Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

Fog off Nova Scotia last week made Captain David William Bone of the Anchor liner Transylvania uncertain of his bearings as he approached Nantucket, en route from Glasgow to Manhattan. He should have been over the continental shelf, the underwater plateau which extends 150 miles seaward from the North American coast. He ordered a sounding lead dropped. At 100 fathoms it should have touched bottom. It touched nothing. Twice more he sounded. No bottom. Although puzzled he decided that he was on his correct course and the Shelf might be out of place. Apparently last month's earthquake (TIME, Nov. 25) had opened a new hole in the bottom of the sea.

This inference was confirmed by ships which are repairing the quake-broken trans-Atlantic cables. Their sonic soundings showed that the ocean floor had moved and shifted the fishing banks. Because of broken cables and congestion of the unimpaired ones it was quicker last week to send many messages from London to Montreal eastward--via India, Australia, Fanning Island, Vancouver.

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