Once upon a time there lived Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Writer. And he once wrote, in 1928, the story “The Call of Cthulhu,” which became legendary. About terrible monster, who lives at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean among the ruins of a sunken city called R'lyeh. And what’s characteristic is that it’s not just somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The author indicates specific coordinates: “47 degrees 9 minutes south latitude and 126 degrees 43 minutes west longitude.”
Now fast forward to 1992. Then the Croatian engineer and researcher Hrvoje Lukatela decided to determine the most remote and inaccessible point on the globe. It turned out to be 48 degrees 52 minutes south latitude and 123 degrees 23 minutes west longitude. Quite close to Cthulhu's lair. However, the engineer turned out to be a fan of another writer - Jules Verne - and decided to name this place in honor of Captain Nemo, since this is where the unsociable captain of the Nautilus would prefer to live.
But Lovecraft still made his presence known in 1997. Scientists heard a strange sound from under the water near Point Nemo: Bloop. They probably felt uneasy. Then, of course, they said that somewhere a huge ice floe broke off and collapsed.
Whether there is an octopus sitting there, a lost city or a giant submarine resting there is unknown. But we can absolutely say that there is a whole city of space ruins there: this place has long been noted as the safest for sinking spent satellites, ships, and so on. For example, there are the remains of the Soviet Mir station. Six Salyut stations. SpaceX rocket. Five space trucks, including the Jules Verne ship.
Just about Cthulhu: in the early 1950s, the crew of a Northern Fleet submarine detected strange sounds in the Norwegian Sea. The commander even suggested that the submarine was surrounded by some creatures.
They actively maneuver around vertically and horizontally, their sounds are unknown to us, and we cannot classify them...
From the story of the submarine commander
The Cold War was going on, so the Soviet military decided that the enemy had deployed a direction-finding system for ships. The USSR Navy launched a program to counter this system and called it "Quaker" because the sounds were croaking. We've been racking our brains for thirty years, but we still haven't figured out what these sounds are. The program was simply closed. Meanwhile, the Americans themselves listened in puzzlement. Already in the Pacific Ocean. Oceanographer Christopher Fox even classified croaking: he called a more melodic variation Julia, tapping - a train, a sudden sharp sound - a whistle. According to the main version, everyone was frightened by minke whales, relatives of humpback whales. However, the controversy continues.
Also a cemetery, but not spaceships, and sea: cruisers, destroyers, tankers. And also planes and tanks. And thousands of sailors and soldiers. There was a Japanese military base there during World War II. In 1944, the Americans destroyed it during Operation Hilston. So everything has been lying there ever since, covered with corals. Curious divers often swim there, but local residents categorically advise them not to do this: every year, scuba divers disappear, so much so that their bodies are not always found.
Photo © Google Maps
">Photo © Google Maps
Sandy Island">
Sandy Island
">Location: Pacific Ocean, between Australia and New Caledonia
contentIn this case, it is, of course, quite difficult to talk about the location, because the islands seem to be... no. That is, the famous navigator James Cook put it on the map in the 18th century, it is mentioned in documents from 1908, and even on Google maps it was until 2012, but the expedition members recent years he was not found. Moreover, in the designated place the ocean depth was at least 1300 meters.
There are no dolphins or whales there. At least no one saw it. And somewhere there must be at least four ships and three fighters. Unless, of course, they fell into some other dimension and so on. The story is very “Bermudian”: first, in 1953, three ships disappear without a trace at once, without even having time to transmit an SOS signal. Then the research expedition "Kale-maru-5" is sent to the same place, and it suffers the same fate. And in 1979, three American supersonic military aircraft disappeared. The legend says that at first two disappeared somewhere, and when the third flew to look for it, the pilot reported a certain spherical red glow, then screamed - and that’s all. In general, a logical explanation is quite possible: the place is volcanically active, and eruptions create powerful typhoons. In addition, gases rise from the bottom. According to scientists, they create strange flashes of light.
