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

[orthogonal]

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?


You mean in the sunken city of R'lyeh?

A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings... It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence...

-- H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange æons, even death may die"

ah the ocean

[spacerodent]

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.

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.

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:ah the ocean

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the degree to which we have probed space with light and radio telescopes FAR exceeds that of the world's oceans. A vaccuum allows most forms of energy to travel through it, while water does a great job of attenuating most EM radiation, leaving sound to be the primary method of remote imaging.
Of course we could never have those beautiful global shaded relief seafloor images if it wasn't for satellite alimetry, so i guess its all related.

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?

pandora's box?

[Garion Maki]

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...

Link to a previous expedition

[Internet Ninja]

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. :)

Living fossils

[niktesla]

This is the world's refrigerator where change has happened far more slowly than in other oceans

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.

30 million year old germ

[vijaya_chandra]

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

Re:The Mirror Ocean from "Megalodon"

[prof_peabody]

Giant squid are quite common, perhaps you refer to Colossal Squid? They found a complete one last year, it was all over the news. Plus we keep finding sperm whales with scars from the colossal. They had interesting hooks on their tentacles that no other squid has, so evidence of attcks on whales is easy to identify.