Albatross expedition
The Albatross expedition was a Swedish oceanographic expedition that between July 4, 1947, and October 3, 1948, sailed around the world during 15 months covering 45 000 nautical miles. The expedition is considered the second largest Swedish research expedition after the Vega expedition. The expedition was carried out on board the newly built training ship of the Boström line, Albatross. Since the Boström line lent the ship at almost no cost, the expedition could be financed and carried out with only private donations. The leader of the expedition was Hans Pettersson.
The main task of the expedition was to take up to 20 m long sediment cores from the ocean floor. This was made using a newly developed corer, known as piston sampler, developed by Börje Kullenberg. Until then the longest cores that could be taken were 2 m. The expedition also carried out the first seismic reflection measurements of the sediment thickness, using sink bombs. The results of the sediment studies were ground-breaking since they revealed that the sediment thickness increased away from the mid-oceanic ridges, along with the sediment accumulation time. This was one of several evidences that eventually led to the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics.
Apart from sediments the expedition looked at biology. The first deep sea trawling, at 7 600-7 900 m depth, revealed that those depths were not the dead zone that previously had been the accepted view. The expedition was very successful, received international attention, and is considered as one of the important steps in the history of oceanography.[1]
Notes
- ↑ Reinke-Kunze, Christine. (1994) Welt der Forschungsschiffe. DSV-Verlag GmbH, Hamburg.