Читать книгу Oceans For Dummies - Joseph Kraynak - Страница 89

The deepest zone in the ocean is the hadalpelagic zone (also called the trenches), which is anything deeper than 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) below the surface, such as in the deep ocean trenches. This realm is named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. We don’t know much about this zone, because it’s hard to get to and requires super specialized technology to cope with the immense pressure.

Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, P. Caiger – www.whoi.edu

FIGURE 4-11: Viperfish (Chauliodus sloani) — look at those teeth!!!

Life becomes very limited in this zone. You can find giant, single-celled xenophyophores, deep-sea microbial mats, amphipods, sea cucumbers (see Figure 4-12), jellyfish, and other invertebrates such as tube worms (see Figure 4-13), decapods, bivalves, and sea-anemones. Species of snailfish, cusk eels, and eelpouts can also be found in this region but are limited to relatively shallow areas, and usually closer to the seafloor. And even though it is really hard for people to venture this far down, our trash manages to find a way — namely, our plastic. Yup, even here in the deepest part of the ocean, recent expeditions found a plastic bag at one of the deepest points of the Mariana Trench, nearly 11 kilometers (about 7 miles) down. Ugh.

Source: Schmidt Ocean Institute – www.schmidtocean.org

FIGURE 4-12: A sea cucumber.

Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, P. Caiger – www.whoi.edu

FIGURE 4-13: Tube worms.