Live stream from 2000m depth - now -

[Alex K]

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/me...tream.html

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Fucking awesome beyond words. Megathanks for the link, Alex.

Boru

[brewer]

Looks pretty damn desolate. Have they said how old they think that section of floor is?

[The Grand Nudger]

"I don't know this sponge".  Made me smile. Looked like a bunch of molars clustered together. Gnarly.

[Alex K]

Looks pretty damn desolate. Have they said how old they think that section of floor is?

I had audio problems, but we can google the name of the place. About it being desolate, they said in their inimitable style "we observe a low productivity"

[Jackalope]

Looks pretty damn desolate. Have they said how old they think that section of floor is?

I couldn't play the audio, was at work, so I didn't hear any of the commentary.

I'm not surprised it's desolate. The portion that I watched, I was actually surprised there was as much life as there was. Certainly not as much I've seen diving at <40m, but there's a lot of similarity in life forms. There was at one point something that closely resembled a brittle star, and I'd guess that they may be separately evolved from shallow water brittle stars.

I have to wonder where they get energy. Not from the sun, there weren't any thermal vents in the segment I watched, and for many species, food is what happens to sink from above or get filtered out of slowly moving water.

The water at that depth has to be frigid. It's a wonder how anything can survive in those conditions - though I freely admit that is probably a failure of my imagination.

Fascinating stuff.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It's a wonder how anything can survive in those conditions

Sort of radishes the fine-tuning argument, dunnit?  At 2000m, water pressure is about 400 000 pounds per square foot (and no, I didn't do all those tedious calculations and conversions, I looked it up).  Considering that this roughly 4000 times the pressure we experience walking along the beach, even the toughest of God's 'special creations' at the depth would be crushed to a vaguely jelly-like substance.

Boru

[Jackalope]

It's a wonder how anything can survive in those conditions

Sort of radishes the fine-tuning argument, dunnit?  At 2000m, water pressure is about 400 000 pounds per square foot (and no, I didn't do all those tedious calculations and conversions, I looked it up).  Considering that this roughly 4000 times the pressure we experience walking along the beach, even the toughest of God's 'special creations' at the depth would be crushed to a vaguely jelly-like substance.

Boru

Only those with air spaces that can't equalize. . You'd use a metric asston of breathing gas - if the oxygen toxicity didn't kill you long before that.

I think there's something wrong with your second figure - 2000 meters is approximately 200 atmospheres pressure (the increase is 1 atmosphere per ten meters). Yes, it over 400,000/lb/ft2 which is ~3000psi (14.7 psi at 1/atm * 200). I think you mixed units there.

[Alex K]

Yes, CD. It's one atmosphere every 10 meters. Once again, users of the metric system have it so much easier. We get taught that relation elementary school

[Jackalope]

Yes, CD. It's one atmosphere every 10 meters. Once again, users of the metric system have it so much easier. We get taught that relation elementary school

Yeah, I learned it in dive school, though we use imperial units. 33ft/atm. Metric is obviously easier, though I still haven't become accustomed to using metric for pressure.