Every yearEarterial—500 million tons of calcium, forinstance—to tiplied te of deposition by t  produced a disturbing figure: t ts on ttoms—or, put anottoms sops. Scientists dealt  possible way.

    t. But eventually t w no longer.

    In ton University mineralogist named in ctack transport ser, ate ins  it could equally ificpurposes and never sc off, even  sea, even in t of battle. irely unexpected. If t, as everyone assumed, ted s, like ttom of a river or lake. But t t silts. It ed s t s after an earlier Princeton geologist named ArnoldGuyot. All t o take part in, and put sucs to theback of his mind.

    After turned to Princeton and tions of teac teries of tinued to occupy a space in s. Meaned surveys of tiest and mostextensive mountain range on Eartly—underer. It traced a continuous patitc Iceland, youcould follo doer of tlantic Ocean, around ttom of Africa, and acrosstralia; t angled across ting up t coast of ted States to Alaska.

    Occasionally its er as an island or arclantic, ance—but mostly it y sea, unknoed. s brancogetended to 46,600 miles.

    A very little of time. People laying ocean-floor cables in teentury  tainous intrusion in tlantic from t tinuous nature and overall scale of tunning surprise. Moreover, it contained p couldn’t be explained.

    Dolantic ridge —up to a dozen miles s entire 12,000-mile lengto suggest t tting apart att bursting out of its s ion, but t be denied.

    t te young at tlanticridge but gre to t or . ter and real