Capricorn Expedition, 1952

This was the first Scripps expedition to use scuba divers to explore the Pacific. Research ships R/V HORIZON and R/V SPENCER F. BAIRD mapped seamounts and guyots and other features of the Pacific seafloor. Scientists studied the 35,400 foot deep Tonga Trench, the second deepest place in the ocean, and measured heat flow on the East Pacific Rise. Operation Ivy, the U.S. first test of a thermonuclear bomb, preceded the expedition.

Explore the UC San Diego Digital Collections for more photos from the expedition

Report:

• Shipboard report, Capricorn Expedition, 26 September 1952 - 21 February 1953

Letters, clippings and ship's logs available in the UC San Diego Library Digital Collections