Repository: UIHistories Project: SWE - Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists [PAGE 219]

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the earth. Only in such a case can a forecast of the direction and intensity of these processes and their aim -- man's control over them -be possible. Many sides of human endeavour are closely associated with the presence of the ocean, and every day new and more complicated tasks arise which demand a detailed knowledge of the nature of the ocean to solve them. While the dry land which occupies only one-third of the earth's surface supplies man with enormous stores of mineral and organic raw materials and material for the generation of power, it is easy to picture what boundless stocks of them are hidden in the remaining part of the earth's crust which is covered by its water layer or hidden in the depths of the world ocean. There is a tremendous amount of albumen, fats and carbohydrates in the form of living organisms and also chemical elements and vitally important vitamins and other things useful to man in the ocean but which are still not fully used by man. So far, the energy produced by the movement of the ocean waters (tidal and ebb movement or breaking of waves) remains unused. However, one often realizes that our knowledge of the ocean is still very poor. Even today new deep trenches on the ocean floor, huge dead volcanoes and whole chains of mountains are still being discovered. For instance, there was a long deep trench discovered by the English expedition near the shores of Australia, its depth in places being over six kilometers; and an enormous chain of underwater mountains was discovered by our Arctic expedition several years ago, which crosses the Arctic Sea in a long line and has been named after Lomonosov. Another example is the mighty current, a real "river" in the ocean, running across the Pacific Ocean. While the necessity to study the fish and also the non-fish products of the sea in shallow water regions is clear to everyone, the question of why we study the great depths of the ocean, spending much time and labor and organizing expensive expeditions, may not be clear to everybody. The oceanographic work carried out by many countries during the International Geophysical Year and the International Cooperation Year, as well as the results of the first International Oceanographic Congress, have shown how immense are the problems involved in a study of the ocean which are confronting the oceanographer and how important it is to unite the efforts of all the people for the solution of several most pressing tasks in the study of the ocean and tapping its resources. The need to use the animal and mineral resources and resources of material for the generation of power which are to be found in the oceans and seas has grown tremendously during the last ten years and now sets completely new tasks before the scientists. That is why the science of ocean study is now in the stage of progress and rapid development. What was only a dream yesterday becomes reality today. With the aid of special equipment or vessels such as the bathyscaph, man physically penetrates the tremendous depths of the ocean more than 10,000 meters deep, which is a new stage in the study of the ocean. In concluding my short description of the subject of oceanology I

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