Deepwater submersibles have dived several decades ago. However, we still only explored less than 0.001% of the sea bottom.
A study this Wednesday at Science Advances revealed that humans directly observed only a small fraction-less than 0.001%-from the global sea bottom, leaving the big majority of our unexplored planet.
The oceans constitute 71% of the total surface of the earth and about 93% of this area is deep marine background (over 200 meters deep).
Although much of this ocean region has been mapped using satellites and sonares installed on ships, Little or nothing was observed directly.
As it writes, the deep sea began only explored in the 1950s, when submersible vessels were developed capable of reaching the necessary depths.
In what was the first comprehensive analysis of deep waters, the New study analyzed 43,681 deep submersion activities records Since that time to evaluate how much deep sea bottom has been studied directly.
The conclusion was that 99.999% of the deep sea bottom has not yet been explored.
“This shows how little we know and how much there is yet to understand,” he told New Scientist to the investigation leader, Katherine Bellfrom the non -profit group Ocean Discovery League, from the US.
“There can be integer ecosystems that originate in darkness and feed on this hot water rich in minerals that emerges from the bottom of the sea,” he added.
The team also found that in almost 70 years of deep waters, Less than 20% occurred on the high seasalso known as international waters.
Instead, deep water observations in the waters of the US, Japan, and New Zealand represent 71% of all dives – which calls into question the actual knowledge of an entire ecosystem.
Bell says this is equivalent to whole continents that remain unexplored: “If we have only explored North America, Japan and New Zealand, how can we really know what is in Savanas of Africa or in Southeast Asian forests?” He asked.
In the sea is the same thing. “We need a much more representative and less biased view From the bottom of the deep sea, ”concluded the expert.
