208
H. von Storch, J. S ¨
undermann, and L. Magaard
again at the Pacific Science Congress in Bangkok in 1957 when I was on the way
back to Germany from Indonesia.
I actually gave up my position in Indonesia, and didn’t extend my three years
contract because there started a civil war in Sumatra at that time and conditions were
restless. I had several months of vacation coming up anyway and a free trip back to
Germany. I went via Bangkok, where I met Roger Revelle again, I met Townsend
Cromwell, the discoverer of the equatorial undercurrent, and other people.
When I came back to Germany in 1958, B¨ onecke had lined up a job for me.
That was in Monaco. B¨ onecke at that time was promoting the general bathymetric
charts of the world. The International Hydrographic Bureau in Monaco was supposed
to do them. I went down to Monaco for about 6 months. This was basically a post
office. It was scientifically not challenging in any way and for that reason I didn’t
stay there. I could have stayed, but it was a dead end career. Recognizing that early
enough I looked into other positions available.
There was one position in Australia offered in ‘Nature’. I applied for it and
actually got the position. After the Monaco stay was over, I went in November 1958
to Australia. There in Australia I had a wonderful time with the CSIRO Division of
Fisheries and Oceanography. It was similar to what in Germany are the Max-Planck
Institutions. That means research institutions granted by the government. I had very
nice colleagues. We had Neil Brown who with Bruce Hamon constructed the first
CTD and we tried it out at sea. We had David Rocheford. There was the International
Indian Ocean Expedition going on in which I did not participate because my work
was on the oceanography in the Tasman and Coral Sea. My interest developed at that
time into Antarctic circulation. That was really following in the footsteps of W¨ ust,
deep ocean circulation and the Antarctic water ring that connects the deep circulation
of all the oceans.
Did you know that at that time already?
This was known by Sverdrup and by Deacon. Science is always a progress. You
want to know something better. In fact many good ideas you get just from reading
older papers. What kind of speculations good scientists make about the things that
are unknown. That are not readily accessible to them. The data are limiting. If you
look up their ideas and follow them through with new data you are probably onto
something. That is when I wrote the papers on thermohaline circulation and on the
oxygen minima in the oceans.
9 The oxygen minimum paper has been widely used by
geochemists to explain the distribution of properties.
That was the time when it became clear to me that vertical movements are
the main links in ocean circulation—like the Antarctic upwelling, like the vertical
movements in the deep ocean basins that must bring slowly up water to the surface
9 Wyrtki, K., 1961: The thermohaline circulation in relation to general circulation in the oceans. Deep-Sea
Res., 8 (1), 39–64.
Wyrtki, K., 1962: The oxygen minima in relation to ocean circulation. Deep-Sea Res., 9, 11–23.
H. von Storch, J. S ¨
undermann, and L. Magaard
again at the Pacific Science Congress in Bangkok in 1957 when I was on the way
back to Germany from Indonesia.
I actually gave up my position in Indonesia, and didn’t extend my three years
contract because there started a civil war in Sumatra at that time and conditions were
restless. I had several months of vacation coming up anyway and a free trip back to
Germany. I went via Bangkok, where I met Roger Revelle again, I met Townsend
Cromwell, the discoverer of the equatorial undercurrent, and other people.
When I came back to Germany in 1958, B¨ onecke had lined up a job for me.
That was in Monaco. B¨ onecke at that time was promoting the general bathymetric
charts of the world. The International Hydrographic Bureau in Monaco was supposed
to do them. I went down to Monaco for about 6 months. This was basically a post
office. It was scientifically not challenging in any way and for that reason I didn’t
stay there. I could have stayed, but it was a dead end career. Recognizing that early
enough I looked into other positions available.
There was one position in Australia offered in ‘Nature’. I applied for it and
actually got the position. After the Monaco stay was over, I went in November 1958
to Australia. There in Australia I had a wonderful time with the CSIRO Division of
Fisheries and Oceanography. It was similar to what in Germany are the Max-Planck
Institutions. That means research institutions granted by the government. I had very
nice colleagues. We had Neil Brown who with Bruce Hamon constructed the first
CTD and we tried it out at sea. We had David Rocheford. There was the International
Indian Ocean Expedition going on in which I did not participate because my work
was on the oceanography in the Tasman and Coral Sea. My interest developed at that
time into Antarctic circulation. That was really following in the footsteps of W¨ ust,
deep ocean circulation and the Antarctic water ring that connects the deep circulation
of all the oceans.
Did you know that at that time already?
This was known by Sverdrup and by Deacon. Science is always a progress. You
want to know something better. In fact many good ideas you get just from reading
older papers. What kind of speculations good scientists make about the things that
are unknown. That are not readily accessible to them. The data are limiting. If you
look up their ideas and follow them through with new data you are probably onto
something. That is when I wrote the papers on thermohaline circulation and on the
oxygen minima in the oceans.
9 The oxygen minimum paper has been widely used by
geochemists to explain the distribution of properties.
That was the time when it became clear to me that vertical movements are
the main links in ocean circulation—like the Antarctic upwelling, like the vertical
movements in the deep ocean basins that must bring slowly up water to the surface
9 Wyrtki, K., 1961: The thermohaline circulation in relation to general circulation in the oceans. Deep-Sea
Res., 8 (1), 39–64.
Wyrtki, K., 1962: The oxygen minima in relation to ocean circulation. Deep-Sea Res., 9, 11–23.