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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."
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!
Just as long as Ed Harris isn't leading the expedition...
"... -- a vast, still pool unstirred for millennia..."
Until we taint it with our presence.
Upon seeing the box was too small, Schrodinger's Elephant breathed a sigh of relief.
as an ocean engineer I feel compelled to point out that exploring the depths of the ocean is an assload harder than exploring space. Accordingly we've explored far less of it than space. Technologies are advancing but most of them are directed towards making existing technologies more efficient. We really don't have any improvments for reaching really deep areas and are still using technology pioneered in the 70s.
More like this year's straight-to-video shark movie Megalodon
considering that that pool is completely sealed from the outside world would mean that anything in it isn't resistant to infections from the outside world or the other way around...
so couldent it be that once humans put a crack in that icy shield that protects the pool, that some human deseases, to which humans have already build a resistance, that these deseases infect the ancient inhabitants of that pool, creating a slaughter among them... or the other way around...
so... altho the stuff they'll find can prove valuble to science, I would aproach with caution if I was them...
All indicators show that the human race is selectively breeding itself for stupidity.
I know this!" Oh, other Jurassic Park references?
(and before anyone replies, i know that the 3d file manager for irix actually does exist...)
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
How about Mountains Of Madness? Cthulhu awaits!
See?
This
Canada Basin has already been checked out in a mission in 2002 which you can read about here. I guess this time round it's so they can have a jolly good look. I wonder if they'll find any aluminium cans or plastic bags at the bottom :)
:)
As one reader pointed out, exploring the deep ocean is harder than space. I guess that's why they felt compelled to put a flag at the bottom.
Remove the icy lid with a nuclear bomb.
Sometimes the world needs Godzilla.
If its anything like my fridge, they'll find new life alright! But seriously, I think its funny how many "living fossils" were discovered by accident. Examples: ratfish, coelacanth, wollemi pine, etc.
I've discovered a remarkable proof, but this margin is too small to contain it...
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."
I think Cthulhu references are more appropriate.
meh
The Abyss
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
As ice changes, so does the ecosystem. Polar bears cannot walk on water, for example.
There are also global consequence of Arctic change that worry climate scientists. For one thing, there is a nonlinear feedback loop since ice has a high albedo. Thus, ice reflects solar radiation back to space, which keeps the system cool. But water has a much lower albedo than ice. This yields a nonlinear feedback loop. Melting ice creates open water, which absorbs more heat, which melts more ice. There was a time when USSR scientists suggested we could open up a northwest passage through the Arctic simply by painting the ice black, setting this feedback loop into action. Of course, if the ice melts, navigation will be easier through the Arctic. Traffic may avoid Panama and go through a more direct route. Part of this traffic could be oil tankers, which can run aground, causing great damage to a system already damaged by the climate change.
You can check this for info about some bacteria that survive in vacuum and some bacteria that have actually been declared "living" after 30 million years
The article says about spores,
"In terms of our computer analogy, a bacterial spore is like a handheld calculator that has repackaged itself into its original protective shipping carton and turned itself off."
I would love to have one such calculator
here are some pages pictures taken from norfanz, the last major survey of deep aquatic life
as reported here of course
those are some weird looking animals
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
You mean quebec?
step out from under your rock. There has been a substantial amount of literature published on seep and vent communities at depths of over 4000 m. There are patches with lots going on. Don't get me started on Archaea.
Particularly awkward are the millions of elapsed years, during which geothermal heat might have shut off or wandered away.
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...
Check out my sysadmin blog!
...Christ!
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
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!
This account has been seized by the GNAA. That is all.
Maybe THAT is where Atlantis is!
I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You're wrong.
With bonus, the plural was boni. Well, there were a lot of plural forms... boni, bonorum, bonis, bonos. So I don't know what you're talking about it having but one plural form identical to its singular. There are many words similar to what you describe in Latin, but bonus is not one of them.
I also don't know about the other words, since I'm too busy to get my old Latin dictionary out, but I'd wager to bet that they get declined in either the second or fourth declensions and have multiple plural endings (though I will give you that the plural nominative of fourth declension masculine and feminine forms are indentical, maybe this is what you're thinking of?)
Oh, and if a word is assimilited into a new lnaguage, the plural of that new language is far and away apporporiate for usage with the new word, especially when there is already a class of native nouns that function similarly when pluralizing but have entirely different endings -- the likelihood that the non-native nouns will ever form their own class in the new system is nil. Use some common sense.
BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.
"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."
For those of us who have studied that dread work, the Necronomicon, the truth is not Jurassic Part but the the Elder Gods. Yes, my slashdot fellow readers, what will be found are those who were here before us. Trapped for millions of years behind the walls of ice will be found those who came from beyond. Behind the icy barriers they have waited, only now to be awakened. We can at least take heart in the fact that this is the northern polar climbs. If it were the cold icy regions of the south pole (where the Mountains of Maddness lie), those released elder Gods would come forth to gorge on penguins. The horror! The rejoicing in Redmond! None of us can question which operating system Cthulhu would use! At least we are spared this fate.
That was the popular belief before they found entire thriving ecosystems living thousands of feet deep, deriving their energy from geothermal vents in the sea floor. No light, little or no oxygen, and yet these creatures get all they need from the chemical soup pouring from these vents.
I am not suggesting there are vents in this area, just that nature can surprise us.
"Life will find a way."
There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
They won't find great new ecologies full of living fossils.
... poisoned from the massive dumping of radioactive waste into the Arctic Ocean basin by the former Soviet Union.
They will find the remains of those ecologies, that have died in only the last 50 -60 years
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
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!
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Your logic doesn't work. Yes, it CAN go anywhere, but in most cases, it doesn't go anywhere. The Colecanth lives only in a rather limited range. It could swim right up iver to Florida and flop on out the beach and scare the children, but as yet, none have tried that. Also, Arctic water is colder, denser, and less saline than the water in the North Atlantic or Pacific, and many of its animals die of shock when abnormally warm weather brings warm Atlantic water up into the Arctic.