Evening Star Newspaper, September 21, 1930, Page 92

17 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBER 21, 1930, Strange Death Trap in the Pacific Research Carried On by Ill-Fated Non- Magnetic Ship Carnegie Reveals Oxy- genless Stratum of Water in the Pacific Where No Known Form of Life Exists. A Veritable Death Belt for All Deni- zens of the Sea. BY NELL RAY CLARKE. HERE is a death-dealing belt to all animal life cavorting in the Pacific just north of the Equator, and woe . betide the hapless fish or other ocean creature which blunders into this treacherous area, for the breath of life will be cut short for him, unless by some happy chance he manages to get out immediately. This death belt is an area approximately 100 miles wide and entending probably a distance of hundreds of miles east and west in mid- ocean at about 8 to 16 degrees north latitude— between the Central American countries and the South Pacific Islands. It lies from 300 to 800 feet below the surface and extends down- ward more than 1,000 feet. The water in this area contains practically no oxygen in solution, or at least only about one-fiftieth of the amount ordinarily foumd in solution at equal depths elsewhere—a quantity probably too small to support any form of life with which biologists are now acquainted. Cold, still and dark is this death-dealing trap. Perhaps for thousands of years the water of which it is composed has not seen or felt the light of the sun. For hundreds of years it has not been near the surface where it could absorb a supply of life-giving oxygen. Some peculiarity of the movements of the Pacific has kept it where it is. Perhaps it marks the line at which the cold, heavy waters from the Antarctic have met and stalemated the waters of the Arctic, bult no one can be sure of this explanation. It is just a theory that scientists have advanced, hoping to check its accuracy by future study. But it is reasonable to believe that such a belt must serve as a natural barrier to the free movement of the deep-sea fish from the North to the South Pacific Ocean. Undoubt- edly, when the migration of these ocean deni- zens occurs they must skip blithely over the surface of the oxygenless water wall. Or if they blunder into it, shortness of breath which they experience must warn them instinctively to seek another stratum of water. ‘Whether or not there are forms of life exist- ing in that forbidding medium, no one knows. No scientist would be prepared to say whether or not some hitherto unknown microscopic forms of life might not exist even under such unusual conditions, until he had taken nu- merous samples of water of the barrier. “IT was only when we began to study the chemical results and other scientific data collected by the ill-fated nonmagnetic ship Car- negie that the existence of this remarkable belt of water was discovered,” said O. W. Torreson, the navigator of the Carnegie, who is now in Washington at the Carnegie Institution. “It was only when the completed records were placed side by side that the new features of the jigsaw puzzle revealed themstvlves. A study of this information has led to two re- markable discoveries which to the oceanog- rapher are as important as the discovery of a new planet would be to an astronomer. “The first of these is, of course, the dis- covery of the death belt. The other, one of our outstanding discoveries, is the fact that the assumptions which have up to the present been made about the circulation of the waters of the Pacific Ocean are wrong. The circulation of these waters has been thought to be similar to 0. W. Torreson, navigator of the Car- negic, who says the data ebtained by the expedition upset the preconceived theories of water circulation in the Yo e s ey < the circulation of the waters of the Atlantic, but it now has been found to be quite different. “This knowledge will undoubtedly be im- portant to those who study the climates of the United States and other countries bordering upon the Pacific and who are helping us to adjust our daily activities in the most profitable and healthful ways to climatic conditions.” In fact, so important are the discoveries con- sidered that the man who is today one of the world’s foremost oceanographers, Dr. Harold U. Sverdrup, of the Geophysical Institute of Bergen, Norway, the chief scientist of Amund- sen’s ship Maud during its last drift across the North Polar Basin, has been in America to make a special study of the information which has been collected. “PER.HAPS it might be well to explain what is meant by a strip of water practically devoid of oxygen,” Mr. Torreson continued. “This refers, of course, to oxygen dissolved in the water and not the oxygen entering into the chemical composition of water as expressed by the formula H-O. All water with which we are ordinarily familiar contains considerable quantities of oxygen or air in solution, a fact easily demonstrated by setting a glass of cold water in a warm room. The beads or bubbles of air which soon collect on the imner surface of the glass are made up of the air which has been released because the water cannot retain &8 much air at the higher temperature. “Sea water normally contains dissolved oxy- gen. nitrogen and carbonic acid. The carbonic acid, as a free gas, is present only in quite small quantities. In studies of the chemistry of sea water the quantities of dissolved gases are stated in cubic centimeters of gas per liter 4 silk net used aboard the' Carnegie tg obtain samples of small marine