Deep Sea Exploration

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In pictures: Marathon dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench finds new species of isopod

In a 12-hour round trip, the Limiting Factor traveled 11km below sea level and discovered a previously unknown species of crustacean.

Published: 26th April 2021 

On Friday 5 March, Hamish Harding and Victor Vescovo were sealed into Limiting Factor, a two-person submersible, to begin their descent to Challenger Deep – the deepest section of the Mariana Trench, located close to 11km below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

The pair spent almost 12 hours making the round trip to the bottom and back

FULL REPORT

 

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Deep-sea mountains: Earth’s unexplored ecosystems that are teeming with life

On land, the highest mountains reach up to the sky and their slopes are blanketed with cloud. In the ocean, the tallest peaks stretch towards the surface and their sides are swathed in plankton. Explore the hidden world of seamounts.

On land, you’d struggle to find a mountain that hasn’t already been climbed. In contrast, in the deep sea, there are thousands of unexplored peaks. Seamounts are submerged volcanoes, active or dormant, with foothills planted in the abyss and summits soaring up thousands of metres without breaking the sea surface.

These hidden mountains are some of the least known, but most abundant geological features on the planet. They form a fragmented habitat that covers an area rivalling the world’s tropical rainforests. As scientists learn more about seamounts, it’s becoming clear that these dramatic montane seascapes are rich oases of life that play a crucial role across the entire global ocean.

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Oceans' extreme depths measured in precise detail

Scientists say we now have the most precise information yet on the deepest points in each of Earth's five oceans.

The key locations where the seafloor bottoms out in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern oceans were mapped by the Five Deeps Expedition.

Some of these places, such as the 10,924m-deep (6.8 miles) Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, had already been surveyed a number of times.

But the Five Deeps project removed a number of remaining uncertainties.

For example, in the Indian Ocean, there were two competing claims for the deepest point - a section of the Java Trench just off the coast of Indonesia; and a fracture zone to the southwest of Australia.

 

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Edited May 11, 2021 by CaaC (John)

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Beyond the abyss: What to expect when diving towards the ocean’s spectacular depths

If you dropped a single marble into the sea, how long would it take to reach the bottom? And what would it cross along the way? Follow the deep sea journey in this extract from The Brilliant Abyss.

If you were to sail out into the open ocean and drop a glass marble over the side of the boat, for the first six or seven minutes it would fall through the uppermost layer of water, the part where the sun still shines.

Some call this the epipelagic or euphotic zone, or simply the sunlit zone. It’s the most familiar part of the oceans, where most of the known species live, and it’s where all the oceans’ photosynthesis takes place. The sun-catchers come in the form of large seaweeds as well as microscopic, single-celled creatures, collectively known as phytoplankton, which all suck in carbon dioxide and turn it into food for almost all the rest of ocean life.

As the marble drops, the sunlight fades until, at around 200 metres, there is just enough dim blue light to see by but not enough to power photosynthesis, and phytoplankton venture no deeper (at least not while they’re still alive).

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Science drillship sets depth record off Japan

A new deep-ocean record has been set for a scientific drilling operation.

Researchers working off the coast of Japan lowered a giant piston corer through more than 8km of water in order to pull sediments from the seabed.

It took two hours and 40 minutes simply for the equipment to descend into position above the ocean floor.

The drilling exercise, mounted from the Research Vessel Kaimei, is part of a project to read the history of great earthquakes in the region.

The chosen core site in the Japan Trench is very close to the epicentre of the Magnitude 9.1, Tohoku-oki event in 2011, which also produced a tsunami that devastated communities on the nation's eastern seaboard, and knocked out the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The 37m of sediment retrieved by the piston corer will hopefully preserve details of much older quakes - those that occurred before any written accounts.

FULL REPORT

 

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Is deep-sea mining a cure for the climate crisis or a curse?

In a display cabinet in the recently opened Our Broken Planet exhibition in London’s Natural History Museum, curators have placed a small nugget of dark material covered with faint indentations. The blackened lump could easily be mistaken for coal. Its true nature is much more intriguing, however.

The nugget is a polymetallic nodule and oceanographers have discovered trillions of them litter Earth’s ocean floors. Each is rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper, some of the most important ingredients for making the electric cars, wind turbines and solar panels that we need to replace the carbon-emitting lorries, power plants and factories now wrecking our climate.