Since we are walking around and around Bermuda, let's carefully sail away from them to the sea, which has no shores, because it “ends” far from any land. The fact is that this sea rotates like a funnel. It is warmer here than in the rest of the ocean, and the water surface is slightly higher general level seas. Here, brown algae - sargassum - and all sorts of garbage float in a circle, because once it gets here, it doesn’t float anywhere, it just spins endlessly. Australian scientist Richard Sylvester said that the air above it is also spinning, the whirlpool creates small cyclones into which a plane can easily be sucked. But that's one thing. But to suck in an entire crew and not touch the ship is something else. This is exactly what happened in this sea with the French merchant ship Rosalie in 1840. It was found empty. The sails are raised, but there is no one on board. And there were several more such cases.
Although lakes, from a geographical point of view, are not part of the World Ocean, let’s add about them, after all, they are also water, and interesting things also happen. It was either 1937 or 1938. The ship was sailing on the lake. Captain George Donner stood watch on the bridge at the helm for several hours. Then he went to rest in the cabin and asked to wake him up in three hours. The assistant came when ordered. I knocked. There was no answer. The door was locked. I had to break it. The cabin is empty! The ship was searched, but the captain was nowhere to be found. Since then, nothing has been known about him. And in 1950, a Douglas DC-4 passenger plane took off from New York to Seattle and disappeared over the lake. There were 58 people on board. Neither they nor the wreckage were ever found. In both cases, everything happened precisely on that part of the lake that was considered bad: it is believed that it is located between the cities of Ludington, Benton Harbor in Michigan and Manitowoc in Wisconsin. So there too - no, no.
While many people look into space in awe, they forget that incredible prospects of unexplored wonders may lie much closer - in Earth's oceans.
As technology improves, the ocean continues to reveal more and more secrets.
1. Large amorphous creature
Recently, a video was posted online that showed a giant amorphous blob-shaped creature floating near a deep-sea drilling rig. The creature pulsated near the underwater cameras for long enough to attract attention. A creature of incredibly huge size, glowing from within, constantly fluctuated and changed its shape.
Some have suggested that it was a completely unknown creature from the depths of the ocean. Others felt that this could be evidence of some kind of alien presence at depths where humans could not reach. Most researchers stated that this giant jellyfish, which was disturbed by the drilling rig.
2. Crystal pyramid in the depths of the ocean
There are many stories about strange crystal pyramids that were found deep in the ocean, supposedly near the Bermuda Triangle. Those who insist on the existence of such artifacts claim that most scientists know about them, but deny everything for conspiratorial reasons.
However, the vast majority of researchers insist that these stories of crystal pyramids under the ocean are misleading. Similar stories allegedly began to appear after swindlers announced that they had found a broken piece of crystal near the top of one of these pyramids, which supposedly had magical properties.
3. The secret of immortality
"Benjamin Button Jellyfish" has an incredibly unique feature. If they encounter serious injury or simply reach an advanced age, then these jellyfish can reverse the aging process and turn back into a polyp, starting life cycle again. This allows them to heal from their injuries and live essentially forever, which currently poses a major threat to the world's oceans.
Button's jellyfish begin to colonize parts of the oceans, breaking the entire balance marine flora and fauna. Although many scientists doubt that people today can find a reason for the true immortality of jellyfish, others argue that in the future such a thing will be possible for people. At a minimum, this could be a cure for cancer.
4. Atlantis - reality or fiction
Many theories about the lost city of Atlantis are completely wild and fantastic. Some say that Atlantis is located in the Bermuda Triangle, although legends never mention its presence in that area. Others believe that the domed cities of Atlantis still survive deep underwater.
A historian named Bettany Hughes studied ancient myth about Atlantis and realized that Plato, probably under the guise of Atlantis, allegorically described the island of Santorini, located not far from ancient Greece. The people who lived in Fera, a city on this island, were very skilled merchants and traders who benefited from the strategic position between three continents. This allowed them to become very rich and lead Ferais to prosperity.
