【】
The lightless deep sea is swirling with life.
New footage captured in the "twilight zone" — areas of the ocean starting at around 100 meters (330 feet) deep where sunlight can't reach — reveals a world teeming with often otherworldly organisms: long chains of creatures, tentacled life, defensive ink blasted into the water, and beyond.
These creatures were filmed around the Geologist Seamounts just south of the Hawaiian islands. The expedition, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ocean exploration division, allowed scientists to drop a sleek deep sea exploration vehicle, called Mesobot, into these dark waters. These remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, can be intrusive to deep ocean life, but Mesobot, with a slim design and slow-moving propellers, is designed to avoid frightening wildlife away.
Each day, this marine life migrates to surface waters and then back down (to hide in the dark during daylight).
"These twilight zone organisms make up the largest animal migration on Earth and help the ocean regulate global climate by moving carbon from surface waters to the deep ocean, where it can remain sequestered from the atmosphere for centuries or millennia," the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which built and operates Mesobot, said over email.
SEE ALSO:Scientists discover ancient shark swimming in a really strange placeThe video below, compiled by Woods Hole, is just over three and a half minutes long and comprises the best footage captured on the dive. Here are a few highlights:
- 0:39: A vibrant siphonophore — a complex colony of individual creatures chained together — moves through the frame
- 1:10: An oceanic whitetip shark glides through the water
- 02:55: A potent ink cloud is emitted from a squid
(Throughout the footage, the many critters captured on video are identified.)
Related Stories
- New giant squid footage shows they're not terrible monsters, after all
- There's a fascinating new clue to the giant megalodon's extinction
- The deep sea discoveries of 2020 are stunning
- A dominant shark lurks in the deep, dark ocean. Meet the sixgill.
- Why the U.S. will get a whole lotta sea level rise
Want more scienceand tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable's Light Speed newslettertoday.
The deep sea remains a largely mysterious place, and just around 25 percent of the seafloor is decently mapped. Deep ocean missions are often considered the new explorationof little-known — or just never-visited — places on Earth.
"We always discover stuff when we go out into the deep sea. You're always finding things that you haven't seen before," Derek Sowers, an expedition lead for NOAA Ocean Exploration, told Mashable in 2022.
That's why deep sea exploration missions are so vital. Scientists want to shine a light — literally and figuratively — on what's down there. The implications of knowing are incalculable, particularly as deep sea mineral prospectors prepare to run tank-like industrial equipment across parts of the seafloor. For example, research expeditions have found that ocean life carries great potential for novel medicines. "Systematic searches for new drugs have shown that marine invertebrates produce more antibiotic, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory substances than any group of terrestrial organisms," notes NOAA.
相关文章
Major earthquake and multiple aftershocks rock central Italy
UPDATE: Aug. 25, 2016, 8:22 a.m. BST 。 Death toll is now at least 247 dead: 190 in Rieti province and2024-11-10- 阿根廷絕對主力被曝出軌 女方竟是成龍新片演員_德保www.ty42.com 日期:2021-11-13 10:01:00| 評論(已有313280條評論)2024-11-10
- 重磅!曝廣州隊歸化球員因欠薪 決定不參加第二階段中超聯賽_洛國富www.ty42.com 日期:2021-11-12 08:31:00| 評論(已有313005條評論)2024-11-10
- 梅西第100次替補出戰!昔日絕對領域 如今放了高射炮_阿根廷www.ty42.com 日期:2021-11-13 09:31:00| 評論(已有313267條評論)2024-11-10
New Zealand designer's photo series celebrates the elegance of aging
Not only is age nothin’ but a number -- it can be a asset when it comes to style. 。 That’2024-11-10- 回顧國足四大歸化表現:蔣光太穩坐主力 洛國富出場時間最少_比賽www.ty42.com 日期:2021-11-13 09:31:00| 評論(已有313264條評論)2024-11-10
最新评论