FULL REPORT

 

 

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North Sea's hidden ice age past is revealed in 3D

 

Spectacular ice age landscapes have been revealed beneath the North Sea.

These deep, kilometres-wide channels, known as tunnel valleys, were cut by fast-flowing rivers that ran under Northern Europe's ancient ice sheets.

Today, the landforms are all hidden by the North Sea's bottom-muds, but new survey work has traced their outline in remarkable 3D detail.

Scientists say the channels should give us clues as to how modern-day ice sheets, such as Greenland, will decay.

That's because these features were all incised during periods of great melt.

"These tunnel valleys were formed during the death throes of an ice sheet in extremely warm climates," said James Kirkham, from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Cambridge University.

"This makes them a great analogue for what Greenland, or even Antarctica, might begin to look like in the future, perhaps several 100 years down the line," he told BBC News.

FULL REPORT

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Mysteries of the deep sea: 5 burning questions about Earth’s final frontier

Will we ever live in a deep-sea base? And how many unknown creatures lurk in the depths?

The deep sea is Earth’s last unexplored domain. For the longest time, this enigmatic ecosystem has held within it answers to some of the most important questions in science. Now, a new wave of technologies are powering discoveries that will help us put together the story of Earth’s final frontier.

Did life begin in the deep sea?

Life on Earth began about four billion years ago. Where and how those simple cells first sparked into life remain tantalising mysteries, but evidence is stacking up that they could have first emerged in the deep ocean.

In 2017, palaeontologists identified microscopic tubes and filaments made of iron-rich haematite lodged within rocks formed between 3.77 and 4.28 billion years ago. The rocks are a rare fragment of primeval oceanic crust preserved on land (most of the seafloor gets dragged back into the Earth’s mantle, melted and recycled into new crust). The tiny formations have the characteristic shape of microbes that live today on deep-sea hydrothermal vents – the hot springs that form underwater at the edges of tectonic plates.

FULL REPORT & MORE PHOTOS

 

 

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In Photos: Exploring the Deep-Sea Secrets of the American Deep South

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Underwater pharmacy: Meet the scientists raiding the ocean's medicine cabinet

Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness against disease. But the world’s waters could be full of new drugs, just waiting to be discovered.

Mud and sponges probably don’t feature highly on most scuba divers’ bucket lists. But scientist and explorer Professor Brian Murphy, based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has his sights set on the sediments lurking at the bottom of lakes and the gooey animals clinging to submerged shipwrecks. And for good reason. When he brought back a blob of mud from Lake Michigan, he found it contained bacteria that create two previously unknown molecules.

Lab tests showed that this class of compounds is lethal to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, a disease that existing drugs are struggling with. “For millions of years bacteria have fought one another,” says Murphy. “We’re just harnessing that power.”

Around the world, superbugs are on the rise. There have been a number of patients in recent years who have strains of E. coli that are resistant to many antibiotics, including drugs that doctors only use as a last resort. It’s an alarming trend in which bacteria are gaining the upper hand in their battle against the antibiotics we use to kill them, hastened by the world’s overuse of these drugs.

“The way to combat drug resistance is to find new chemistry,” says Murphy. He’s one of many modern-day prospectors who are searching for that new chemistry underwater.

Medicine from the deep

From icy polar seas to scorching hydrothermal vents, and from coral reefs to inland lakes, the vast, aquatic realms covering seven-tenths of our planet are home to an immense diversity of life. They include many animals that evolved complex chemical defences, along with a profusion of microbes; it is thought that around 90 per cent of oceanic life is microscopic. From among these creatures, researchers are uncovering molecules that could form the basis for new medicines.

Tapping the natural world for pharmaceuticals is nothing new – pop an aspirin and your headache will be soothed by a substance that was discovered in willow tree bark. With the rising tide of drug resistance, the hope is that nature has plenty more in its medicine cabinet for us to dip into. The trick is sifting through all those potent chemicals to find the ones that could fight disease.

“It’s no secret that there’s an incredibly high failure rate in developing drugs,” says Murphy. “It’s really difficult to find a set of molecules that can target a specific disease and do it within the incredibly complex environment of the human body.”