Unfortunately, the island's residents had no idea that they were actually living right on top of a volcano. In 1620 BC. the volcano literally exploded into an eruption, and the explosion was so huge that it affected almost the entire world. Plato has almost certainly heard of it. The remains of Thera are perfectly preserved, like the famous city of Pompeii, which was also destroyed by a volcanic eruption.
5. Intelligent life could be much closer
The scientific explanation for the mermaid legend implies that sailors were often at sea for long periods of time without women and often drinking, so it is not surprising that they experienced visual hallucinations, mistaking manatees for mermaids. However, the ocean is very great place and largely unexplored. Nobody knows what's going on in the depths. People are always looking for intelligent, human-like life, but it can look and act completely different.
6. The main enemy is pressure
Many people are surprised by the incredible amount of money spent on space exploration when the ocean is right next door and is still largely unexplored. They compare the colossal costs of spaceships and space stations, believing that the cost of studying the ocean could be tens of times less.
In fact, in many ways, the problem of ocean exploration is much larger. After all, at a depth of just a couple of kilometers, the pressure becomes simply unimaginable, which is why a completely minuscule amount of the deep-sea part of the ocean has been explored so far. If radically new technologies do not appear, then people will not soon find out what is hidden in the oceans of the Earth.
7. The largest earthly creature
Many people have thought about what sea monsters could be hiding at depths where people cannot reach. Previously considered myths have already been found giant squid, which can truly reach incredible sizes. In fact, even many normal fish can grow to nightmarishly enormous sizes under certain conditions in the deep parts of the ocean.
It is not surprising that people have long been wondering what the biggest and most terrible thing can live in the depths. Even if we remember the times of dinosaurs, the largest creature did not exceed the size of modern blue whale. However, much of the ocean remains unexplored, especially in the deeper areas, so no one knows what monstrously huge creatures lurk almost next to people.
8. The ocean is 95 percent unexplored
Some may have heard that the ocean is “95 percent unexplored.” Marine biologists believe this is a gross oversimplification. Scientists today, using satellites, radar and mathematical calculations, have created a map of the ocean floor with a maximum resolution of 5 kilometers. Although these are still very rough sketches, marine biologists have a pretty good idea of where trenches and ridges are in the ocean.
Nevertheless, marine biologist John Copley, even while pointing out the meme's fallacy, also admitted to Scientific American that humans have actually explored far less than 5 percent of the ocean.
9. Methane hydrate - a new source of energy
Methane hydrate is a strange crystalline structure made of water and methane frozen together. Ever since the discovery of gas hydrate deposits several decades ago, governments have begun to seriously explore hydrates as a form of alternative energy.
Methane hydrates are certainly very useful in case of shortages of other natural gases, but there are certain problems. First, as with any undersea exploration, commercial production will be very expensive. And secondly, environmentalists fear that underwater drilling could lead to real disasters.
10. The answer to the "Bloop" sound
Back in 1997, people were confused by sound recorded underwater near South America. It was loud enough to be clearly picked up by two different stations several kilometers apart, and many people thought it was the sound of a colossal deep sea creature.
Some people even suggested that this is the notorious Cthulhu, whose mythical place of imprisonment (the underwater city of R'Lieh) is supposedly located a couple of thousand kilometers from the stations that picked up the sound. Eventually, scientists came to the conclusion that the sounds were simply the crackling sounds of ice shelves breaking apart underwater.
Not many people think about the fact that 70% of the Earth’s surface is “ White spot" We are talking about the World Ocean, which unites the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic oceans. And it is no less mysterious than space. The great unknown is what scientists call him. On June 8 we will celebrate World Oceans Day. But what do we know about them?
