![]() Bits of decaying matter and excretions from thousands of meters above must trickle down to the seafloor, with only a small fraction escaping the hungry jaws of creatures above. For these creatures food is scarce most of the time. It is also home to squat lobsters, red prawns, and various species of sea cucumbers. It is a cold and dark place that lies between 3,000 and 6,000 meters below the sea surface. The abyssal plain is the relatively level deep seafloor. Pockets of life thrive when food is available, and often these distinct deep sea communities rely on alternate sources of chemical energy that do not originate from the sun-they have figured a way to make do with what they get. As the slope levels out at the continental rise (roughly 19,700 feet or 6,000 m) it gives way to the abyssal plain, the long stretch that accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world sea floor.īut the ocean floor consists of more than just the flat and seemingly vacant abyssal plain. This is the continental slope, the transition between Earth’s continental surface and Earth’s oceanic seafloor. Traveling away from the coast the seafloor will begin to slope down through the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones into deeper depths. This area is characterized by shallow water and mostly exists within the sunlit epipelagic zone. Right next to the coast is the continental shelf, the submerged part of the continent. Like the open ocean, the seafloor is similarly divided into distinct zones. Despite the remoteness of the hadalpelagic, humanity still finds a way to interfere-plastic debris has been found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. A second has been observed on video, however, it has yet to be captured and formally described. The snailfish lacks scales, has large teeth, and does not bioluminesce, a departure from what many people envision in a deep-sea fish. In 2018, scientists officially described a snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei) at 27,000 feet below sea level, the deepest living fish ever found. Very little is known about the creatures that live at such depths. It extends from 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench at 36,070 feet (10,994 meters). The hadalpelagic is the very deepest part of the ocean that includes the ocean trenches. The bristlemouth fish alone may number at about a quadrillion, making them the most numerous family of vertebrates (animals with a backbone) in the world. About 90 percent of the world’s fish (by weight) live in the mesopelagic-about 10 billion tons of fish. Squid, krill, jellies, and fish are super abundant in this zone. Barely any light filters down to these depths, and yet still life thrives here. ![]() The area of the ocean between 650 and 3,300 feet (200-1,000 m) is called the mesopelagic. These locations venture into the hadalpelagic zone, places so deep only a handful of humans have ever traveled there so far. And finally, the deepest reaches of the ocean are found at the bottom of precipitous trenches. Travel deeper and you will find the abyssopelagic zone-the abyss. Animals create their own bioluminescent light and, if they haven’t lost them, have highly light-sensitive eyes to see the light produced by other animals. You can’t dive to the deep ocean on your own, of course, but scientists have a variety of sophisticated technologies to explore this vast frontier.īeginning with the bathypelagic zone, the ocean is completely void of light from the sun, moon and stars. Despite these harsh conditions, there is life-an astounding variety of creatures that will boggle your mind. The further we dive down from the surface, the less new food is available, making the fight to survive that much more challenging. At this depth, we’ve reached the average depth of the deep-sea floor, a place that may start to get a little muddy. By 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), the temperature hovers just below the temperature of your refridgerator. Any light still filtering down has diminished to appear completely black, leaving only animals and bacteria to produce the light found here. Dive deeper and the weight of the water above continues to accumulate to a massive crushing force. By 650 feet (200 m) all the light is gone to our eyes and the temperature has dropped dramatically. As you dive down through this vast living space you notice that light starts fading rapidly. But the deep sea remains largely unexplored. Below the ocean’s surface is a mysterious world that accounts for over 95 percent of Earth’s living space-it could hide 20 Washington Monuments stacked on top of each other.
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