To help with this, Murphy is working to smarten up the sample collection process, as it’s one of the few steps in drug development that hasn’t seen a major revolution in recent decades. According to Murphy, looking for molecules in original places is an important part of drug development, so he decided to use a new resource altogether: the general public.

Chatting with recreational scuba divers gave Murphy the idea of searching shipwrecks for sponges. These unprepossessing animals spend most of their lives stuck in place, sifting the water for food and taking on hordes of bacteria. “Bacteria can constitute up to 30 or 40 per cent of sponge biomass,” Murphy explains.

Freshwater sponges are a common sight across the USA’s Great Lakes but almost nothing is known about them. Rather than go out himself and gather sponges – a time-consuming and expensive business – Murphy piloted a citizen science project asking divers to collect tiny samples for him while they’re out and about. He sent out collecting kits and got a great response, receiving more than 40 nubbins of sponge in the mail.

In 2016 he rolled the project out across the Great Lakes and hopes to sample as many sites as possible. Ultimately, Murphy wants to map the distribution of sponges and bacteria across the lakes so that future efforts can be more effective and will zero in on fruitful spots, both in the Great Lakes and beyond.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/underwater-pharmacy/

 

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by CaaC (John)
Spacing correction

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New 'alien' deep-sea crustacean discovered off the Gulf of Mexico

Shola Lee

 Published 16:26, 14 August 2022 at BST
 Last updated 16:29, 14 August 2022 at BST

Possibly the creepiest sea crustacean we've ever seen has just been discovered off the Gulf of Mexico.

The alien-looking, deep-sea creature, also known as the bathynomus yucatanensis, is a type of isopod that scours the ocean floor for food.

Isopods are commonly found in tropical and temperate deep seas.

 

Findings of the new species, which is 2,500% bigger than a woodlouse, were published in the Journal of Natural History.

There are nearly 20 living bathonymus species, with researchers explaining that the newly discovered crustacean 'has more slender body proportions and is shorter in total length' than those previously discovered.

With the most distinctive feature being the number of 'pleotelson spines' that the creature has - 11 in total.

 

That number also surpasses the closely related maxeyorum, which has seven.

However, the new species has the same number of spines as the giganteus, discovered over a century ago, which could prove tricky for researchers as this suggests that 'superficial examination, using only pleotelson spines, could easily result in specimens of B. yucatanensis being misidentified'.

 

Misidentification is exactly what happened when researchers found the new species of the Gulf of Mexico, initially thinking that they were examining the giganteus.

The similar appearance of the pair suggests that they share a common ancestor and means that they both look like pure nightmare fuel.

While we wish we'd seen anything other than the new species today, marine enthusiasts on Twitter were thrilled with the discovery.

 

One said: "NEW GUY JUST DROPPED," which sounds hilariously like a text one of the Love Islanders would get.

 

Another really loved seeing the new animal, saying: "I love this f****** pasta baby."

 

Not sure what pasta they're eating...

 

A fourth really felt like they could relate to the new species, saying: "This thing is sooooo me i wish i was a little isopod discovered in the gulf of Mexico."

 

While we absolutely do not want to be an isopod on the bottom of the sea, we're glad the new creature was found. Kind of.

https://www.unilad.com/news/mysterious-orb-discovered-contain-valuable-information-20220802

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by CaaC (John)

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2 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

 

I'd eat it!

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6 minutes ago, nudge said:

I'd eat it!

You 

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The secrets of the deep ocean

The ocean covers more than 70% of our planet but what lies beneath its surface is a largely unexplored universe. So join us as we take a dive down, right down, to the bottom of the ocean. What will we find down there? And if we knew more about the ocean, would we look after it better?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/the-secrets-of-the-deep-ocean/p0c8gybb

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by CaaC (John)
Spacing correction

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Tonga eruption: Atlantic seafloor felt Pacific volcano megablast

The massive volcanic blast in the Pacific last year was felt 18,000km away on the other side of the world, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

The cataclysmic eruption of Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai on 15 January 2022 sent pressure waves through Earth's atmosphere that connected with the sea surface and triggered 50 highly sensitive seismometers placed 5,000m under water on the seabed.

It was one of a number of intriguing phenomena picked up by the instrument network in the Azores-Madeira-Canary Islands region.

Scientists, led from University College London, had set up the stations primarily to detect earthquakes.

