The Deep Sea - Top 10 Facts

the deep sea is the largest habitat on the planet taking up to 95 percent of the Earth's living space yet it's also the most unexplored environment despite being one of the most amazing places on the planet throughout the ten facts of this video you'll learn lots of amazing new things about the deep sea number ten nobody knows where it begins the deep sea is a contested term lacking a single exact definition for some it refers to any part of the ocean where scary odd and downright bizarre creatures live for others it's a descriptive definition of specific ocean depth some claim it to begin at the edge of the continental shelf where sunlight typically starts to fade a depth of usually around 200 metres others such as the world register of deep-sea species instead regards it as any point at which seasonal variations in physical parameters such as temperature becomes minimal this means that the deep-sea is usually anywhere below 500 meters however as the average ocean depth is around 4,000 meters others would argue that the deepest depths are below 1,000 fathoms or 1828 meters you can see from this diagram that at this depth as temperatures come close to freezing and little or no sunlight is present for photosynthesis a very few creatures are able to exist using light pressure and thermal interfaces oceanographers have divided the ocean into five distinct layers which can vary depending on the area and clarity of the water as each zone is distinguished by their unique characteristics number nine deep-sea creatures are purposefully incredibly diverse species from the deep may look like they've evolved in strange ways just to freak us out but in fact they've evolved that way for specific survival purposes for instance to take advantage of the lack of light most animals are transparent or red a color which few creatures can detect and is camouflaging in the darkness for those in the shallow deep sea enormous eyes take advantage of what sunlight exists and bioluminescence a chemical reaction that allows animals to create light is thought to be a way of counter illuminating faint sunlight from above so that fish are invisible to predators below them given the amount of water above them pressure is another element creatures from the deep must deal with it's enough to distort the complex molecules membranes and proteins upon which all life depends which is why the deepest sea creatures are often gelatinous with very minimal bone structures again to survive in the cold waters which can go below zero due to the salt in the water many creatures carry highly unsaturated fats in their cell walls which help them to maintain the membrane fluidity in freezing cold depths of the ocean number eight exploring the deep is tremendously testing an obvious fact but one you probably haven't seriously thought about part of the reason why it's taken us so long to explore is because only recently have we created new generations of incredibly sophisticated underwater vehicles that are able to venture so deep some of the many submersibles we've created are still often defeated by the waters crippling pressure as even the most advanced research vehicle in operation in 2014 imploded whilst in operation at the time it was crushed under 10,000 meters of water scientists estimated that there was about 16,000 pounds per square inch of pressure on the craft to prevent crafts from imploding submersibles must be internally pressurized to equal the pressure exerted from the outside so it's fair to say that these machines are pretty amazingly engineered not only must deep-sea researchers battle with some of the toughest elements they must cope with the issue of being seriously underfunded space exploration dollars seriously dwarf ocean spending as seen by this graphic from US fiscal spending in 2013 number seven only three people have ever been to the deep sea due to the previously mentioned extremities the deep sea may be the final frontier of exploration many more people have been into space than to the deep sea like seriously a load more over 500 people have been into space whereas only three people have ever ventured over 1,000 fathoms into the depths of our ocean the first two people to venture this deep really outdid themselves and descended to the bottom of the deepest known part of the Earth's seabed in 1960 they descended into what's known as the challenger's deep which is a relatively small slot shaped depression in the Pacific Ocean that resides in me already unusually deep mariana trench the third person to venture into the deep sea went there in 2012 and first showed enthusiasm for the deep by directing and producing movies including the abyss and Titanic James Cameron unsatisfied with the lack of deep-sea exploration spent a reported ten million dollars to fund the construction of his deep-sea challenger vessel he descended to over 11 kilometers where he spent three hours collecting scientific data specimens and visions unthinkable in 1960 number 6 new species are being discovered daily since it's largely unexplored each time a vehicle is sent into the deep it's highly likely to unearth a new discovery over a recent year long period the world register of marine species reported discovering 1451 new marine species of which many were found to be from the deep sea that means on top of the 240,000 marine species already recorded roughly four new species are found daily which is astonishing considering that over a decade ago many scientists assumed this to be the upper