Mad as a Marine Biologist

High-res Dive Into An Ocean Trench I’ve posted about this incredible infographic before, and it’s still awesome enough to warrant talking about it, again.   Take a dive down to 11,000m with the BBC’s interactive interactive with photos, videos and heaps of information about the different ‘zones’ in our oceans.  Icy cold, pitch black and with crushing pressures - the deepest part of the ocean is one of the most hostile places on the planet. Only three explorers have made the epic journey there: 11km (seven miles) down to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. As a new wave of deep-sea exploration begins, take a look at the mysterious world that they will be plunging into. So go knock yourselves out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17013285.

Dive Into An Ocean Trench

I’ve posted about this incredible infographic before, and it’s still awesome enough to warrant talking about it, again.  

Take a dive down to 11,000m with the BBC’s interactive interactive with photos, videos and heaps of information about the different ‘zones’ in our oceans. 

Icy cold, pitch black and with crushing pressures - the deepest part of the ocean is one of the most hostile places on the planet. Only three explorers have made the epic journey there: 11km (seven miles) down to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. As a new wave of deep-sea exploration begins, take a look at the mysterious world that they will be plunging into.

So go knock yourselves out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17013285.

  • BBC
High-res ecoevolution: James Cameron heads into the abyss: the film director’s dive could be a boon to deep-sea science The director who once jokingly proclaimed himself the “king of the world” is about to become the master of the depths. If all goes to plan, James Cameron, director of the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, will soon use his own unique submersible to become the first person since 1960 to reach the deepest place in the ocean. But although most attention will be focused on the boldness of the engineering feat, his expedition includes a substantial scientific component aimed at better understanding one of the world’s most extreme and least studied environments. “The goal of all this is not just to set records and do grandstanding dives,” Cameron told Nature just hours before heading to sea. “We want to push the envelope not only of scientific knowledge but also of engineering.” Challenger Deep is a gash more than 10,900 metres deep in the Mariana Trench, off the coast of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean. The first and so far only humans to make it to the bottom were Jacques Piccard, a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, and Don Walsh, then a US Navy lieutenant. They made their deep trek in the bathyscaphe Trieste, a primitive craft that went straight down and back up and has long since been decommissioned. Only unmanned remotely operated vehicles — the Japanese Kaiko in 1995 and the US Nereus in 2009 — have been to the bottom since. The above submersible, Deep Sea Challenger, will travel to the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench: the Challenger Deep.

ecoevolution:

James Cameron heads into the abyss: the film director’s dive could be a boon to deep-sea science

The director who once jokingly proclaimed himself the “king of the world” is about to become the master of the depths. If all goes to plan, James Cameron, director of the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, will soon use his own unique submersible to become the first person since 1960 to reach the deepest place in the ocean. But although most attention will be focused on the boldness of the engineering feat, his expedition includes a substantial scientific component aimed at better understanding one of the world’s most extreme and least studied environments.

“The goal of all this is not just to set records and do grandstanding dives,” Cameron told Nature just hours before heading to sea. “We want to push the envelope not only of scientific knowledge but also of engineering.”

Challenger Deep is a gash more than 10,900 metres deep in the Mariana Trench, off the coast of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean. The first and so far only humans to make it to the bottom were Jacques Piccard, a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, and Don Walsh, then a US Navy lieutenant. They made their deep trek in the bathyscaphe Trieste, a primitive craft that went straight down and back up and has long since been decommissioned. Only unmanned remotely operated vehicles — the Japanese Kaiko in 1995 and the US Nereus in 2009 — have been to the bottom since.

The above submersible, Deep Sea Challenger, will travel to the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench: the Challenger Deep.