The Deep Ocean

April 11th, 2017

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Humans used to think any living thing couldn’t live without light. But little did we  were far wrong. The ocean contains 99 percent of the living space on our planet. And in that 99 percent, 95 percent of it remains unexplored. The reason why the ocean remains so unexplored is because of the water pressure. The record for the furthest a scuba diver has made it is 332 meters. To put in perspective the height of the Empire State Building is 443 meters. Around 535 meters, the water pressure is starting to become pretty intense. It would have the equivalent pressure of a polar bear standing on a quarter.

Around 1000 meters you reach the twilight zone. After this point light ceases to exist and it becomes pitch black. The water pressure here would be about the same as standing on the surface of the planet Venus. Around 1,828 meters we would reach the deepest point of the grand canyon.

When you reach 2,000 meters is when you would start to see lifeforms that are very different from what we are used to. And also life that is living with no light. This fish is only visible if light is shined onto it, as it reflects from its surrounding, and since it is pitch black, all you can see is its eyes.

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As we reach the Abyssal zone at 4,000 meters, water pressure reaches to 11,000 pounds per square inch. These depths are home to alien like creatures, like the more famous fish, the angler fish.

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Around 4,267 Meters is the average depth of the ocean where you would expect to hit the floor, but parts of the ocean goes way deeper than this. At 6,000 meters you reach the Hadal Zone. Water preacher is here is 1,100 times what we experience on land. It would be like carrying 50 Boeing 747 jumbo jets. You would be crushed in a second.  When you reach 8,848 meters you would reach the height of mount everest if it was upside down and under water.

The furthest a human has reached in the ocean was by Don Walsh in his submarine in 1960, at a depth of 10,916 meters. A window eventually cracked which forced them to resurface, which would take about 5 hours. At 10,972 we reach the average heigh of an airplane flight. So if you ever looked out the window of a flight you can get a good perspective for how deep that is.

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Finally at 10,994 meters we have hit the deepest known ocean. But we are almost certain that the ocean goes even deeper than this, but has yet to be discovered. We estimate that only 5% of the ocean floor is accurately mapped. So you can’t imagine the crazy wildlife there is down there. The deep ocean is such a mysterious thing, where we find such mysterious creatures with such amazing ways of living life. Animals come up with unique ways to attract prey, or stay away from predators.

More than ever scientists are challenging these harsh conditions by coming up with technology allow us to explore. But it will take a very long time until we begin to even understand the ocean and the billions of creatures that live in it. I am willing to bet we could find dozens of living dinosaurs in the deep depths of the deep ocean.

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