Underwater is a term describing the realm below the surface of water where the water exists in a natural feature (called a body of water) such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, or river. Three quarters of the planet Earth is covered by water. A majority of the planet's solid surface is abyssal plain, at depths between 4,000 and 5,500 metres (13,000 and 18,000 ft) below the surface of the oceans. The solid surface location on the planet closest to the centre of the orb is the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 10,924 metres (35,840 ft). Although a number of human activities are conducted underwaterâsuch as research, scuba diving for work or recreation, or even underwater warfare with submarines, this very extensive environment on planet Earth is hostile to humans in many ways and therefore little explored. But it can be explored by sonar, or more directly via manned or autonomous submersibles. The ocean floors have been surveyed via sonar to at least a coarse resolution; particularly-strategic areas have been mapped in detail, in the name of detecting enemy submarines, or aiding friendly ones, though the resulting maps may still be classified.
Boy I’ve gotta tell you, my jaw really dropped when I heard this one. There are actual lakes, on the bottom of oceans, especially in the Gulf of Mexico region; they’ve got their own shores and all. The brine water of these lakes actually hosts unique wildlife, creating an absolutely amazing environment. The fact that [...]
Boy 2009 passed quite quickly, but it didn’t go without a blast, that’s for sure ! I’m gonna show you some really amazing stuff that happened during 2009, most of which you probably have no idea of, and this is the first one from that series. 4th place (honorable mention): Mayon, Philippines It may have [...]
The researchers from the Census of Marine Wildlife have accomplished a truly amazing task; they have inventoried a fantastic abundance of marine species, more specifically deep sea species that live below the point where sunlight can penetrate the water, creatures that live more than 5 km below sea level, in a cold and dark environment. [...]
First of all, I don’t know for sure if any of these are shopped in any way; underwater photography is really really different and personally I don’t know anybody who could sort me out with this, so if you’re sure some of these are fake, please let me know (also, if you know anything about [...]
Near Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa, an underwater volcano has been shooting smoke, ash, steam, etc for thousands of feet, and the good thing is the islanders are not threatened by this. Still, it remains such a spectacular phenomenon that scientists just had to inspect it and make a photo shoot. Pictures from boston.com. There’s also a [...]
Life emerged and evolved initially in the water – every creature we see today stems from creatures who initially evolved underwater. But even after so much time, there there are many things don’t understand about marine ecosystems, and to be quite honest, the ecosystems we probably know least about are underwater. Researchers from Fisheries and [...]
Mon, Feb 8, 2010
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