Discoveries of the Deep Sea

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Sam

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Sam.

Neil

And I’m Neil. The 20th of July 1969 was a big day in history. Do you know why,

Sam?

Sam

Wasn’t that when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon?

Neil

Right. But it’s often forgotten that some of the most dramatic photographs taken

on the Apollo space mission weren’t of the moon at all – they were of Earth. It

wasn’t until we went to the moon that we really saw the size of Earth’s oceans and

named ourselves, the Blue Planet.

Sam

Despite most of our planet being covered by water, the ocean remains of place of

unexplored mystery, of sea monsters like Moby Dick, and the Kraken. In this

programme, we’ll be diving into the deep seas, seeing some of its strange sights,

and as usual, learning some related vocabulary too.

Neil

But before that I have a question for you, Sam. You were right when you said that

most of the Earth is covered by water. But do you know exactly how much of the

Earth’s surface is ocean? Is it:

a) 50 percent?

b) 60 percent? or,

c) 70 percent?

Sam

Well, it is called the Blue Planet, so I’ll say c) 70 percent.

Neil

OK. I’ll reveal the answer later in the programme. The first thing to say about the

deep ocean is that the rules of life down there are very different from the rules on

land. Sunlight cannot reach the very bottom of the ocean, a place between two

and three kilometres down known as the ‘deep abyss’, so it totally dark and

extremely cold. And the weight of water creates massive amounts of pressure.

Sam

This extreme environment is stranger than fiction, and home to things which seem

to be from another planet; things like hydrothermal vents - volcanic hot springs

which break through the ocean floor. Oceanographer, Alex Rogers, joined an

expedition which discovered a hydrothermal vent in the ocean near Antarctica. He

told his story to BBC World Service programme, Discovery:

Alex Rogers

Well, the first problem is actually finding them because they cover a very small

area so it’s literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you do come

across them, I mean, the deep ocean is food limited, so life is quite thin on the

ground, and then suddenly your camera just stumbles into this area where there

is just abundant life all over the sea floor and around these vents.

Neil

Alex says that finding these small thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean is like

finding a needle in a haystack, an idiom meaning almost impossible to find

because the area you have to search is so large.

Sam

Because there’s no sunlight on the ocean floor, it’s hard for plants and creatures

to survive, so forms of life are thin on the ground – there are only a few of them.

Alex cannot find anything to film with his camera, until suddenly he nears the vent

and sees plants and animals everywhere. Here, there is more than enough, or

abundant life.

Neil

To picture a hydrothermal vent, imagine an underwater volcano. Billowing clouds

of what looks like smoke heat the seawater to a temperature of 386 degrees C.

This creates a warm environment of all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures,

including vent mussels, tube worms and blind ‘yeti crabs’, so called because of

their hairy claws, some of which get cooked because the water is so hot.

Sam

What’s amazing is that while these vents may be as old as Earth itself, they were

only discovered in the 1970s. So, are there more mysteries hiding in the deep

ocean? That’s the question BBC World Service’s, Discovery, asked marine

biologist, Kerry Howell. Here’s what she said.

Kerry Howell

I have absolutely no doubt that there is plenty more to discover down there. It’s

really vast, I mean it’s quite hard to get your head around how vast the deep sea

is, and it is most of our planet. So… and we’ve barely scratched the surface of

exploration of this unique environment, and if you think that vents were only

discovered in the 70s, you know, there’s great potential for a lot else to come, I

think. We’ve only been exploring this environment for the last 150 years, I mean.

Before that we didn’t think there was any life down there at all. So, it’s a very young

science is Deep Sea biology. And so, there’s … yeah, there’s a lot more to discover.

I have no doubt.

Neil

In terms of ocean exploration Kerry thinks we’ve only scratched the surface –

found out a little bit about something, but not enough to fully understand it.

Sam

That’s because the ocean is vast – extremely big. So vast, in fact, that it’s hard to

get your head around it, or difficult to really understand.

Neil

But how vast, exactly, Sam? In my question I asked how much of the Earth’s

surface is covered by water.

Sam

And I said it was c) 70 percent.

Neil

Which was the correct answer! Well, 71 percent to be precise, but either way it’s

hard to get your head around or difficult to fully understand.

Sam

OK, we’d better recap the other vocabulary too, starting with the idiom, finding a

needle in a haystack meaning that something is almost impossible to find because

you have to search so widely for it.

Neil

If something is thin on the ground, there’s very little of it, but if it’s abundant,

there’s plenty or more than enough.

Sam

When you only scratch the surface, you find out a little about something, but not

enough to fully understand it.

Neil

And finally, vast is another way of saying extremely large, huge or enormous.

Sam

Unlike the vast oceans, our time is limited to just six minutes and it’s up. So, join

us again soon for more amazing adventures and, of course, useful vocabulary,

here at 6 Minute English. Goodbye for now!

Neil

Goodbye!

VOCABULARY

like finding a needle in a haystack

something that is impossible or very difficult to find because the area you have

to search is so large

thin on the ground

there are very few of something

abundant

there is more than enough of something

scratch the surface

find out (or do) a small amount about something, but not enough to fully

understand (or deal with) it

vast

extremely large; huge

hard to get your head around

difficult to fully understand or comprehend

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