As the United States was pushing a space program to get to the moon, a lesser known project was pursued to study the core of the ocean floor. The information gathered by the Ocean Drilling Project proved the tectonic plate and continental drift theories of geology. The core samples gathered in the exploration are still being used today. And the worldwide science community wouldn’t have the information without the blue collar workers in Orange. Levingston Shipbuilding Company construction the legendary Glomar Challenger. Pieces of the vessel are now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
The National Science Foundation and regents of the University of California, who oversaw the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego approved the Deep Sea Drilling Project on June 24, 1966, according to the Texas A&M University Ocean Drilling Project website. Levingston Shipbuilding Company in Orange was commissioned to build the ship with drilling equipment. The vessel was given the name Glomar (for global marine) Challenger. The vessel would help scientists explore the geology of the earth that had never been seen before.
Levingston laid the keel on October 18, 1967. The official launch was held on March 23, 1968. The shipyard had a large launching ceremony reminiscent of ones during World War II. The Stark High Band under band director Don Miller performed in full uniform.
The Glomar Challenger then sailed down the Sabine River to the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first part of many trips around the world for the next few years. After trials, the official project began on August 11, 1968. Encyclopedia Britannica said the vessel had a drilling derrick that was 140 feet tall. It was capable of drilling 5,570 feet deep into the ocean floor. During the first 30 months, the Glomar Challenger went to the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, plus the Mediterranean and Red seas. The Glomar gathered cores from 624 sites.
The drilling cores were 2.5 inches in diameter and were stored for study. The exploration discovered deep sea salt domes in the ocean floor. Oil is sometimes discovered in salt domes. The knowledge is still used by oil companies for drilling.
Other information gathered from the cores is that the Mediterranean Sea was once a desert. Also the core samples helped prove German meteorologist Alfred Wegener had been correct in his theory of tectonic plates in the earth. The movement of the plates causes earthquakes and brought about the formation of the continents, which were once one mass.
The Glomar Challenger served until 1983 and was scrapped. The Smithsonian Institution has the ship’s dynamic position system, the engine telegraph and thruster console stored. The 30-foot cores that were collected were split in half lengthwise and are stored at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and Columbia University. Half of the cores are still used by scientists and the other half is archived.
“Although itself a remarkable engineering feat, the Challenger was the site of many advances in deep oceanic drilling,” the Texas A&M website said.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
Social Media