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An old clip from the Discovery Channel show “MythBusters” demonstrating how a deep-sea explorer could implode in a depressurized diving suit has gone viral after the Titanic sub disaster. The 2009 clip has racked up more than three-quarters of a million views after being posted Thursday, when it was discovered that the five passengers had died aboard a Titanic wreckage-bound submersible that imploded. In the show’s science experiment, a human-shaped mannequin was recreated from pig parts including bones, muscle, fat, skin and guts. It was then sunk about 300 feet underwater — where pressure is roughly nine times greater than...

You might expect something called a deep-sea dragonfish to be a fearsome leviathan of the deep, dark ocean — and it is, if you happen to be one of the thumb-size ocean critters the dragonfish calls prey. Dragonfish (genus Aristostomias) are wee (only about 6 inches long), eel-like predators with massive, fang-lined jaws that can yawn open at 120-degree angles. These gaping chompers allow dragonfish to devour prey more than half of their size, but their hunting success also depends on another near-supernatural adaptation: invisibility. While dragonfish bodies give off a faint, bioluminescent glow, their teeth are almost completely transparent,...

Deep in the Gulf of California, scientists have discovered a fantastical expanse of hydrothermal vents, full of crystallized gases, glimmering pools of piping-hot fluids and rainbow-hued life-forms. Punctuating it all are towering structures made of minerals from the vents, looming as tall as 75 feet (23 meters). A decade ago, scientists visiting this spot saw nothing unusual; this psychedelic seascape seems to have built up around an increase in hydrothermal venting — spots in the seafloor where mineral-laden and superhot water jets out — in the last 10 years. "Astonishing is not strong enough of a word," said Mandy Joye,...

Bathochordaeus charon — an extremely rare species of giant larvacean — has been rediscovered, more than a century after the only previous known specimens of the species were found. Larvaceans are solitary, free-swimming tunicates, animals with a primitive spinal cord but no real backbone. These fragile animals are usually less than 0.4 inches (1 cm) in length, but some giant larvaceans in the deep sea grow up to 3.5 inches (9 cm) long. In 1900, German marine biologist Carl Chun identified the first giant larvacean, Bathochordaeus charon. Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) were next to document...

Australian scientists have discovered never-seen-before prehistoric marine life in the depths of the ocean below the Great Barrier Reef, the University of Queensland said Wednesday. Ancient “six-gilled” sharks, giant oil fish, swarms of crustaceans and many unidentified fish – all of which look worthy of a science-fiction film – were among the astounding marine life caught on camera some 1,400 meters (4,593 feet) below sea level. The team, led by Justin Marshall, also collected footage of the Nautilius, a relative of the octopus that still lives in a shell as they have done for millions of years. Team members used...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Up from the briny deep of the Gulf of Mexico came a nightmare for President Barack Obama. Unlike Hurricane Katrina and its immediate, frightful images of people in crisis, the gushing BP oil well has been a slow-moving behemoth that is now taking a political toll on the president. Obama was already immersed in a long list of problems -- pushing a financial regulation overhaul, prodding Europe to stem a financial crisis, pressuring Iran and North Korea. And don't forget the 9.9 percent U.S. jobless rate, two wars and Obama's hopes for immigration and energy legislation before...

Extraordinary footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea fish has been captured by scientists. Using a remotely operated vehicle, they caught a rare glimpse of the huge oarfish, perhaps the first sighting of the fish in its natural setting. The oarfish, which can reach 17m long, has previously only been seen on a few occasions dying at the sea surface, or dead washed ashore. The scientists also filmed for the first time the behaviour of a manefish. Mark Benfield from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, US was undertaking a survey as part of the Serpent project, a collaboration between...