The goal is to use the signals from ground motions to image the interior of the planet, to trace the great upwellings of magma of the type that built the islands of the Portuguese and Spanish archipelagos.

The seismometers were laid down and picked up during two two-legged cruises

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Deepest ever fish caught on camera off Japan

Scientists have filmed a fish swimming at an extraordinary depth in the ocean, making it the deepest observation of this nature that has ever been made.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65148876

 

 

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Meet the pelican eel: The mysteriously morphing deep-sea 'sperm'

Also known as the Gulper Eel, this deep-water oddity can expand its mouth to incredible proportions, acting like a huge net to scoop up prey.

In 2018, researchers controlling a remotely operated vehicle in Hawaiian waters stumbled across the best view to date of this deep-sea oddity. Spotted a mile down in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the critter looked like a sinister sperm, with its black, bulbous head and a lithe, whip-like tail. Without warning, its head then began to inflate and wobble, before morphing into a gaping pair of jaws, and then into a more streamlined form, before it disappeared into the darkness.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/what-is-a-pelican-eel/

 

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Deep-sea mining hotspot teems with mystery animals

A vast stretch of ocean floor earmarked for deep sea mining is home to thousands of oddball sea creatures, most of them unknown to science.

They include weird worms, brightly coloured sea cucumbers and corals......

 

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Crunch talks due on deep-sea mining controversy

Controversial proposals to allow deep-sea mining will be centre-stage at global talks in Jamaica from Monday.

It comes after a two-year ban on the practice expired when countries failed to reach agreement on new rules.....

 

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Don Walsh: The man who made the deepest ever dive

Ocean explorer Captain Don Walsh has died at the age of 92. More than 60 years ago he made the first ever descent to the deepest place in the ocean, the Mariana Trench which lies almost 11km (seven miles) down. I was lucky enough to count him as a good friend. This is the story of an extraordinary dive by a remarkable man.

In 1960, space-mania was gripping the world and would-be astronauts were dreaming of their first forays skywards.

But 28-year-old Captain Don Walsh had his sights set very much downwards. He was about to descend deeper than any human had ever ventured before......

 

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Rare deep-sea squid ‘with headlights’ attacks camera 1km under water

Arare squid has been filmed wrapping its arms around a camera deep below the ocean surface, where conditions are near pitch black.

The Taningia Danae, at a depth of more than 1km, is seen spreading its tentacles over the camera lens.

Scientists from the University of Western Australia and Kelpie Geosciences in the UK shared the incredible footage.......

 

 

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Deep dive into Adriatic shows how industrial activity impacts on sea life

Up until the middle of the 20th century, the Adriatic Sea had a vibrant and healthy ecosystem before things suddenly crashed, according to new palaeontological research.

The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating Italy and the Balkan states like Croatia, Bosnia-and Herzegovina and Albania. It is home to thousands of different marine species including many which are found nowhere else.

Analysis published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that the trend in the Adriatic in the 1800s and early decades of the 1900s was positive for the sea’s marine life.

For example, carnivorous snails and their prey, clams, were on the increase.

Then their populations suddenly plummeted in the mid-20th century. In some cases, entire populations disappeared.

It was a boon, however, for one particular species of clam: the common corbulid clam (Varicorbula gibba).

 

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Humans have mapped Mars to the detail of 5m, land on Earth to 50cm but Oceans only 1.5km.

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Humans have mapped Mars to the detail of 5m, land on Earth to 50cm but Oceans only 1.5km.

MAPPING MARS

Nearly 90% of Mars' surface has been mapped using high-resolution imagery from the ESA's Mars Express mission. This extensive mapping has contributed significantly to our understanding of the planet's terrain and features.

MAPPING EARTH

Mapping the Earth involves creating representations of the planet's surface, typically using various tools and technologies to depict geographical features, topography, and human-made structures. These maps can be produced through techniques such as satellite imagery, aerial photography, and geospatial analysis. Resources like Google Earth provide interactive views of the planet, while educational guides, such as those from BBC Bitesize, explain the methods and significance of mapping for understanding our world.

MAPPING OCEANS

Modern ocean mapping often utilizes multibeam sonar systems deployed on ships, which can produce detailed and high-resolution maps of the seabed. As of recent reports, approximately 24.9% of the world's ocean floor has been mapped.