_The Geological Society of America
Special Paper 65_
THE FLOORS OF
THE OCEANS
I. THE NORTH ATLANTIC
Text to Accompany the Physiographic Diagram of the
North Atlantic
BY
BRUCE C. HEEZEN, MARIE THARP, AND MAURICE EWING
_Lamont Geological Observatory (Columbia University)
Palisades, New York_
[Illustration]
April 11, 1959
_Made in the United States of America_
TEXT PAGES COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE WILLIAM BYRD PRESS
COLLOTYPE PLATES PRINTED BY THE MERIDEN GRAVURE COMPANY
LINE PLATES PRINTED BY WILLIAMS AND HEINTZ
BOUND BY RUSSELL-RUTTER COMPANY
PUBLISHED BY THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
419 WEST 117 STREET, NEW YORK 27, N. Y.
_The Special Papers Series
Of
The Geological Society of America
is made possible
through the bequest of
Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose, Jr._
_"Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose to
view this great sea-gash, which separates continents, and extends
from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it would present a scene the most
rugged, grand, and imposing. The very ribs of the solid earth, with the
foundations of the sea, would be brought to light, and we should have
presented to us at one view the empty cradle of the ocean...." (M. F.
Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea, 1855.)_
FOREWORD
The diagrammatic portrayal of the relief of continental land areas of
the world has been completed by both the late A. K. Lobeck and Erwin
Raisz, whose magnificent diagrams are familiar to all geologists and
geographers. The authors of the present sheet are preparing a similar
series of marine physiographic diagrams.
_The Physiographic Diagram: Atlantic Ocean; Sheet 1_ is the first of
this projected series. The Atlantic Ocean diagram will consist of five
sheets at a scale of about 1:5 million. A diagram of the South Atlantic
Ocean at a scale of about 1:11 million now nearly completed will form
the first of a general series planned to portray the world oceans.
In addition, diagrams of selected areas well covered by sounding
profiles will be prepared at scales of about 1:2 million.
Each sheet or series of sheets will be accompanied by descriptive notes
treating the nomenclature, morphological, geological, and geophysical
characteristics of each of the physiographic provinces.
_Lamont Geological Observatory Contribution 308_
NOTE
_Physiographic Diagram: Atlantic Ocean, Sheet 1 (Plate 1)_
Copies of the Physiographic Diagram: Atlantic Ocean, Sheet 1 are
available unfolded so that each will be suitable for wall mounting. The
diagram is therefore not physically inserted or attached to this volume
although it forms the basic part of the paper.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The studies of submarine topography at the Lamont Geological
Observatory have been supported by the United States Navy Bureau of
Ships under Contract NObsr 64547. The expeditions which obtained
topographic data were supported by the Office of Naval Research under
Contracts N6 onr 27124 and N6 onr 27113 and the Bureau of Ships under
Contract NObsr 64547. Three cruises were supported by the National
Geographic Society, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and
Columbia University. Financial support has been received from The
Geological Society of America (Grant 635-54). The preparation of this
paper was supported in part by the Bell Telephone Laboratories.
The studies that led to the present paper began at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution just after World War II. With the founding of
the Lamont Geological Observatory in 1949 the work was transferred to
that observatory at Palisades, New York. Topographic data from Woods
Hole cruises were incorporated with Lamont data until 1953, when a
separate program was established at Woods Hole by J. B. Hersey, and
Columbia University acquired the VEMA as its own research vessel.
Although Woods Hole data obtained between 1953 and 1957 have not been
used in preparing sheet 1, arrangements recently concluded provide for
the incorporation of past and future Woods Hole data in subsequent
sheets of this series.
The soundings were read, compiled, and plotted by Morris Wirshup, the
late Andrew Nelson, Ivan Tolstoy, G. Leonard Johnson, III, the authors,
and several others. The profiles were plotted by M. Wirshup, Hester
Haring, the authors, and several others.
The soundings were taken primarily on board the Research Vessels VEMA
and ATLANTIS (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), but important
sounding lines were obtained by the R/V ALBATROSS (Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution), M/V THETA, and R/V CARYN (Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution) and in the eastern Atlantic by the R.R.S.
DISCOVERY (National Institute of Oceanography).
The following officers made outstanding contributions to the
navigational plotting: A. K. Lane, the late A. Karlson, J. Pike, R/V
ATLANTIS; D. Gould, the late F. S. Usher, D. Smith, V. Sinclair, H.
Kohler, and K. Simonson, R/V VEMA; and the late A. Nelson, R/V VEMA and
M/V THETA.
The echo sounders have been installed, maintained, and improved by B.
Luskin, H. R. Johnson, A. Roberts, M. Landisman, C. Hubbard, H. Van
Santford, M. Langseth, G. Sutton, and many others.
The entire scientific party of each of the more than 50 expeditions
represented in the data of this paper took turns marking and adjusting
the echo sounder, and all navigational officers on these expeditions
took the fixes and kept the logs. To these sea-going scientists and
mariners too numerous to list the authors are extremely grateful.
Soundings in the northeast Atlantic compiled by the British Admiralty
Hydrographic Department were kindly provided by Cmdr. J. S. N. Pryor of
that organization. Dr. M. N. Hill of Cambridge and Dr. G. E. R. Deacon
of the (British) National Institute of Oceanography were instrumental
in obtaining many of these valuable deep-sea soundings. Original
sounding sheets of many areas were provided by the Coast and Geodetic
Survey through the courtesy of Admiral A. Karo and Mr. G. F. Jordan.
B. Luskin's development of the Precision Depth Recorder and his
continued research and development in echo-sounding equipment made it
possible to obtain many of the detailed data of this paper.
The following expedition chief scientists conducted sounding surveys
which have been incorporated in this paper: M. Ewing, J. L. Worzel,
J. E. Nafe, I. Tolstoy, R. S. Edwards, G. R. Hamilton, C. L. Drake,
B. Luskin, W. C. Beckmann, F. Press, J. Northrop, J. Hirshman, M. J.
Davidson, R. J. Menzies, F. C. Fuglister, E. T. Miller, and B. C.
Heezen.
The writers are grateful to the great number of scientists who
encouraged them in this work and especially to those who offered
suggestions and discussed the data and conclusions. We are particularly
indebted to W. H. Bucher for discussions relative to tectonics, to
David B. Ericson for problems relating to sediment distribution and
analysis, and to C. O'D. Iselin and C. H. Elmendorf for general
encouragement and support during the several years of this study.
CONTENTS
PAGE
ABSTRACT 1
PART 1. PREPARATION OF THE PHYSIOGRAPHIC DIAGRAM 3