Arctic Ocean Survey May Reveal Lost World

core plexus writes " A new survey of the depths of the ice-capped Arctic Ocean as reported at Reuters, BBC, and others, could reveal a lost world of living fossils and exotic new species from jellyfish to giant squid, scientists said on Thursday. They speculated that Arctic waters might hide creatures known only from fossils, such as trilobites that flourished 300 million years ago. The international scheme will include probing a 12,470-foot abyss off Canada described by project leaders as the "world's oldest sea water -- a vast, still pool unstirred for millennia, walled by steep ridges and lidded with ice." Bring on the "Jurassic Park" references."

Comments

The horrors of the deep

[Anonymous Coward]

They expect only jellyfish and squids?! Have we learned nothing? What if we awaken some age-old form of life that has been lying dormant in the Earth's seabeds for thousands of years, just waiting fot the perfect opportunity to leap out and assimilate us all?

Well... dunno about you, but I, for one, pre-emptively welcome our new dark-and-gooey overlords!

Re:The horrors of the deep

[Maniakes]

Stolen from http://www.urbin.net/EWW/sigs/sf-sigs.html

To the song, "In the Jungle"
In R'Lyeh, the sunken city, Cthulhu sleeps to-night.
From R'Lyeh, the sunken city, Cthulhu will rise tonight.

Hup! Hup! Hup!

A weema whep A weema whep A weema whep A weema whep A weema whep A weema whep
A weema whep A weema whep A weema whem A weema whep A weema whep A weema whep

Start screeming child, scream my child. Cthulhu rises to-night!
Screem my child, start screeming child. Cthulhu rises to-night!

AAAAGGGGGGAAGGAGAGGAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH weema whup a-a
AGGGGAGAGGAGAGAGHHHHHHAAAAAGGGGGGGGG weema whup a-a

Sound Familiar?

[s0rbix]

Just as long as Ed Harris isn't leading the expedition...

The Mirror Ocean from "Megalodon"

[Mad Man]

Bring on the "Jurassic Park" references."

More like this year's straight-to-video shark movie Megalodon :

Oil...the quest for it is unrelenting. The search for new reserves of the 'black gold' never-ends and leading the search is Nexecon Petroleum and its flagship-the largest drilling and refining platform ever constructed-'Colossus" located in the freezing North Atlantic waters off the coast of Greenland.

'Colossus' will drill deeper than any rig ever has, a fact that gratifies Nexecon CEO, Peter Brazier, but that has geologists the world over up in arms, concerned that delicate ocean floor fault lines could be disturbed with catastrophic effects. Skeptical news reporter Christen Giddings and her cameraman Jake Thompson are invited by Braziera to document the safety of 'Colossus.'

The powerful drill tears through the seabed, striking a rich oil deposit. As the drill penetrates further, it ruptures a fissure that reveals a second 'mirror' ocean that has existed beneath ours for millions of years. An ocean teeming with prehistoric life. As the choking oil posions the water, the frenzied creatures swarm for the surface.

Colossus buckles under the onslaught. Brazier, Christen, and a team of engineers descend in Colossus' glass elevator to assess the damage and come face to face with the most powerful oceanic predator that ever lived. Carcharodon Megalodon. The giant ancestor of the Great White Shark. This eleven-ton 'killing machine' quickly stakes its territory in the waters surrounding Colossus with disasterous and horrific consequences, destroying and devouring anything in its path.

Now fate will pull them together as they wager their changes of survival against the most fearsome creature that ever dominated the ocean, and pit the technology and machinery of man against beast. Megalodon...sixty feet of prehistoric terror.

Re:The Mirror Ocean from "Megalodon"

[vranash]

The PhD's, or the babies? ;p

-- vranash

"Its a Unix system..

[Cyno01]

I know this!" Oh, other Jurassic Park references?

(and before anyone replies, i know that the 3d file manager for irix actually does exist...)

Re:"Its a Unix system..

[Anonymous Coward]

"Oh, sure -- it's all 'ooh' and 'ah' now. Then comes the running and the screaming."

muay glaven.

Jurrassic Park?

[ellem]

How about Mountains Of Madness? Cthulhu awaits!

See?

This May Hurt A Bit

[SEWilco]

Remove the icy lid with a nuclear bomb.
Sometimes the world needs Godzilla.

Re:ah the ocean

[Anonymous Coward]

Accordingly we've explored far less of it than space.

I think there is a lot more space than there is ocean. we've explored nearly 0% of space, significantly lower than the percentage of ocean explored.

Practicle joke

[wazzzup]

I wish I could play a good practical joke on these guys a la the Dino the Dinosaur placed in front of a webcam at some New Zealand volcano.

Perhaps a printout from Outlook conspicously placed on the ocean floor that reads "J3llyF1sh, Squ1d - 1ncr3ase your t3ntacle s1ze by at l3ast one f0ot."

forget jurassic park

[bigattichouse]

I think Cthulhu references are more appropriate.

Re:ah the ocean

[ptomblin]

Futurama quote:

"We're taking over 150 atmospheres of pressure!"

"How many atmospheres can this ship take?"

"Well, it's a spaceship, so I'd say anywhere between 0 and 1."

Re:pandora's box?

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Yes, any neanderthals holding their breath down there are screwed.

Re:Living fossils

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to mention Cher

hmm

[Raagshinnah]

"a vast, still pool unstirred for millennia, walled by steep ridges and lidded with ice."

You mean quebec?

Familier?

[Bandman]

I think I saw an X Files about this...

it didn't end well.

On the other hand, I'd like a miniature pet trilobyte...

Re:Polar bears cannot walk on water...

[FFFish]

...Christ!

Beer companies will be all over this

[bugmenot]

Imagine using this thousand of years old water to make the perfect brew. Take that stuff made with Rocky mountains water elsewhere Coors, we've got pre-historic water in our frosty beverages!

Re:ah the ocean

[Anonymous Coward]

we know more about the moon's behind than we do the ocean's bottom.

Alert Dr. Jackson!!

[Maverick2219]

Maybe THAT is where Atlantis is!

Re:ah the ocean

[Darby]

as an ocean engineer I feel compelled to point out that exploring the depths of the ocean is an assload harder than exploring space.

Yeah, but do you run into problems converting between imperial assloads and metric assloads?

Re:30 million year old germ

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather have a calculator that stays unpackaged and turned on so I can, you know, use it.

Re:ah the ocean

[Anonymous Coward]

In yet another different approach I defined a measure in our space with a unique singularity located in my bathroom, normalized so that measure of my toilet is equal to the measure of the rest of the Universe. According to this approach, we need trillions of dollars to adequately research just the draining system. My ass barely scratched this infinite volume of unknown.

Reminds me of the old George Carlin rant...

[Anonymous Coward]

"'Save the planet! Save the planet!' Bullshit!

The planet is fine.

The people are fucked!"

Of course, everyone knows that...

[KC7GR]

Trilobytes were the equivalent of our modern bytes in the Atlantean Computer Network. Each trilobyte represented three bits, based on an ancient logic system of 'Yes,' 'No,' and 'Maybe.'

Hey, we had to get the idea of 'fuzzy logic' from somewhere! ;-)

Re:ah the ocean

[Scrameustache]

space shutles could make a trip to Mars.
The ocean is diferent. I can go down to 15 feet with no equptment at all. Just a pair of shorts.

Pffft! I can do it whithout shorts! ;-)

Re:There is nothing down there

[Hognoxious]

Without oxygen or light no living creatures could survive.

Clearly you think that anaerobic means someone who doesn't like exercise.