Ancient Deep-sea Coral Reefs Off Southeastern US Serve As Underwater 'Islands' In The Gulf StreamThe brisingid sea-star (Novodinia antillensis) perches high in the coral branches of Lophelia pertusa to filter feed. This photo was taken off the North Carolina coast in about 370 meters (roughly 1,200 feet) of water, far north of the normal range of this species. (Credit: Ross et al, NOAA, HBOI) ScienceDaily (May 20, 2008) — Largely unexplored deep-sea coral reefs, some perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old, off the coast of the southeastern U.S. are not only larger than expected but also home to commercially...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Climate change could be slowed by burying greenhouse gases blamed for global warming deep below the ocean floor under thick, cold sediment that would trap it for thousands of years, said a team of Harvard-led scientists. The seafloor along the U.S. east and west coast is vast enough to store almost unlimited carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. coal-fired plants, said Daniel Schrag, director of Harvard's Center for the Environment. "It would make coal a green fuel," he said in a telephone interview with Reuters. Carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels is the main gas blamed for...

Bottom trawling destroys deep sea lifeNew York: A long-awaited report by the United Nations shows the need for an international moratorium on bottom-trawling and other destructive fishing practices that damage deep sea life, Conservation International (CI) said. The U.N. Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (DOALOS) reviewed measures to protect the vulnerable deep oceans of the high seas -- the 64 percent of ocean that lies beyond the national jurisdictions of any individual nation. Its review, ordered by the U.N. General Assembly in 2004, was based on reports from member states on steps taken to stop destructive...

The rules in the gas and oil game are changing. World supplies are tight. Wells in many regions are producing less fuel. Competition for reserves, equipment and engineering talent have forced prices through the roof. As a result, oil producers are casting nets far and wide in search of new sources of energy supplies. Drillers that support the producers are following close behind. One of the leading trends is a move toward deep offshore drilling. Pride International (PDE) is following that trend. The company's 289 rigs are spread over land and sea in 30 countries. Its service operations are similarly...

YOKOHAMA, Japan - The CHIKYU is studded with superlatives. Completed last year, the ship houses the world's biggest deep-sea drill, sports a high-tech floating laboratory and boasts a $500 million price tag. The Japanese boat has an ambitious agenda to match: uncover the secrets of climate change, find microbes that help explain the origin of life, and clarify the causes of earthquakes. The 210-yard ship underwent its first major test run in November, drilling deep into the ocean floor off northern Japan for specimens that scientists say can yield historical information on everything from volcano cycles to global warming. "The...

Japan (SPX) Jun 10, 2005 Vast genetic resources – "blue gold" on the international deep sea floor – need protection from unfettered commercial exploitation, warns a new report from the Japan-based United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). Increasingly recognized as important to humankind for their potential medical and other uses, deep sea resources are now more accessible and vulnerable than ever because of rapid advances in exploration technology, the report says. Known as "extremophiles," the genetic make-up of organisms of the deep that live in extreme conditions of pressure, temperature and toxicity is drawing enormous interest from scientists...

WASHINGTON - A new deep-sea research vessel will be able to carry people to 99 percent of the ocean floor, diving deeper than the famed Alvin that pioneered the study of seafloor vents, plate tectonics and deep ocean creatures over the past 40 years. The new American submersible will provide the tools to reach "not for the stars but for the depths," Robert Gagosian, president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said Friday at a briefing at the National Science Foundation (news - web sites). France, Russia and Japan also operate deep sea research vessels and China is building one,...

Source: Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Date: 2004-03-24 There Be Dragons: New Deep-sea Predator Species Discovered FT. PIERCE, Fla. -- Dr. Tracey Sutton, a fish ecologist at the HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution in Ft. Pierce, Fla., has discovered a new species in a bizarre and elusive family of deep-sea predatory fish known collectively as dragonfish. The find, reported in the current issue of the journal Copeia, is the first new dragonfish species discovered in more than a decade. The first specimen of the new species, dubbed Eustomias jimcraddocki, was large, compared to the average pencil-sized dragonfish at about six inches long...

ENGINEERS often admire the ways in which living creatures solve problems. The difficulty with man-made fibre-optic cables, says Joanna Aizenberg of Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, New Jersey, is that they often crack and break. For a solution, Dr Aizenberg and her colleagues have turned to the exquisitely structured siliceous skeleton of a deep-sea sponge known as the Venus flower basket. This sponge, they say, can do things better. As they explain in a paper published in this week's issue of Nature, the sponge has a lattice of spiny outgrowths, or “spicules”, at its base, which provide structural support. These...