696
Oceanographic Abstracts
O'NEILL, E. T. 1962. Pressure-balanced high-pressure hydrophone. ,L Acous. Soc. Amer. 34(10): 1661-1662. This is a hydrophone design which permits the use of cylindrical piezoelectric elements at extreme hydrostatic pressures. By means of a capillary device, the internal pressure of the hydrophone is equalized with the ambient sea pressure while still preserving the inherent sensitivity of the piezoelectric material. The technique also permits the preselection of the low-frequency cutoff point of the hydrophones, through mechanical design. OSTERBERG,C. 1962. Fallout radionuclides in euphausiids. Science, 138(3539): 529-530. Radioanalyses by gamma-ray spectrometry have been carried out on 37 samples of Euphausia pacifica obtained from a network of stations off the Oregon coast. Data on euphausiids taken from this area in November 1961 and in March and April 1962 are compared to show the variation in concentration of zirconium-95 and niobium-95, ruthenium-103, and cerium-141, with time and location. A mixture of zirconium-95 and niobium-95 was the most abundant fission product noted. PARK, KmHO, W. T. WILLIAMS,J. M. PRESCOTTand D. W. HooD, 1962. Amino acids in deep sea water. Science, 138(3539): 531-532. Approximately 17 different amino acids in acid hydrolyzates of dissolved organic material in sea water to depths of 3500 meters from the central Gulf of Mexico have ben identified by ion-exchange resin chromatography. They are glutamic acid, lysine, glycine, aspartic acid, serine, alanine, leucine, valine plus cystine, isoleucine, ornithine, methionine sulfoxide, threonine, tyrosine and phenylalanine, histidine, arginine, proline, and methionine. The results indicate that the dissolved organic material in deep-sea water may make an important contribution to the organic budget of the sea. PARKER, EUGENEK. 1962. Scuba as a tool for scientists. Marine Sciences Instrumentation, lnst. Soc. Amer. Plenum Press, N. Y. 1 : 310-320. Scientists opportunity to observe underwater environment "in situ" by use of scuba (self contained underwater breathing apparatus). The "Scuba Zone" encompasses: Air-water barrier through hyperbenthal, mesobenthal, hypobenthal to parahypobenthal stratas to a depth of 150 feet. Description of scuba. Comparison with some other underwater observation and sampling devices. The Use of scuba by scientists. PAR~ER, F. L. 1962. Planktonic foraminiferal species in Pacific sediments. Micropaleontology, 8(2): 219-254. Planktonic species of foraminifera in the Recent sediments of the Pacific are discussed within the framework of a modified classification. Two families, Globigerinidae and Globorotaliidae, are represented. The family affiliation of Globigerinita and Candeina is uncertain. Genera are reclassified with added stress on the characteristic of some to have long thin spines as a floating mechanism. Three new species, Globigerina calida, Globorotalia pumilio and Globigerinita iota, are described. Gross distributional data in the South Pacific are given for each species. PEDERSEN, M. A. 1962. Comparison of experimental and theoretical image interference in deepwater acoustics. Y. Acous. Soc. Amer. 34(9): Pt. 1 : 1197-1203. Experimental and theoretical interference patterns, resulting from the interaction between signals arriving by a direct and by a surface-reflected path, are compared for three receiver depths at frequencies of 530 and 1030 cps. Propagation losses are computed on the basis of ray theory for a velocitydepth profile consisting of three linear segments. Agreement between ray theory and experiment is excellent at ranges less than that of the first shadow zone or the first caustic. Theoretical losses based on the assumption of isovelocity water also agree well with experiment at the shorter ranges, but can depart markedly at longer ranges in the interference pattern because of the effect of refraction on both travel time differences and component amplitudes. PEWE, T. L. and R. E. CHURCH 1962. Age of the spit at Barrow, Alaska. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 73(10): 1287-1292. Three pieces of driftwood in frozen beach gravel were recovered at 77 inches, 115 inches, and 131 inches below the surface of the spit at Barrow, Alaska. Radiocarbon dating gives an age of 1100 4:120 years for the stratigraphically highest wood fragment, 1090 :k 140 years for the next fragment, and 10,800 4- 300 years for the stratigraphically lowest sample. All the driftwood may have been reworked from older deposits and thus be considerably older than the beach sediments in which they occur. An age of 1100 years for the sediments in which the upper two wood samples occur is supported by the presence of small active ice wedges 6-24 inches wide in the beach gravels. The age of the sediments in which the lowermost wood sample occurs may be 10,800 years; however, the validity of using this age for the age of the sediments is questionable. POWELL, B. L. 1962. Types, distribution and rhythmical behaviour of the chromatophores of juvenile carcinus maenas (L). J. Anita. Ecol. 31(2): 251-261. (1) C. maenas (L.) possesses three types of monochromatic chromatophore containing red, white and black pigment respectively; these may be arranged in distinctive patterns.