Reports of the Swedish Deep-Sea Expedition, 1947-1948. Vol. IV. [Part I]

1956

Expedition Reports Q115 S94 1947

[Gothenburg, Sweden]: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag

Hans Pettersson wrote one of the objectives of the Swedish Deep-Sea Expedition was that by studying the depths of the ocean ‘many obscure chapters in the past history of our planet would stand revealed to science’. Using newly developed scientific techniques and instruments, he and his crew were able to obtain 20 metre core samples from the bottom of the ocean. The levels of the ‘radioactive timekeepers’, uranium and radium, in these samples were used as a ‘means of measuring the age of the different strata of sediment and the rate of deposition’ (Pettersson, 1953). An on-board electric winch was used to lower and raise the core sampling equipment; it took up to four hours to take a sample from 6000 metres deep.