Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 01/16/2011 8:01:25 PM PST by decimon
The climate secrets of the deepest part of the ocean, the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, have been probed by scientists.
The international team used a submersible, designed to withstand immense pressures, to study the bottom of the 10.9km-deep underwater canyon.
Their early results reveal that ocean trenches are acting as carbon sinks.
This suggests that they play a larger role in regulating the Earth's chemistry and climate than was thought.
Although two explorers, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, reached the deepest part of the Marianas Trench - a point called the Challenger Deep - in 1960, no humans have been back since.
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Professor Glud said: "Basically, we are interested in understanding how much organic material - that is all the material produced by algae or fish in the water above - settles at the sea bed, and is either eaten by bacteria and degraded or is buried.
"The ratio that is either degraded or buried is the ultimate process determining what are the oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations of the oceans and the atmosphere, and this gives us an overall picture of how efficiently the sea can capture and sequester carbon in the global carbon cycle."
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(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Trench coat ping.
What it really means is they are looking for a way to save face after climategate.
I didn't need a 7 mile submarine to know that.
It pains me that it’s been FIFTY years since we’ve went to the bottom of the Marianas and haven’t been back since.
Get a gunny sack, and a few rocks, and you can go back any time you want.
Maybe the Navy has. Otherwise, it does seem surprising that we've had that unused capability.
Maybe this is the first time someone could find a way to tie it to global warming in order to get funding.
Robots have been there many times. Building a TRIESTE III for the sole purpose of taking people back there would be just to fecking expensive to be worth it.
I remember getting a blast out of “The Blue Planet” stop-action sequences from cameras set up way down on the abyssal plain that demonstrated the day/night and seasonal changes that became visible even way down there.
I know we’ve sent robots, but sometimes it seems Western civilization is wussing out and losing that urge to explore with manned missions.
You got it wrong about robot subs and underwater exploration.
With Robert Ballard leading the way, robot subs have brought a renaissance in underwater exploration, accomplishing exponentially more work, far faster than manned submersibles. He points this out in his autobiography.
Well let's go then!
....deepest part of the ocean... early results reveal that ocean trenches are acting as carbon sinks.The sinks around my place are either stainless steel or cast iron. Thanks decimon.
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