Abstract
THE nomenclature of ocean deeps is still in some confusion, and this is largely due to the use of fathoms in Great Britain and metres in most other countries in the record of depths. In the Challenger reports, Sir John Murray named the areas over 3,000 fathoms as ‘deeps'. This figure was arbitrary and when converted into metres (5,486 metres) has even less significance as a criterion of depth, although the Prince of Monaco in his “Carte generale bathy-metrique” of 1912 adopted the near equivalent of 6,000 metres and many of the Challenger names. In Petermann's Mitteilungen of February, Dr. G. Wiist proposes a new system of nomenclature for the ocean features of the world which incorporates a good deal already in use by G. Schott. He chooses 4,000 metres (2,187 fathoms) as his standard. In depths of less the bottom figures as ridges: in depths of more as basins. The ‘deeps' in the older sense of the term disappear from Dr. Wiist's map. Each feature receives a geographical name derived from its location, and the personal names commemorating oceanographers are not used. The figure of 4,000 metres is of course arbitrary except in so far as it approximates to the depths at which the average ocean floor lies. The map shows both Atlantic and Indian Oceans divided into east and west troughs, each in turn divided into basins, and the Pacific Ocean divided into a wide central trough and narrow western and (south) eastern troughs. A second map divides the surface waters on the same basis and gives a name to the sea overlying each basin. This is of more doubtful value, and some of the names are unlikely to gain general acceptance.
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Bathymetry of the Oceans. Nature 137, 488–489 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137488d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137488d0