We bring to your attention a few facts about the oceans and its inhabitants that you may not have known.
1. Scientists sometimes joke that the depths of the oceans are studied worse than the reverse side of the moon. This is a completely true statement: to date, according to various sources, the World Ocean has been studied only by 2-5%.
2. At the bottom of the oceans, there are real underwater rivers, or rather, cases of the so-called "cold seepage". This is the name of the areas where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbons seep through cracks on the bottom, mix with sea water, and then slowly move like rivers. Moreover, the word "cold" in the name of this phenomenon does not mean that the liquid in such bottom rivers has a temperature lower than the surrounding sea water. The temperature is often even slightly higher. Scientists believe cold seepage is confined to tectonically active zones of the oceans. For example, this phenomenon is recorded in the Japan Trench, where the oceanic crust sinks under the mainland.
3. In addition to underwater rivers, there are also underwater waterfalls in the ocean. And some of them are much larger than their terrestrial relatives. In total, 7 such waterfalls are known today. They are caused by differences in temperature and salinity of different parts of the ocean and the complex topography of the seabed. At the border of water areas with different conditions and in the presence of underwater slopes, dense water tends to the bottom - to replace less dense water. The largest currently known underwater waterfall is located at the bottom of the Danish Strait, which separates Greenland and Iceland. It is approximately 4000 meters high and mixes at least 175 million cubic feet of water.
4. Sometimes "seas of milk" appear in the ocean. This "sea" is a vast area of luminous ocean. Despite the fact that there are many photographs of this phenomenon, it is not known exactly how it occurs. According to one version, the "sea of milk" appears due to the luminescent bacteria Vibrio harveyi, which create a long-lasting glow over large areas of the ocean.
5. According to a study published in 2011 in the journal PLOS Biology, there are about 2.2 million species of organisms in the ocean, of which only about 194,400 are known.
6. The largest fish living in the oceans is the whale shark. Individual individuals of this species were 12.65 meters long and reached a mass of more than 21.5 tons. Today, whale sharks inhabit all tropical and temperate seas. But the largest inhabitant of the oceans is, of course, the blue whale. Its length reaches 33 meters, and the weight of the animal can exceed 150 tons. At the same time, Schindleria brevipinguis, which lives in the coral lagoons of the Barrier Reef, is considered the smallest fish in the oceans. Fish of this species can reach only 8.4 mm in length.
7. At a depth of more than 1000 meters from the surface of the ocean, in an area where sunlight does not penetrate and where there is little food, amazing fish live, often with a frightening appearance. Due to the lack of light, they have small eyes (or none at all), swim slowly and never chase after their prey in order to conserve energy in conditions with insufficient food. These fish are simply waiting for their prey or are lured with the help of a special "fishing rod". Most deep-sea fish are medium-sized - large ones cannot feed here, however, the bellies of many of them can swell, containing more food than the fish itself weighs. The most common deep-sea fish are gonostomates and monkfish. Abyssobrotula, which was found in the Puerto Rico trench at a depth of 8370 meters, was recognized as the deepest fish.
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8. There are cases when a "false bottom" was formed in the ocean. They first learned about it in 1942, when several acoustic sounding specialists discovered a strange layer that reflects sound waves in the ocean at a depth of 300-450 meters. Later it was discovered that at night this unexplored layer rose to the surface of the sea, and during the day it sank to a depth. Then it became clear that the "false bottom" can be formed by living organisms that avoid daylight. A lot of speculations have emerged as to which organisms were creating the “false bottom”. But in the end it turned out that squid did it. Indeed, in flocks, they know how to be distributed evenly and thus are able to form a dense mass, which can become an obstacle to sound.
