Dark Deep Ocean Floor

Deep sea exploration has revealed varied landscapes which include volcanoes seamounts hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.

Dark deep ocean floor. Sunlight does not penetrate to the sea floor making these deep dark ecosystems less productive than those along the continental shelf. Although some sea creatures depend on light to live others can do without it. Sunlight entering the water may travel about 1 000 meters 3 280 feet into the ocean under the right conditions but there is rarely any significant light beyond 200 meters 656 feet. The glowing mystery hole about 155 feet below the water s surface.

The deep sea or deep layer is the lowest layer in the ocean existing below the thermocline and above the seabed at a depth of 1000 fathoms 1800 m or more. The deep ocean is dark very cold and has tremendous pressure from the overlying water. Scuba divers can explore only to about 40 meters while most submarines dive only to about 500 meters. In fact there have been more missions into space than journeys down to the greatest depths of the oceans.

Little or no light penetrates this part of the ocean and most of the organisms that live there rely for subsistence on falling organic matter produced in the photic zone for this reason scientists once assumed that life would be sparse. See how these deep sea denizens make the most of their deep dark home. The deep sea is a relatively mysterious and unknown part of the earth as only about 1 of the ocean floor has been explored by humans. Scientists are flocking to florida s gulf coast for a glimpse of a mysterious 425 feet deep blue hole on the ocean floor.

At depths of over 10 000 feet and covering 70 of the ocean floor abyssal plains are the largest habitat on earth. The ocean is divided into three zones based on depth and light level.