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Earth's Final Frontier: Mysteries of the Deep Sea

29.09.11

It is 300 times the volume of the space inhabited by Earth's land-dwelling species. It is unimaginably cool and cloaked in near-total darkness. Yet the blackness is lousy, swarming with untold armies of fantastical creatures .

Some are laughably brawny, some shoot shimmering sprays of light from their bodies, still others are outfitted with louring frippery befitting a sinister Dr. Seuss book.

Teeth of the fact that this alien world is relatively accessible compared with the planets even in our own solar system, the deepest depths of the tons remain virtually unexplored — the final, incomprehensible frontier of our home planet.

Although the deep sea — unkindly defined as everything below 650 feet (200 meters) — comprises a wonderful 240 million cubic miles (1 billion cubic kilometers) and more than 90 percent of the living latitude on the planet, scientists are still trying to answer the most basic questions about it.

"Basically, we remember so little about the deep sea that we don't know what we don't know. A lot of things are still being discovered purely by possibility risk," said Michael Vecchione, a biologist with the Smithsonian Origination, and one of the few people who have actually been there.

Source: Our Amazing Planet