10 Deep-Sea Facts That Prove the Ocean Is Creepier Than Space
We’ve sent robots to Mars, but huge parts of our own ocean are still a mystery. The deep sea is dark, freezing, crushingly heavy — and full of life that looks like it came from another planet.
1Most of the seafloor hasn’t been mapped in detail
Only about a quarter of the ocean floor has been mapped in high resolution. We have better maps of the surface of Mars.
2Everest would disappear in the Mariana Trench
The deepest point, Challenger Deep, is nearly 11,000 meters (about 36,000 feet) down. Drop Mount Everest in and its peak would still be over 2 km underwater.
3The pressure is unbelievable
At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the water pressure is more than 1,000 times what you feel at sea level.
4Most deep-sea animals glow
A study of deep-sea creatures off California found that roughly three-quarters of them can produce their own light, called bioluminescence.
5Some sharks may live 400 years
Scientists estimated that Greenland sharks can live for centuries. The oldest one in a 2016 study was estimated at around 400 years old — with a large margin of error either way.
6There are lakes and rivers under the sea
Pockets of super-salty water, called brine pools, sink to the seafloor and form “lakes” with shorelines. Some are so salty they’re deadly to animals that swim in.
7Anglerfish have a bizarre love life
In some anglerfish species, the tiny male bites onto the much larger female and permanently fuses to her body, sharing her blood supply.
8The giant squid wasn’t filmed in the wild until 2012
For centuries it was a legend. The first photos of a live one in its natural habitat were taken in 2004, and the first video in the deep sea came in 2012.
9A dead whale feeds a city
When a whale dies and sinks, its body — called a whale fall — can feed whole communities of deep-sea creatures for years, even decades.
10Life without sunlight
Around hydrothermal vents, entire ecosystems live off chemicals from the Earth’s interior instead of sunlight — giant tube worms, blind shrimp, and more.
