What is there at the bottom of the ocean?

We have only explored about 5% of the ocean. The ocean covers over 70% of the earth, meaning we don’t know what 65% of our planet holds. Within the first 1000 feet is the light blue part of the ocean that sunlight reaches, which is where the majority of the ocean we have explored is, even though the ocean stretches down to 35800 feet at its deepest, in the Mariana Trench.

The deepest point of the ocean is in the Mariana Trench. It is over 2 kilometers deeper than the highest point on earth, Mount Everest, is tall. Due to this isolation, many believed it would be virtually unaffected by pollution other parts of the ocean are subjected to. Alan Jamieson led a study that proved this is far from the truth. He discovered trenches are actually filled with pollutants. Organisms in a trench rely on dead organic material coming from above. Since these nutrients flow into a trench and stay there forever, Alan Jamieson suspected trenches had probably been affected by human activity in some way. To see if this suspicion was correct, he and his crew sent an unmanned lander to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to catch amphipods to test for pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. When the crew tested the amphipods for pollutants, they found polybrominated diphenyl ethers at moderate levels. However, the levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, were extremely high. What effect the high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls will have on the organisms in the Mariana Trench is undetermined. These pollutants have been known to disrupt hormone systems of animals closer to the surface and can cause cancer, so the effects are most likely very negative.

Japanese scientists also sent an unmanned submarine to the Mariana Trench. The submarine settled in the deepest part of the trench, Challenger Deep.  They were studying the mud from the sea floor, and used it to grow organisms from. In the organisms they could identify hundreds of different species of bacteria, fungi, and archaea. They compared these species to those in garden dirt and deep-sea sediments. Even though the pressure at the bottom of the trench is 1000 times more than at sea level, according to tests done on bacterial growth, some species can handle this pressure, although scientists still aren’t sure which genes in these microbes allows them to survive the immense pressure.

  Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench

In the southern end of the West Mariana Ridge there are large volcanoes that range up to 2500 meters high.  Flowing water has eroded the seabed and created a series of channels that resemble terrestrial streams and rivers up to 2 kilometers wide.

We cannot be entirely sure what kinds of things are at the bottom of the ocean without exploring the entire sea floor. We know that due to the immense pressure the majority of living things are very small organisms or bacteria, the mud at the bottom of the ocean is similar to that in the shallower parts and garden dirt, and that even the most isolated parts of the ocean have been affected by human activity. If we were to explore the remaining 95% of the ocean, the possibilities of what we would find are virtually endless, however based on what we currently know it would seem that it is nothing too outrageous.

SOURCES:

“Bathymetry in the Mariana Trench.” Geographical, June 2012, p. 6+. Canada in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A298502977/GPS?u=43riss&sid=GPS&xid=1f0993f4. Accessed 5 Feb. 2019.

“Entrenched; Oceanic pollution.” The Economist, 18 Feb. 2017, p. 67(US). Canada in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A481401875/GPS?u=43riss&sid=GPS&xid=79cb15dc. Accessed 5 Feb. 2019.

Monastersky, Richard. “Life at its lowest.” Science News, 13 June 1998, p. 379. Canada in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A20846929/GPS?u=43riss&sid=GPS&xid=6ff8dddf. Accessed 5 Feb. 2019.

COL REFLECTION:

1. The questions I asked to research my topic were “What kind of creatures live at the bottom of the ocean?”, “What are the living conditions like at the bottom of the ocean?”, “What do we already know about the bottom of the ocean?”, “What is the main reason we haven’t explored the bottom of the ocean?”, and “What do we need to do to be able to explore the bottom of the ocean?”.
2. I used the library database and Gale Engage Learning for the first time, as well as the citation tool Gale Engage has.
3. The first thing I did when I started my project was learn more about the subject, then I decided what information was relevant or useful and wrote my post.
4. I made sure my information was coming from a reliable source and I used the citation tool from Gale Engage Learning.
5. The process went well, and if I was going to do anything differently I would try to find more information on related topics to give a better understanding.