Abstract
V. ON Wednesday, March 26, we sounded (Station 25) in lat. 19° 41′ N., long. 65° 7′ W., nearly 90 miles north of St. Thomas, in 3,875 fathoms. The bottom brought up in the hydra tube was reddish mud, containing, however, a considerable quantity of carbonate of lime. It is singular that the colour and composition of this mud were not uniform. The upper layer, that which had been forced farthest into the tube, was much redder than that which was nearest the mouth of the tube, and which had consequently come from a greater depth. I am inclined to attribute this to the steepness of the slope from the plateau of the Virgin Islands. It is easy to conceive that, under the influence of currents varying from time to time in force and direction, the calcareous mud, the product of the disintegration of the coral reefs, may be washed down the incline in varying proportions.
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THOMSON, W. Notes from the “Challenger” . Nature 8, 266–267 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008266a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008266a0