Is there life in the Mariana Trench?
Oceanic troughs in the Pacific Ocean were first discovered in 1950 by the British expedition of the Challenger ship, which carried out systemic measurements of the ocean depths. This military three-masted corvette with sailing equipment was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century into an oceanographic vessel for scientific work. And not in vain. It was he who showed the world the deepest place on the planet - the Mariana Trench, or the Challenger trench.
7 years later, a significant contribution to the study of the Mariana deep water was made by Soviet researchers. Scientists who were part of the expedition of the ship "Vityaz" declared with all responsibility: "There is life in the Mariana Trench, at depths of more than 7000 meters." The proof of this was the huge colonies of living organisms - marine invertebrates, which the researchers managed to find.
But for a long time oceanologists considered it madness to think that at such a depth, in impenetrable darkness, under a monstrous pressure, 1100 times higher than normal, at temperatures close to zero, at least one living organism could survive!
Absolute record
"Where mollusks can live, humans can survive!" - said the Americans. And, without postponing the matter indefinitely, they began to develop a unique operation - the descent of a person to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. At first glance, the idea looked crazy, but on January 23, 1960, US Navy officer Don Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Picard brought it to life. Protected by the 12-centimeter walls of the steel round bathyscaphe "Trieste" with a diameter of 2 meters, they managed to descend into the abyss. The dive lasted 4 hours 48 minutes and ended at 10,911 meters below sea level.
So scientists set an absolute record for diving depth. And at an elevation of 10,000 meters, where monstrous pressure flattens all living things, the researchers saw how two 30-centimeter fish, similar to a flounder, calmly swam past the window …
Promotional video:
And miracles have just begun!
Abyssal monster
A few years later, a strange story happened to the German research vehicle Highfish with a crew on board. Once at a depth of 7 kilometers, the device unexpectedly refused to surface. Finding out the cause of the problem, the hydronauts turned on the infrared camera. What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, gripping its teeth into the bathyscaphe, tried to gnaw it like a nut.
Having come to their senses, the crew activated a device called an electric cannon. The monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss. But the question "Can animals live at such a huge depth and how should they look, given that huge masses of ocean waters are pressing on them?" and remained unanswered. Because the oceanologists' testimony was considered insanity and was attributed to a temporary clouding of mind caused by too much pressure and nervous tension.
In 2003, the sensational results of the Mariana Trench research were published in the USA. Scientists submerged a special apparatus to a depth of 10,911 meters - an unmanned platform equipped with powerful searchlights, very sensitive tele- and video systems and microphones. The platform descended on six steel cables of an inch (2.54 centimeters) section.
At first nothing unusual happened. But a few hours after the immersion, silhouettes of strange large objects (at least 12-16 meters in length) began to flicker on the TV monitor screens in the light of powerful searchlights, and the microphones at that time transmitted sharp sounds to the recording devices - the grinding of iron and muffled uniform blows on metal …
When the platform was raised, it was revealed that the powerful titanium-cobalt structures were bent, and the super-strong steel cables made in the NASA laboratory were sawed off. A little more, and the unique equipment would forever remain in the deepest underwater depression.
Unanswered question
Who tried to leave the expensive equipment at depth and why is an absolute mystery. Scientists and experts declined to make clear comments, getting off with vague wording. But popular science magazines commented on the sensation unequivocally and unanimously: at an incredible depth, there is someone intelligent who owns at least metal processing technologies.
Ufologists immediately stated that man is not the only master of planet Earth, that aliens have created their underwater bases in the depths of the oceans, from where they make space travel. There were also those who dared to assert that, along with our terrestrial civilization, there is another underwater civilization under water, and much more ancient. In short, there were many versions …
After that, automatic underwater vehicles made of heavy-duty materials repeatedly explored the Mariana Trench. But with their help, scientists managed to find out not so much … It turned out that in the depths of the mysterious hollow, pogonophores live - a new type of animals that have lost their intestines in the process of evolution; bacteria that develop only at high pressure; frightening-looking worms up to one meter long; mutant octopuses and extraordinary starfish. And in 2005, in the Mariana Trench, Japanese researchers discovered 13 species of unicellular organisms that have existed unchanged for almost a billion years … Sensation? Certainly. But not a word was said about representatives of a different, more ancient civilization, aliens and giant mysterious animals. Perhaps scientists simply did not find them, or maybethey just didn't want to frighten the public …
Whatever it was, but technical progress, which, as you know, does not stand still, allows a person to penetrate deeper and deeper into the secrets of the most inhospitable and rebellious environment - the World Ocean. I would like to believe that the most sensational and incredible discoveries are yet to come. After all, the ocean abyss is still a master of riddles …
Journal: Archives of the 20th century No. 2, Mikhail Smetanin