What are Deep Oceans?Any Place away from the coasts & beyond the

continental shelves, where the seafloor drops to extreme depths.

Why Study/Explore Deep Oceans?Some humans are preparing to mine the

thick crusts created by geothermal vents for Gold, Silver, and Copper

The water is used for recreation, such as scuba diving, and warfare using submarines

What Makes this Environment Extreme?Almost no light penetratesNearly freezing temperaturesUnder more than 10,000 feet of water life

still exists

Natural InhabitantsAnimals feed off of debris that drifts down

from animals in the upper layers of the ocean, or they eat each other.

Many live around hydrothermal vents (“Black Smokers”), feeding off of the bacteria that live and feed in the mineral-rich water coming out of the vent

No light penetrates this far down into the ocean, and many animals have huge eyes to see.

Deep Ocean FirstsIn the 1930’s, William Beebe and Otis Barton

designed a Bathysphere and used it to dive 3028 ft/922 m underwater

In 1620, a Danish doctor, Cornelius Van Drebbel designed and built the first workable submarine that could travel to depths close to 15 feet

The Challenger Expedition covered 127,653 km, and provided the first real view of major seafloor features

Underwater RecordsAccomplished free-divers, such as Umberto

Pelizzari, can stay underwater for 5 minutes, and go underwater as far as 200 ft

The deepest a free-diver has gone is 417 ftThe deepest a SCUBA-diver has gone is

475 ft, or 145 m

Affects on HumansThe most highly affected human body systems

are:-RESPIRATORY-CIRCULATORY-NERVOUS

Effects on the Respiratory SystemHuman lungs are adapted for gases at 1

Atmospheric Pressure, which is the pressure of the air on land

The lungs are not capable of breathing water, in part because of the difference in pressure, and mostly because water contains very little dissolved Oxygen, which is required for the human body to function

Without special equipment, humans will die underwater from lack of oxygen

Effects on the Circulatory SystemThe “Bends” is a term used to describe what

happens to SCUBA divers if they ascend to the surface too quickly

When divers inhale the compressed air, the nitrogen in it dissolves into the blood

If divers ascend too quickly, the nitrogen forms bubbles within the blood, and if the bubbles are large enough they can get stuck in the body’s capillaries and block blood flow

Effects on the Nervous SystemNitrogen is one of the main parts of

compressed air found in air tanks used for diving, and becomes an anesthetic at 100+ ft below the surface of the water

Inhaling too much can cause effects similar to being drunk, which is called Nitrogen Narcosis

Oxygen is also toxic at high pressure, and can affect the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), causing seizures underwater

Special Clothes/EquipmentWater takes heat away from the body 25%

more than air doesA “Wet Suit” traps a thin layer of water

against skin, to keep the skin insulatedA “Dry Suit” traps a layer of air against the

skin to keep the skin insulatedIn order to breathe underwater, either an air

tank containing compressed air is needed, or a submersible that can maintain an internal pressure of 1 atmosphere

Deep Sea Submersibles“Jim Suit”: a 1 man, 1 atmosphere, armored suit

which can work for hours at 2000 feet or more underwater

Alvin was the first deep sea submersible, and was a 3 person, self-propelling submarine, which was nearly 8 meters long

The Shinkai 6500 was a Japanese Research submarine built in 1989 that could travel to depths up to 6,400 m

In 1960, Jacques Piccard and Navy Lieutenant Donald Walsh went down to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, the Challenger Deep (Marianas Trench), which is 36,201 ft, or 11,033 m deep. They used a submersible named Trieste