Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
disapproval of scientific points raised by a vote or a show of hands,
but—in true leonine fashion—by growling and roaring and fluttering
their coat-tails (Forbes's own technique was held up as a model for the
younger Lions).
Small wonder that he had a following who loved his style and gen-
erosity of spirit. He went on to become the British Geological Sur-
vey's first palaeontologist, and was ferociously productive, publishing
no less than ten papers in the first ever issue of the Geological Society
of London's classic
Quarterly Journal
. But it was his work as a scientist
on board a survey ship, HMS
Beacon
, in the Mediterranean in 1841
that allowed him to develop his notion (the 'azoic hypothesis') of
deep, cold, lifeless oceans. The idea was eminently logical: after all,
life is seen to diminish as one climbs mountains, and the snow-bound
tops of the Alps and similar mountain ranges are essentially lifeless.
There would be a natural symmetry to a similar trend as one descends
into the cold, dark depths of the oceans.
It was not just a grand idea. The data that Forbes painstakingly
collected from the dredging buckets as HMS
Beacon
traversed the
Mediterranean seemed to back him up. Shallow-water life in that
sea flourishes in an abundance of forms. Both the amount and the
diversity of life were then seen to diminish as the ship moved to
sample deeper parts of that sea floor. Forbes projected this trend
to even deeper, unsampled waters. The deep ocean must be dead,
he said.
The hypothesis, propounded with Forbes's characteristic energy
and eloquence, took hold and held sway—indeed for far longer than
it should have. For the sounding lines of commercial ships, even
before the
Beacon
's expedition, were sporadically dragging up organ-
isms (worms, starfish) from even deeper waters—from 2 kilometres
and more down.
69
These should have killed the azoic hypothesis stone
dead. As chance had it though, the few early reports of deep-sea life
Search WWH ::
Custom Search