BLAST EXPERIMENT IN OIL WELL IS SUCCESS

L. Don Leet, assistant professor of Geology, returned yesterday from South Carolina where he conducted experiments penetrating the earth to record depths in order to determine geologic structure by the seismic method.

Thanks to the generosity of Godfrey L. Cabot '82 the Geology department had at its disposal for scientific experiment a 6000 ft. oil well near Charleston. Although this well never yielded any oil, it provided an excellent opportunity for Leet's important research work.

"Did Extremely Well"

"We did extremely well," said Leet in an interview yesterday. "By lowering portable seismographs into the well and exploding dynamite at successively greater depths, 500 ft., 1000 ft., and 2000 ft., we were able to gain perfect records at every position. We also made some surface record."

By making a series of observations at the surface of the giant hole, he was able to record the velocity of the sound in the layers which it penetrated. But he has not yet had time to compare these velocities with these computed from ordinary surface measurements.