Underwater Prospects

An up-to-date divining rod--for oil--was announced last week by California's Union Oil Co. It was a scheme for finding oil in shallow coastal waters: a steel diving chamber, which Union Oil plans to use off the Louisiana coast this month.

The chamber is a steel cylinder made of half-inch galvanized plate. Three feet in diameter and five feet high, it looks like a fat hot-water tank with an escape hatch. In addition to one cramped geologist sitting on a cushioned, red-leather seat, the chamber carries emergency oxygen, communication equipment and testing apparatus. The cylinder will withstand the pressure at a depth of 100 feet. A two-ton lead block attached to the bottom provides stability and a safety factor: the block can be released by turning a handle inside the cell to send the chamber bobbing to the surface.

Union Oil has high hopes for the Gulf-coast submarine oilfields -- although ownership of the offshore land is still undecided. Exploration by more conventional means -- seismographic readings, examination of bottom samples -- has indicated continuance of East Texas and Louisiana oilfields for distances as great as 50 miles offshore. By using a gravity meter in the diving chamber, Union Oil hopes to nose out salt domes. In the Gulf area these mounds of rock salt, which have a lower specific gravity than the surrounding sedimentary rocks, are often circled by rings of oil-bearing sand.

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