NSF Extends Deep‐Sea Drilling Project for Another 3 Years

The National Science Foundation has tripled the life of the Deep Sea Drilling Project by adding 36 months and $22 million to the original plan. So far, the specially designed ship has been able to bore up to 1000 meters into the ocean bottom at 66 sites in water depths up to 6000 meters. The extension provides for 15 more two‐month cruises in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. Drilling on the first seven legs of the initial contract have produced some evidence that continental drift is still taking place, that the ocean basins are relatively young features of the earth, that the Northwest Pacific is much older than any part of the Atlantic, and that there may be large petroleum deposits under the Gulf of Mexico.