Humans might be the most curios and questioning living creature in this planet. They possess the urge to know what the things around them are. What are those things there? How do these things work? How did these things began, and questions of the like that satisfies human curiosity. Proof of this natural trait that human beings possess are the different kinds of explorations, be it beyond the sky, underground, inside a body (humans or animals), plants and even in the depths of the sea. And speaking of which, this article is will be tackling about one of humanity’s pride - exploration, the “Deep sea exploration” or to be more specific, “The different Deep Sea exploration.”
What is a deep sea exploration? Well, for all of us to know, a deep sea exploration is the means of scientists, particularly explorers, to gain information on the conditions of the sea-bed physically, chemically and even biologically. Unlike geographic explorations or research, deep sea exploration is just a rather recent activity by humans. This is because unlike researches on the surface of the earth where access to most places is relatively easy the ocean is not their natural habitat. Humans are limited to the things that they can do. And also humans don’t have the capability to withstand the pressure under water which is several hundred pounds per square inch (PSI), enough to crush your lungs like a balloon. These are also financial reasons as Deep Sea Explorations are costly. But even with these limitations, it still didn’t break the will of some people who braved the unknown and knowing full well of the certain dangers that they’ll be facing.
It simply didn’t stop humans from wanting to gain every bit of information there is to get. Since deep sea explorations are fairly recent; there were only two deep sea explorations that have ever been accomplished. The first was over a hundred years back and were called the Vikings and the second recorded exploration of the deep sea was called the Deepsea Challenge.
Vikings were a group of seafarers who raided and terrorized Europe from their Scandinavian homeland and trade it from their homeland. Maybe at this moment you are confused by how these Vikings became the first deep sea explorers. This is because; Vikings specifically that was led by Eric the Red did had a contribution in the deep sea exploration. This contribution was the “sounding weights”, the “sounding weights” are special equipment that is used to measure the depth of the sea and take samples from the sea-bed. The sounding weights are of course a weight in which is made of lead attached to a very long rope. Once the sounding weights reached the sea-bed it is then pulled from the water along with it the sediments it had collected. After the weight has been retrieved, the depth of the sea will then be measured using a man’s arm span from fingertip to fingertip. A full arm span of a man is called a fathom, that is how Vikings estimated the depth of the sea and that is also how Vikings contributed to the deep sea explorations as the first sea explorers from Scandinavian Europe.
The last and most recent deep sea exploration was the “Deapsea challenger”. The Deepsea Challenge first mobilized on March 26, 2012 led by James Cameron in partnership with National Geographic and explored the depths of the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench was located about 200 miles from Guam and has a depth of 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers). The goal of the team led by James Cameron was to learn from every gathered data from the trench. The equipment used was a submersible complex of 24 foot in length (7.3 meters long) with an arm-like mechanism to grab things and fully equipped with cameras inside and out. It is said that this exploration will lead to many possible discoveries particularly on detecting natural disasters like tsunamis, underwater volcanic eruptions etc.
Humans have only explored 5% of the totality of the ocean on earth. Man has gone outside of earth’s atmosphere before even exploring the majority of the earth’s deepest oceans. Imagine the possibilities if humans will explore most of its territories, especially the depths of the seas. The discovery from all of these can help cure complicated diseases or foresee the occurrence of natural disasters. Or technologies from these explorations can be used to further give other explorations hints on how they would do things. Just imagine the possibilities.
