This near bottomless pit is called the Challenger Deep

What does it take to live at the bottom of the ocean

canada goose outlet england On Canada Goose Parka 26 March 2012, film director James Cameron was hunched in the cramped cabin of a submersible, far out in the Pacific ocean. His vessel, the Deepsea Challenger, looked a bit like a lime green cigar. Over the course of two and a half hours, Cameron piloted the submersible down to a depth of 10,898 m, setting a new world record for a solo descent. He had reached the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench. canada goose outlet england

canada goose outlet miami Cameron was only the third person to look upon the desolate, almost lunar landscape at the bottom of the trench. Fortunately for the rest of us, he took 3D Hi Definition cameras with him on the dive. The films he captured show that remarkable sea life exists all the way to the bottom. They are being pored over by scientists around the world, in a bid to figure out what it takes to live in the ocean’s depths. canada goose outlet miami

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canada goose outlet ontario View image of Parts of the ocean just go down and down and down (Credit: Martin Strmiska / Alamy) canada goose outlet ontario

canada goose discount uk Until the late 1800s, little was known about the oceans. But most scientists thought Canada Goose Jackets the darkness and cold would make the deep sea uninhabitable. canada goose discount uk

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canada goose outlet near me In a book published in 1859, the year Darwin published On the Origin of Species, Forbes wrote: “As we descend deeper and deeper in this region, its inhabitants become more and more modified, and fewer and fewer, indicating our approach towards an abyss where life is either extinguished, or exhibits but a few sparks to mark its lingering presence.” He was confident, but five years later Forbes’ ideas were blown out of the water. canada goose outlet near me

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canada goose outlet vancouver Between 1872 and 1876, the British ship HMS Challenger sailed for 127,653 km in a bid Canada Goose Online to catalogue the life in all the Earth’s oceans and seas. It was a journey into the unknown, just like the Apollo Moon landings in the 20th century. In total 4,700 new species of marine animals were discovered, including the first records of deep sea organisms. canada goose outlet vancouver

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canada goose outlet in montreal The animals discovered were extraordinary. The chief scientist Sir Charles Wyville Thomson described a hydroid, a stalk shaped animal with tentacles, found in the north canada goose clearance Pacific. It was “a giant of its order, with a stem upwards of 7 feet high, and a head nearly a foot across the crown of expanded tentacles.” canada goose outlet in montreal

canada goose premium outlet But just as important, the Challenger team uk canada goose outlet studied the landscape of the ocean floor. Thomson described “gently undulating plains, extending for over a hundred millions of square miles at a depth of 2500 fathoms beneath the surface of the sea, and presenting like the land their local areas of secular elevation or depression, and centres of more active volcanic disturbance.” canada goose premium outlet

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canada goose outlet ottawa Almost a century later, humans went to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. On 23 January 1960, oceanographer Jacques Piccard and Lieutenant Don Walsh of the US Navy piloted a submersible called Trieste into the Deep. canada goose outlet ottawa

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canada goose outlet nyc It now seems the deeps are teeming with life. In late 2014, Jeffrey Drazen of the University of Hawaii at Mnoa in Honolulu led an expedition to the Mariana Trench. His team used five remotely operated vehicles to explore the deepest parts of the trench, as well as along the trench walls. He was surprised by the amount and diversity of life on the walls of the trench canada goose outlet nyc.