Abstract
FURTHER information has been received this week from Prof. David, of Sydney, as to the progress of the boring at Funafuti. On September 6 it had reached a depth of 987 feet, passing through a hard dolomite-like coral rock, apparently similar to that mentioned previously as occurring below about 700 feet. Boring in the bed of the lagoon from the deck of H.M.S. Porpoise had been continued; the one mentioned in your last number was carried through sand, composed of fragments of calcareous organisms in which broken pieces of coral became commoner in descending, to a depth of 144 feet in the bed-rock of the lagoon, or in all 245 feet below sea-level. There progress was stopped by hard coral rock, which could not be pierced, because the great length of unsupported pipe (about 120 feet) made driving impossible, and the loose stuff above prevented them from applying another device. Captain Sturdee, though unable to stay much longer at the island, contrived to move the Porpoise about 90 feet nearer to the centre of the lagoon, where another boring was made at about the same depth. This was carried through 80 feet of sand, as before, which was then succeeded by a rather hard coral gravel; the lumps varying up to the size of a man's fist. It was pierced to a depth of 33 feet, when the time limit was reached, and the work was necessarily abandoned. The results, however, are most interesting, and our friends in Sydney may be congratulated on the success of boring so far in a depth of a hundred feet of water. When letters left the island the main bore was still progressing, though the supply of diamonds was nearly exhausted, so that there seems every hope that it will be carried below a thousand feet. But what has been already accomplished will be an immense addition to our knowledge of atolls.
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BONNEY, T. The Boring at Funafuti. Nature 59, 29 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/059029b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/059029b0
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