The five deepest points in each of the five oceans of the planet.
After months of research, a group of scientists assures that, finally, we have the “most accurate” information over the deepest points of the Earth.
They are the result of the expedition Five Deeps , which mapped with the most developed technique to date the largest depressions of the seabed in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic.
Some of these places, such as the Mariana Trench, of 000, 976 m deep, in the western Pacific, had already been examined several times.
But the The Five Deeps project also clarified some remaining uncertainties.
New revelations
For years, in the Indian Ocean there were two competing places for being the deepest point: a section of the Java Trench, off the coast of Indonesia; and a fracture zone in southwestern Australia.
The rigorous measurement techniques employed by the Five Deeps team confirmed that Java was the winner .
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But this section of the depression, at a depth of 7, 187 m, is actually 387 km lower than previous data had suggested.
Likewise, in the Antarctic Ocean there is now a new place that we must consider the deepest point.
It is a depression called Factorian Abyss , at the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench, which is located at 7, 432 m deep.
There is a place in the same pit, just to the north, which is even deeper ( Meteor Abyss , 8, 265 m) but technically it is in the Atlantic Ocean, since the dividing line with the Antarctic begins in the 60 º of south latitude .
The deepest place in the Atlantic is in the Puerto Rico trench, in a place called Brownson Abyss , at 8, 378 m.
The expedition also confirmed the 10, 924 m from Abyss from Challenger , in the Mariana Trench , as the deepest point in the Pacific ahead of the Horizon Abyss (10, 816) , in the Tonga Trench.
The investigation
The new depth data was published in an article recently in the Geoscience Data Journal .
Its main author is Cassie Bongiovanni of Caladan Oceanic LLC, the company that helped organize the Five Deeps.
The expedition was led by Texan financier and adventurer Victor Vescovo.
The former US Navy reserve wanted to conve He became the first person in history to descend to the deepest points of the five oceans and achieved this goal when he reached a place known as Molloy Abyss (5, 551 m) in the Arctic, the 24 August 2019.
But in parallel to Vescovo setting records on his submarine, his science team was taking an unprecedented number of measurements of temperature and salinity of water at all levels down to the ocean floor.
This information was crucial to correct the depth readings made with the echo sounder from the submarine’s support ship, called Pressure Drop.
Therefore, the reported depths have a high level of precision, even if I saw have a margin of error of more or less 14 m.
Unknown of the oceans
Current knowledge of the seabed is scarce.
Approximately on 80% of the global ocean floor remains to be inspected with the modern standard of technology used by Five Deeps.
“In over the course of 10 months, as we visited these five places, we mapped an area the size of mainland France, ”he explained. Heather Stewart, a member of the British Geological Survey team.
“But within that area there was another the size of Finland that was totally new, where the seabed had never been seen before,” he adds.
According to the expert, this “simply shows what can be done, what still needs to be done.”
All the information collected will be delivered to the Nippon Foundation Project -GEBCO Seabed 2030 , which aims to compile, from various data sources, an ocean depth map by the end of the decade.
Why an ocean map is needed
Achieving this type of map would be important in many ways.
They would be essential for navigation, of course, and for laying submarine cables and pipelines.
Also for the management and conservation of fishing, because it is around seamounts where wildlife tends to congregate.
Each seamount is a nucleus of biodiversity.
In addition, the rugged seabed influences the behavior of ocean currents and vertical water mixing.
This is the information necessary to improve the models that predict future climate change, because it is the oceans that play a fundamental role in the movement of heat around the planet.
And if we want to understand precisely how the sea level will rise in different parts of the world, it is essential to have good maps of the ocean floor.
From the Pressure Drop
The BBC got in touch over the weekend with the Pressure Drop , the support ship of the submarine currently sailing west of Australia, in the Indian Ocean.
Team member and co-author of the new paper, Professor Alan Jamieson, who was on board, recounted that the research ship was making new discoveries every time it sent its instruments deep.
“For example, there are some important animal groups in the world that we just don’t know how deep they go for. Last month, we logged a jellyfish up to 10, 000 m deep, ”he recalled.
“ Three weeks ago, we saw a squid at 6, 500 m. A squid at that depth! ”, He adds.
“These are not unknown animals; it’s not like they’re a rare species. These are large groups of animals that clearly occupy much larger parts of the world than we thought, ”Jamieson considered.
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