This passage describes a journey from the ocean's surface to the deepest parts of the ocean, known as the abyssal plain. It begins with an exploration into the twilight zone, a region with reduced light and unique adaptations among marine life. The journey continues into the abyssal plain, where the water is near freezing, and life exists in extreme conditions. It also touches upon the importance of marine snow, which provides nutrients to deep-sea organisms. Despite the harsh environment, some life forms have adapted to survive at these extreme depths. The passage concludes by highlighting the challenges and mysteries of deep-sea exploration, with much of the ocean floor remaining unexplored.
1. The journey mentioned in the text is an exploration from the surface of the waves to the ocean floor and beyond into the abysses.
2. The exploration will cover two-thirds of the planet, including the Pacific, which is larger than all the continents of our planet.
3. As soon as the explorers descend into the water column, the temperatures begin to drop drastically, and the brightness declines sharply.
4. At a depth of 200 meters, the explorers leave behind the false twilight zone, which represents only 2% of all the water in the oceans but shelters 90% of the marine life known to us.
5. The explorers then pass the 332 meters of depth, while a height of water of the order of that of the Eiffel Tower overlooks them.
6. The explorers go beyond the point beyond which no human has ever gone down, venturing into the abyssal plain.
7. The abyssal plain is home to sparse and very varied life, including zooplankton, crustaceans, jellyfish, squid, siphonophore, bissau fish, and occasionally sharks, swordfish, and marine mammals.
8. At a depth of 1000 meters, the temperature of the water stabilizes around 4 degrees, close to that of the freezing point.
9. Only animals, bacteria, harkis, or viruses survive at this depth, with the exception of life forms which flourish near hydrothermal vents and other sources.
10. The total surface of the deep sea is 326 million square kilometers, 500 times larger than France, 34 times larger than the United States, and 19 times larger than Russia.
11. The abyssal plain is covered in a fine powdery covering that neither the wind nor the rain can disperse and which accumulates over time.
12. The materials from which concrete sidewalks and computer chips are made come largely from the microscopic skeletons and silica shells deposited on the ocean floor.
13. Large carcasses of whales and other marine life provide an ephemeral oasis of life for the creatures living in the abyssal plain.
14. The deep-sea fish have become masters in the art of saving their resources, moving in slow motion due to the high pressure they are compressed under.
15. The explorers are planning to find holes in the abyssal plain or rather oceanic trenches at the level of the subduction zone, where the tectonic plates sink under each other.
16. The existence of a sun is definitively forgotten at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which is 1971 meters deep and has the highest pressure on every square centimeter of surface.
17. Despite the inhospitable conditions, it is not rare to come across living things in the most inhospitable parts of our planet.
18. Only 10% of the seabed below 200 meters deep has been explored in detail, but the remaining 90% is full of wonders to be discovered.