As you know, the oceans occupy almost 70 percent of the territory of our planet. But think about it: we are talking only about the area, meanwhile this colossal body of water, whose thickness in the Mariana Trench reaches 11 thousand meters, permeates life through and through. And we know very little about this life, since science has - more or less - studied the inhabitants of the surface layer. And what happens on the "lower floors", say, at a depth of three, four, five kilometers, not to mention the bottomless depths of the sea?
It seems to us that at a great depth, for example, in the same Mariana Trench, there can be no life at all. Scientists thought the same - until, in the sixties of the last century, they made the first attempts to penetrate this gloomy abyss. In 1960, the deep-sea bathyscaphe Trieste, designed by Auguste Piccard, which NASA bought from Swiss scientists, was able to sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Researchers got little then, since the cameras recorded only strange shadows that had accumulated near the bathyscaphe. However, while on the research vessel "Glomar Challenger", scientists suddenly recorded a sound resembling the grinding of a saw on metal. It was decided to urgently raise the Trieste to the surface of the ocean. This "urgent" ascent lasted almost eight hours, and at the end of it the researchers were in for a real shock: all the chambers of the underwater vehicle were smashed, and the steel hoisting cables were half sawed. Who created this is still unknown, but certainly not fish …
Subsequent dives into the Mariana Trench were not so dramatic, but scientists again faced the fact that at a fantastic depth the life of some unknown sea creatures is taking place. For example, the automatic probe Nereus made a lot of photographs and videos, capturing strange creatures living here, say, huge, mouthless worms, incredible size of octopuses and starfish, not to mention even more sinister, unlike anything else.
One of the most interesting discoveries of recent years has been the deep-sea crustaceans of the Mariana Trench, which, as it turned out, are literally saturated with toxins, and some even emit radiation. But where is she from at such an incredible depth? And so - in everything: the more scientists penetrated into the oceanic abyss, the more questions they had. But with the answers to them, the situation is much worse.
So, plunging into the Mariana Trench on the "Highfish" bathyscaphe, German scientists already at a depth of 7 kilometers were attacked by real dragons (at least these creatures very much resembled them in appearance and behaved quite aggressively). And only thanks to a strong current discharge, launched in a special arc that encircled the bathyscaphe, the researchers managed to scare away the creepy guests. Was it not these monsters who saw through the steel cables of the Trieste? In any case, keeping in mind that a long-standing incident, today's explorers of the depths are trying to be prepared for any surprises.
However, is it possible to predict and calculate everything, taking into account the fact that the Mariana Trench is still a secret for science with seven seals? While a person is simply not able to organize a thorough and comprehensive study of this transcendent depth, and even what is available to him today seems to be some kind of miracle. The time of real miracles, as you can see, is still ahead …