Large diamonds are mined in the waters of the Atlantic, and in the Pacific Ocean there is a whole graveyard of ships from outer space
The ancient Greeks called titanium the ocean, the son of Gaia and Uranus (Earth and Sky). From ancient Greek literature it follows that the Ocean had enormous power over the entire global flow, which washed the entire existing territory. He gave rise to all rivers and currents. The sensible Romans already called all the waters (which were known to them) oceans. Now this is the Atlantic.
What is the World Ocean
This concept was revealed by the Russian geographer and scientist Yu. M. Shokalsky. He said that the ocean is a real continuous shell for the earth that surrounds all existing continents. The ocean now covers about 70% of the planet's total area. It is divided into 4 or 5 oceans.
Kingdom of Darkness
Literally right next to humanity, a huge unknown world exists and thrives, hidden in absolute darkness, since sunlight penetrates under water only to a depth of 75 meters. And the oceanic bed - the surface on which real plateaus, canyons and other landscape components are located - is located at a depth of 3.5 to 6 kilometers. Tallest seamount known in the world this moment, - Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Its height is 10,203 meters. For comparison: Chomolungma (Everest) - 8848 meters. There are also abysses, the depth of which is scary to even imagine. For example, the Challenger Deep is the deepest point Mariana Trench- about 11 kilometers of unknown.
They say that today the world's oceans are only 2-5% explored. Therefore, it is not surprising that we cannot find Atlantis. It's almost like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, hope dies last. By the way, at the moment more than 500 flooded places with the remains of buildings have already been discovered. Many of them are from 3 to 10 thousand years old.
Waterfalls underwater
Many processes occurring in the depths of the ocean and on its surface also challenge scientists. For example, rivers flow at the bottom that are not made of water at all. This phenomenon is called “cold seepage”: in certain areas of the ocean floor, hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbons seem to flow out through cracks and mix with sea water and then move slowly.
Believe it or not, there are waterfalls underwater: seven are currently known. The highest - more than 4 thousand meters - is located at the bottom of the Denmark Strait. From a physics point of view, underwater waterfalls (almost a tautology) operate according to a different pattern than their “land” counterparts. The reason is the uneven distribution of temperature and salinity in different parts of the ocean, as well as the complex bottom topography. In the presence of underwater slopes, dense water tends to the bottom to replace less dense water.
It is estimated that the ocean contains tens of millions of tons of pure gold in dissolved form. However, the cost of chemical methods for its extraction significantly exceeds the cost of gold itself.
Swimming moles
Sometimes “milky seas” may appear in the ocean - vast areas of luminous water. The reasons for their occurrence are not exactly known to scientists. According to one version, the luminescent bacteria Vibrio harveyi are to blame.
In general, the biological diversity of the underwater world can seriously blow your mind. At enormous depths live blind people who have never seen the light, strange fish and other creatures that practically do not move so as not to waste precious energy. However, they feel great.
And one day, scientists discovered shrimp in a thermal crater at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. And everything would have been fine if in this very place it had not been, to put it mildly, a little hot - 407 0C, which is higher than the melting point of lead. Our boiled crayfish would be the envy of them! After the scientific community recovered from the shock, hydrothermal vents were called “black smokers.” It turned out that living organisms thrive in this boiling water: bacteria, giant worms, various shellfish and even some types of crabs. And this despite the fact that on land most organisms die at temperatures above 40 degrees, and many bacteria do not survive at 70.
How many oceans are there in the world?
Initially, everyone believed that there were 4 oceans in the world. IN Lately modern scientists add a fifth ocean to the list - the Southern Ocean, which unites the southern parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.
In 2000, the International Hydrographic Society established that there are five oceans! But this document has not yet been ratified.
But still the largest is the Pacific Ocean, it is twice the size of the Atlantic. It occupies 165 million square meters. km, which is almost half the area of the entire World Ocean.
Arctic Ocean - The powerful heart of the Arctic
The Arctic Ocean ranks last in area. It is the deepest and the coldest. Its average water temperature is +1 degree. The ice of this ocean is present all year round.
