Thursday, 26 May 2011

The Wondrous Deep Sea

The deep-sea ecosystem should officially be named one of the world’s greatest natural wonders. What do I mean?   Well, consider that…

The deep sea is the largest habitat on the planet.  Water deeper than 1000m covers a whopping 62% of the planet. 

Life in the deep sea survives in ways far different than life elsewhere.  Less than 1% of the sun’s rays reach to 150m depth.  This means deep-sea life must migrate upwards for food, scavenge what falls below, or make energy in a completely different way.

The deep sea is far deeper than Everest is high.  The Mariana Trench: 10,911m deep.  Mount Everest: 8,848m high. That’s over a two kilometers of difference! 

And finally, most readers probably already know that the denizens of the deep are pretty amazing to look at.  Here’s a great video from National Geographic and the Census of Marine Life:



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