How does the fact that we know more about the surface of Mars than the depths of Earth's oceans make you feel?
What do we know about the dark depths of the ocean, where only the simplest life forms can survive? How deep is the ocean actually?
The Mariana Trench is the deepest ocean trough known so far, as well as the deepest place in the earth’s crust. The Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean is home to the Challenger Deep, which goes up to 11 kilometers below the surface. However, given how much of the earth’s water remains unexplored, it is indeed the deepest place in the world’s oceans, or are we yet to discover even more incredible depths?
But What is the Average Depth of the Ocean?
In general, the ocean is much shallower than the Mariana Trench. The latest estimate of the average ocean depth, calculated in 2010, showed 3.6 kilometers. Again, however, we must keep in mind that not more than 20% of the seabed has been mapped by scientists, so this estimate remains speculative.
Measuring the depths of our oceans often proves difficult for scientists. Challenger’s expedition explored the abyss by releasing TNT explosives and using the echo to measure distance. For as many spectacular discoveries as we learn each year, we must admit that the depths of the ocean still remain a mystery.
Ocean depths and chemosynthesis
As you move from the surface down to the seabed, water pressure increases, and light and food sources become increasingly scarce. Despite the enormous pressure, acidic conditions, and lack of light, organisms somehow survive there in the dark, but how?
Parts of the seabed where light is scarce can be so barren and hostile that the only way for any organism to live is possible only by producing its own food, through a process called chemosynthesis. This process uses energy released from inorganic chemical reactions to produce organic matter.
This Video Shows How Deep the Ocean Truly is and It Will Blow Your Mind
By chance, I stumbled upon an incredible YouTube video that completely changed my perception of the ocean and its depths.
At around 7 minutes in length, the narrator and creator of the video explains human capabilities, depth records of people and animals, the chemical processes that occur at different depths, and so much more about the ocean that I surely did not know about.
Starting at the surface level of the ocean, he will take you down depth after depth until the deepest known place on Earth – the Mariana Trench, explaining how deep the ocean truly is with examples from our daily life and the world around us, thus making it more understandable than any scientific study on the subject.
All in all, I would be surprised if this was not enough to catch your interest. Since I definitely cannot explain the video better than the actual narrator, I am leaving the decision on whether you want to watch it and learn to you.
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