A Vacuum Core-Sampler for Deep-Sea Sediments

Abstract

FEW geophysical problems have such important bearings as that of sampling undisturbed sediment cores of great length from ocean deeps. Questions pertaining to the permanence of ocean basins or their subsidence, to continental drift, to climatic changes and to variations in volcanic activity, etc., can best be answered through studies of the stratigraphy of deep-sea sediments, sampled in the manner just indicated. Recently, Dr. Piggot of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has obtained cores from the north-west Atlantic bottom approaching 3 m. in length, by projecting the sampler into the sediment by means of an explosive charge.