limit revised estimates based on the current rate of discovery suggest that we only currently know about a quarter of ocean species in existence although many scientists think we know even less than this considering that most of those are species of the deep of which the world register of deep-sea creatures has only recorded twenty thousand so far there are many more crazy species we're yet to find number five it's a giant playground the term deep-sea gigantism exists in zoology for a reason it refers to the tendency for deep-sea dwelling animals to be larger in size than their shallow water relatives we're not sure whether it comes about as a result of adaptation for scarce of resources greater pressure or for other reasons however in the case of marine crustaceans it's been proposed that trends involve increasing size and age with decreasing environmental ten here are a few examples of this phenomenon the giant isopod the giant amphipod the Japanese spider crab and a giant squid just imagine what other Giants lurk in the depth it's a scary thought when you consider how little we have explored of the deep-sea number 4 some amazing ecosystems exist on the ocean floor in 1977 a deep-sea research expedition made history as they found hydrothermal vents releasing mineral rich water at the bottom of the ocean this discovery changed our understanding of the world as we know it because up to that point we thought that all life depended on sunlight for photosynthesis to survive but these vents showed us that we have so much more to learn today they continued to be found in areas of known volcanic activity across the ocean where water is heated by hot magma through vents that crack deep into the Earth's layers these vents make an entirely new ecosystem possible one thriving with giant tubeworms over a footlong as well as many other life forms the organisms are often clustered around structures emitting plumes of superheated water packed with chemicals though toxic to humans the chemicals provide nutrients that certain bacteria can convert to energy much like plants convert sunlight during photosynthesis this process of converting chemicals into energy is known as chemosynthesis and redefined science as we know it number three geothermal vents aren't the only thriving ecosystems on the ocean floor lush deepwater coral gardens of various sizes colors and shapes are able to survive in the icy cold and extremely dim waters of up to six thousand metres below the ocean's surface in fact scientists have discovered nearly as many species of deep-sea corals as shallow water species unlike shallow water corals deep-sea corals don't need sunlight but rather obtain energy and nutrients they need to survive by trapping tiny organisms in passing current within the last 20 years scientists aided by technological advances have uncovered one surprise after another about deep-sea corals and so far over 3,300 species of deep-sea corals have been identified though the numbers keep climbing they're incredibly diverse and also amazingly old with Sun such as black holes estimated to be between 4000 to 8500 years old or more making them the oldest continuously living marine organisms on record on top of that some grow into beautiful structures that rise up to 35 metres high these corals along with other habitats forming organisms such as ocean sponges provide protection from currents and predators acting as nurseries for young fish and feeding breeding and spawning areas for hundreds of thousands of species number two the deep sea may solve many of our problems such organisms that live in the deep sea coral habitats and the deep sea in general produce chemicals with enormous potential for future medicinal or commercial products such as pharmaceuticals enzymes pesticides or cosmetics for example scientists recently discovered that some sponges growing in deep-sea coral ecosystems essentially produce antibiotics because they have compounds with anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties even more astonishingly a compound from one deep sea sponge even produces a chemical that prevents cancer cells from dividing and spreading along with anti-cancer agents some coral species contain pain-killing compounds and even sea fans contain high concentrations of prostaglandins which is a compound used to treat asthma and heart disease who knows what other potential life-saving compounds lie within coral reefs deep below the ocean's surface number one the sea floor is a barren land put all your thoughts of geothermal vents and deep-sea coral reefs aside because the vast majority of the sea floor is featureless mud on the face of it it's pretty similar to the empty expanses of outer space but in space you can see everything using telescopes here in the deep oceans visibility is less than 100 feet and travel speed is extremely slow this is a pretty normal view of the ocean floor from a subsea robot the most interesting thing about this environment is definitely the creatures we're yet to discover but do you think we'll find more exotic alien life for in a deep sea then up in space thanks for watching and subscribe to be amazed

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Keywords: the deep sea, deep sea, deep sea creatures, deep sea water, deep sea life, deep sea exploration, deep sea plants, deepsea, how deep is the sea, deep sea discovery, deep sea facts, deep under the sea, sea exploration

Id: o0QhPx5YYLI

Length: 11min 9sec (669 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 08 2016