It became known back in the distant 4th century BC. The first to reach him was Pytheas, a Greek traveler. In the 9th century, the navigator Ottar from Scandinavia reached the White Sea.
The ocean was without a name for a long time. It was only in 1650 that Bernhard Varenius (a Dutch scientist) called it Hyperborean, which meant “located in the extreme north.” In historical documents the name “Breathing Sea” was sometimes found.
On ancient Russian maps the following names are found:
- North Polar Sea;
- Sea Ocean Arctic;
- Northern Ocean;
- Arctic Ocean.
- There were many other similar names.
In 1828, Admiral F.P. Litke published a book about his four-time voyage to the Arctic Ocean. Although in his other works there were other names for the ocean. But nevertheless, the name that we all know today has been fixed in the Russian language.
Atlantic Ocean or Big Drink or “Big Drink”
You can often hear from Americans that Europe and America are separated by Big Drink. We call her Atlantic Ocean. The first name is found in the works of the ancient scientist Herodotus in the 5th century BC. The first mention of the ocean is Atlantis. In the 1st century, one scientist, Pliny the Elder, already used the modern name.
In depth and size, the Atlantic is not much inferior to the Pacific. Since ancient times there has been a passage along the Atlantic a large number of ships. Scientists believe that it was in the 10th century that the Vikings crossed the ocean.
There are many species of fish in the ocean. Gas and oil, diamonds, titanium, sulfur and iron are produced on the continental shelves.
This shark was caught off the northern coast of Cuba in 1945. According to the fishermen who caught it, the shark was 6.5 meters long and weighed more than three tons.
The Pacific Ocean is 1/2 of the world's oceans
Quiet - the largest and warmest among all the others ( average temperature about 19 degrees). The world record for depth belongs to him - the Mariana Trench.
The ocean was named in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, who crossed it from Tierra del Fuego to the Philippine Islands in 3 months. Throughout such a long journey there was calm. After him, several more scientists from different countries got here and gave their names. But the first title is the best.
Found in the Pacific Ocean
The most big jellyfish in the world - hairy cyanea, found 90 kilometers from the New Zealand city of Auckland. When the jellyfish was found, it still moved its tentacles for some time, and its body trembled.
It occupies almost half of the entire World Ocean. It is so large that there are a lot of completely deserted corners on it. Gradually, humanity is finding use for them too. For example, in the southern part there is a “graveyard” where there are many spaceships. In the southwestern part there is a whole part of the world - Oceania. It is often combined with Australia. And how many small islands and small states there are in Micronesia, Polynesia, Melanesia.
Let us remind you about our material: Postal stones of Madagascar by Dutch sailors of the 16th and 17th centuries.
American photographer shot like incredible sizes White shark looks at the divers huddled inside the cage. A six-meter white shark slowly rose from the depths and slowly circled around four researchers who went to study the predators. And in comparison with such a monster, the metal cage looks so pitiful that you involuntarily become afraid for the divers inside.
Navigable but not commercial Indian Ocean
The first to mention Indian Ocean Russian traveler and scientist Afanasy Nikitin in the 15th century. The name was introduced into science by Pliny the Elder.
Ocean shipping routes have been developed for a long time.
Even 3500 BC. e. The Egyptians actively traded with India. The first person to complete it was Marco Polo. He crossed it from the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Malacca, visiting Ceylon, Sumatra and India.
The flora and fauna here are truly diverse, as in all the tropics. Commercial significance not very large (5% of the world catch). Unfortunately, all the whales were almost exterminated. Shipping is booming with great strength: from Africa, Asia to Europe, the US imports coffee, tea, gold, rice, minerals and much more; in the opposite direction, chemicals and manufactured goods are transported.
A giant ocean has been discovered underground, three times larger than all the oceans on earth.
Researchers have found a huge reservoir of water under the Earth's mantle, at a depth of about 600 km. Its size is so huge that this water can fill three times all the oceans on Earth that we know.