plants and animals in the upper water levels. Sending a diver down from the ill-fated non-magnetic yacht Carnegie to un- tangle sounding apparatus,_ of water. The dissolved oxygen ordinarily found in sea water ranges from one to five centi- meters per liter at different depths. In the particular region referred to in the Pacific the dissolved oxygen content was found to be less than one-tenth of a cubic centimeter per liter —=& very small amount as compared with that found at similar depths in other regions. “In other particulars, however, this strip of water was not found to be abnormal. In tem- perature, pressure, salinity and other factors it differed little from other belts of water at the same depths.” “But how does this oxygen become dissolved in the sea water?” Mr. Torreson was asked. “There are three ways in which the amount of oxygen in the sea is controlled,” he answered. “Oxygen is absorbed from the atmosphere. Water is areated by the dashing of the waves as well as by ordinary contact with the air at the surface of the ocean. Some oxygen is pro- duced during the assimilation processes of plant organisms, during which carbonic acid is taken in and oxygen given off. And some uxy- gen is transferred from one layer of water to another, vn oty wCOBYETSely, oXygen is tgken from ‘the water by three processes. Ocean creatures in the lower water levels breathe in the dissolved oxy- gen and give off carbonic acid gas just as land animals do. The decomposition of organic matter consumes oxygen and, of course, some oxygen is absorbed from one layer of water by another.” “Has anything similar to this oxygenless belt ever been discovered before?” he was asked. “Certain small oxygenless areas have been found to exist at various places, notably in Monterey Bay, off the coast of California, and another off the coast of Japan, but for the most part such small areas have been thought to be due to local conditions. The Pacific death belt is the first large area ever discovered. “But to go back to the discovery of this re- markable area. The Carnegie left Washington in May, 1928, made observations for several months in various parts of the Atlantic and then passed through the Panama Canal to the Pacifie, where most of its work was done. The main objects of the expedition were to take soundings of the ocean bottom off the main steamer tracks, to procure samples of water at ;. yarious_depths in order to study ifs salinity, . temperature and the forms of life existing at various depths and to make magnetic observa- tions. “The ship hove to at 162 ‘stations’ to go through the routine of its ocean water studies. The records were carefully compiled and filed away for study when the voyage was over. On November 28, 1929, the Carnegie was destroyed by an explosion at Apia, Western Samoa, and Capt. Ault and one member of the crew were killed. The records were saved, however. “When samples of water taken at various stations on opposite sides of the Pacific were observed to be very low in oxygen content, no particular attention was paid to the matter. Consequently, no special work was done toward collecting samples of any microscopic forms of life which might exist there. It is hoped that this can be done at some future time.” There have been intimations in the past that such a belt of oxygenless water might exist in the Pacific. The famous Challenger expedition of 1872-76 secured a few such samples of water, but the unbelievable conditions were explained by the scientists by saying that “something evidently had gone wrong with the water bot- tles” used in collecting the samples, It is only within very recent years that the apparatus for collecting samples of water at such depths has been perfected to such an extent as to enable reliable information to be obtained. While Mr. Torreson explained the conditions, Dr. Sverdrup came into the room and entered the discussion. “Could life possibly exist in the oxygenless belt?” he was asked. “THAT question has aroused some very in- teresting speculations on the part of scie entists,” he said with a smile. “We doubt that the percentage of oxygen existing in that belt would support any form of life about which we now know. It may be possible that future study of the area will reveal that the ocean creatures are more adaptable than we think. If so, biologists may have to revise their ideas as to the quantity of oxygen necessary to sup- port some forms of life. - “In discussing the matter with Dr. Austin Clark of the Smithsonian Institution he used a very interesting expression. He said, ‘There are no ethics to.life in the ocean’ And he called our dttention to the fact that there are. certain forms of life on the ocean bottom which have the-power to separate oxygen by a chem- ical process from the water itself in order to get a necessary supply to maintain life, and that there are other forms which prey on the former to get the oxygen which they have sepa= rated. Such possibilities are interesting, but at the present time we have no concrete evidence that life does not exist in the oxygenless area.” “BUT what made the peculiar belt of water in the Pacific. How did it come into ex- istence?” Dr. Sverdrup was asked. Again he explained that he would have to fall back on mere theories to accouns for its existence, since so little is known about it. “But we do know,” he continued, “that the assumptions which have been held up to the present time, that the circulation of the waterg . Cantinued om Thirigenth Page .