ENCASED in their small submersible vessel named Alvin, two researchers and their pilot slid into the Pacific Ocean off the shoreline of Ecuador. Their goal? A spot called the Galápagos Rift. Outfitted with searchlights, camera, and various logical instruments, the Alvin dove descending through 9,200 feet [2,800 m] of fluid space into a universe of interminable night at no other time seen by human eyes.
Have you at any point pondered what lies covered up in the mountains, gorge, and cracks underneath the dull profundities of the world's seas? Assuming this is the case, at that point you will appreciate finding out about the disclosures that started in 1977 with the Alvin's spearheading jump referenced previously. What the group saw may astonish you; even to profoundly prepared researchers, it resembled seeing life on another planet.
The goal of the Alvin's central goal was to discover aqueous springs—undersea fountains that shoot planes of warmed water into the sea. The Galápagos Rift was a promising site since it is a piece of a profoundly volcanic undersea break supported by a mind boggling, globe-surrounding chain of mountain ranges called the mid-sea edge framework. More than 40,000 miles [65,000 km] long, this monster framework weaves around the whole planet like the crease on a tennis ball. Were the seas stripped away, it would "effectively [be] the most overwhelming element on the substance of the planet, stretching out over a region more noteworthy than that secured by all major earthly mountain ranges joined," composes Jon Erickson in his book Marine Geology.
An especially critical component of the mid-sea edge framework is that it is basically a twin framework—two mountain ranges running parallel to one another and rising 10,000 feet [3,000 m] over the sea depths. Between the extents are the best abysses on earth—gullies up to 15 miles [20 km] wide and 4 miles [6 km] profound—multiple times further than the Grand Canyon of North America! At the foot of these gaps lie exceedingly volcanic break zones. At the point when researchers initially examined the Atlantic section of the edge framework, called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, their instruments uncovered such extraordinary volcanic movement "that it appeared as if the Earth's internal parts were turning out," says Erickson.
Following an hour and a half drop, the Alvin leveled off simply over the ocean bottom, and the men turned on the Alvin's searchlights. The researchers could be pardoned for feeling that they were on an alternate planet. Their lights uncovered various shining warm-water vents on the ocean bottom, where the water is ordinarily close solidifying. Near the vents, something considerably stranger showed up—whole networks of beforehand obscure living animals. After two years, analysts on board the Alvin found super heated vents called smokers on the East Pacific Rise off the shoreline of Mexico. Some of these vents shaped spooky fireplaces, some up to 30 feet [9 m] tall. A large number of similar creatures seen at the Galapagos Rift were found at this area. In the accompanying article, we will investigate these astonishing living things and the universe of amazing limits that is home to them.
The Navigation System of the Sea Turtle
Researchers describe the sea turtle’s migration from its feeding ground to its nesting beach as “one of the most remarkable acts in the animal kingdom.” For decades, this reptile has intrigued them.
Consider: Every two to four years, the female turtle comes ashore to lay her eggs—numbering about a hundred in a single nest—and conceal them in the sand. Once hatched, the baby turtles make their way to the ocean. They then embark on an amazing journey that, all told, may cover a distance of some 8,000 miles (12,900 km). Years later, the female turtles, now mature, return to lay their own eggs—at the same stretch of beach where they were hatched!
How do sea turtles navigate? “It seems they inherited some sort of magnetic map,” says biologist Kenneth Lohmann of the University of North Carolina in the United States, quoted in National Geographic News. Research indicates that the turtle may determine its position by detecting the angle and intensity of the earth’s magnetic field. This amazing ability enables these tiny, defenseless hatchlings to embark on their 8,000-mile (12,900-km) migration around the Atlantic, “and they do it alone without following other turtles,” says Lohmann.
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