This amazing discovery suggests that water reaches the surface from the planet's interior as part of a complex water cycle, displacing the dominant theory that water was brought to Earth by icy comets a million years ago.
Essentially, hundreds of kilometers underground, vast volumes of water exist, which is fundamental to understanding the geological dynamics of the planet.
Photos from open sources
The secrets that the ocean keeps in its depths are unlikely to ever be fully unraveled by us. Throughout its history, humanity has been able to explore only 5 percent depths of the sea, and therefore it is not surprising that at the bottom of gloomy depressions and in the chasms of dark caves, previously unseen amazing creatures hide and sunken ancient cities sleep in eternal sleep... (website)
The sea returns the drowned
Several years ago, residents of the Norman island of Guernsey experienced real horror: for three days in a row, the ocean washed up drowned people, and “fresh” ones at that. More than forty dead bodies were discovered, but the police are unable to explain where they came from, since there were no shipwrecks or storms in the area at that time. Further investigations carried out with the participation of Interpol yielded nothing, identification dead people by fingerprints - also.
Photos from open sources
Local residents have their own, mostly mystical, versions. Thus, independent researchers believe that the ocean most likely “collected” corpses from different layers of time or from parallel worlds. However, even in this case, it remains a mystery why the ocean did this and why it chose the island of Guernsey for its purpose...
Unidentified object at the bottom of the sea
A strange and very mysterious structure was once discovered at the bottom of the Baltic Sea by a team of Swedish divers. Later, the Ocean X Team even managed to film the object on video and take at least some measurements, but experienced specialists were still unable to establish what it was. The structure resembles either a sunken ship of an alien intelligence, or some kind of ancient altar, and any equipment next to it fails, even a flashlight goes out.
Photos from open sources
Analysis of samples of the material from which the object is made showed that it is of extraterrestrial origin. Swedish divers plan to return to their unique find and at the same time are perplexed: why is it not of interest to anyone except them? Moreover, orthodox scientists claim that this is just a rock formation from the pre-glacial period, without even bothering to go underwater and examine this “formation”...
Lost underwater city
Off the coast of India, archaeologists recently discovered the remains of ancient city. Well, what’s surprising about that, you ask. And the fact that experts estimate the age of those city buildings at 9,500 - 10,000 years, which means that our civilization is much older than is commonly believed.
Photos from open sources
Can you imagine how many interesting things such underwater ruins can tell people?! But the only problem is that on land we ignore and even destroy everything that does not fit into generally accepted history. Why do we need more underwater artifacts and even entire cities? Therefore, orthodox science is not only in no hurry to explore the remains of the ancient settlement, but also in every possible way prevents its study...
Photos from open sources
Voice of the Depths
In 1997 NOAA (National Oceanic Administration) hydrophones recorded a sound called Bloop. Sea explorers have never heard such a loud and unusual “voice of the depths”: it turns out that in nature (in their opinion) there are simply no marine animals capable of screaming so loudly and terribly. Or do they still exist? This question is of great concern to independent researchers, who fully admit that unknown to us animals, perhaps even intelligent ones, live in the ocean depths.
How do they manage to avoid being seen by people? Firstly, the World Ocean is huge: even in area it is several times larger than land, not to mention its depth, which makes this world truly immense. Secondly, as some researchers believe, the World Ocean is connected to the planet’s deep underground water “reservoirs,” which can be many times larger in volume. In this case, the water element can hide within itself any conceivable and inconceivable forms of life...
Photos from open sources
It is no coincidence that there is even an opinion that we have studied space much better than ocean depths. And although this statement is a clear exaggeration, it accurately conveys the main thing - water element For some reason we cannot study the land that is practically at our fingertips, despite all our efforts, from ancient times to the present day. Maybe someone is stopping people from doing this? For example, they don’t really want to make contact with us, much less reveal to us the secrets of the depths of the sea...
The oceans cover more than 70 percent of the surface of our planet, but we know even less about it than about space. Meanwhile, 80 percent of all life on Earth occurs in the underwater world.
