 1930’s (Field 1938; Bullard 1939, 1940) have been answered. We now know in some detail what lies beneath the continental shelf, we know the thickness of the sediments in the deep oceans and we can classify the major forms of oceanic topography. The gear used in the study of the sea floor has also greatly improved. Kuhlenberg’s piston corer enables more-or-less undisturbed cores to be collected, whose length is limited only by the length of the coring tube that can be handled; Graf and La Coste have devised gravimeters that can be used on a surface ship and there are several types of magnetometers that can be towed behind a ship. Along with the development of instruments for use at sea there has been a parallel development of laboratory facilities on shore for the chemical, physical and palaeontological study of the specimens obtained.
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Schedule a callMore From: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
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