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The new 239‐foot research vessel, Maurice Ewing, owned by Columbia University's Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, N.Y., sailed July 6 on its first mission, a marine geological and geophysical study to explore midocean ridges in the Greenland/Norwegian Sea. Later this year, the ship will move to the South Atlantic and then to the Antarctic peninsula area for multichannel seismic and other geophysical studies. With capacity for 30 scientists and generous laboratory space, the ship will be able to operate for extensive periods at sea in remote and polar regions. Planned missions of the Ewing will include investigating in detail the oceanic processes of the formation and spreading of ocean floor crust from volcanic ridge centers; the circulation of water, heat and chemicals throughout the world's oceans; the absorption of greenhouse and radioactive gases by the oceans; and the biological cycles of phytoplankton populations that bloom and die. |