The magic of numbers
Cindy Lee Van Dover, director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory, writes in her eloquent book New life at the bottom of the Ocean" wrote that back side The moon has been studied disproportionately better than the underwater expanses. People cannot even imagine what is hidden under the water. For example, the Mid-Ocean Ridge is more than 70 thousand kilometers long, and underwater volcanoes erupt so much lava every year that it would be enough to cover one-third of the territory of Russia with a meter thickness. But the real secret for most people, according to Cindy Lee Van Dover, is that half of all the oxygen in the world is produced by single-celled algae, phytoplankton.
Quadrillion dollars
More than twenty-seven million tons of gold, valued at a quadrillion dollars, are dissolved in the world's oceans. Humanity has produced only 170 thousand tons in its entire history. To be fair, seawater contains the noble metal in the form of gold iodide (AuI), and in microscopic proportions.
However, the American Henry Ball developed a technology for increasing the concentration of gold sediment using quicklime. An even more effective invention was made in Russia by an engineer with the sonorous surname of Russian. In other words, the day is not far off when ocean gold will be mined on an industrial scale.
Amazing creatures
Ocean animal world has been studied very poorly, but even what we know is amazing. For example, a male squid always greets the female with a warm brown color and scares away the male with white. His multitasking skills are especially surprising. mating games, when he meets both a “woman” and a “rival” at the same time. In this case, the squid will be colored fragmentarily so as not to change the ritual. And what are mantis shrimp worth, capable of delivering a blow with their forelimbs that is equal in power to the impact force of a 22-caliber bullet?
Godzilla: The Right to Exist
The average depth of the world's oceans is 3,720 meters, while sunlight penetrates into the depth sea water only 100 meters. This means that the vast majority of the underwater world lives in complete darkness. But all this is “trifle” compared, for example, to the pressure of 1,100 atmospheres that occurs in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench (10,994 meters below sea level). Scientists who descended into the Trieste bathyscaphe (1960) saw many creepy fish at its bottom. Other dives also brought sensations, including the discovery of giant teeth belonging to a prehistoric hundred-ton shark. One of the researchers on the Highfish bathyscaphe, who also dived into the Challenger Deep, once said that he would not be surprised if the giant Godzilla lizard was discovered.
10 million viruses
Scientists say the ocean environment is perfect place for the life of the smallest living organisms. Thus, in one milliliter of sea water in the deserted expanses of the Coral Sea, a special device discovered a million bacteria and ten million viruses, many of which are unknown to science. Perhaps it was they who synthesized the world's most effective natural sunscreen, ideally protecting against UVA/UVB rays. Leading chemists from various companies are trying to unravel its formula, but so far without success. Nature knows how to keep its secrets. However, manufacturers of chemical creams deliberately reduce the properties of coral ultraviolet protector.
Atlantis
The world's oceans keep many historical secrets, as evidenced by artifacts that are found in the most unexpected places of the underwater world. After each such discovery, disputes about Atlantis flare up with renewed vigor. And although science has not found confirmation of the treatises “Timaeus” and “Critias”, written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato about 2500 years ago, many scientists do not undertake to claim that Atlantis did not exist.
The fact is that humanity has only managed to survey 5% of the surface of the world's oceans. “We are still destined to find evidence of civilizations that could have disappeared into the abyss of the waters,” says Austrian oceanographer and underwater biologist Hans Hass. That is why the ocean is called the world's largest museum.
650 degrees Fahrenheit
Many unusual geographical features have been found in the ocean, such as pillars reaching several stories high or perfect pipes releasing sulfuric acid. For example, on the ocean floor in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico there are underwater volcanoes that emit methane rather than lava. There are also hot springs that shoot out bursts of steam that have a temperature of 650 degrees Fahrenheit. This is enough to melt lead, but amazing animals live there, in particular, three-meter annelids, appearance which resemble alien creatures from the novels of the most daring science fiction writers.