How deep is 1,000 meters in the ocean

A team of scientists plans to explore a little-known part of the ocean to search for new sea life and to investigate the effects of pollution and climate change.

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Quiz - Scientists Aim to Explore Area of Life 1000 Meter Under the Sea
Words in This Story
The ocean covers more than 2/3 of Earth's surface and is a fundamental reason why life exists on Earth—but much of it remains unexplored and under-appreciated.
Coastal Ocean
Surface Ocean
The Deep Ocean
Seafloor and below
The Human Ocean
How deep in the ocean before it gets dark?
How much pressure is 1000m underwater?
How many meters can you go down in the ocean?

The scientists will enter what they call the “Midnight Zone” of the Indian Ocean. It is an area at a depth of about 1,000 meters below the surface where light does not reach but life still thrives. The project is expected to begin on March 16 and to last about five weeks. The scientists aim to explore huge underwater mountains also known as seamounts.

The scientists involved in the project are part of Nekton, an ocean research group that works with the University of Oxford in Britain. They are working with the Seychelles' and Maldives' governments in an effort to protect ocean areas.

Oliver Steeds is the director of the Nekton effort. He told the Associated Press that the area his team will explore is home to many forms of life. “What we do know is that beneath 1,000 meters, there’s no light down there, but a lot of animals…are bioluminescent. It’s life that glows,” he said.

Speaking to AP in Barcelona, Spain, Steed noted that this team was going into an unknown part of the ocean.

A submarine unlike any other

The Nekton scientists will be using one of the most modern deep sea submarines in the world. It is named Limiting Factor.

Last August, the Limiting Factor completed another project: to dive to the deepest point in each of the world’s five oceans. That effort was called the Five Deeps Expedition. The deepest of these dives took the submarine to nearly 11,000 meters below sea level.

The Limiting Factor is built to withstand the huge pressure that exists in the ocean’s deepest places. The compartment for the crew of two people is surrounded by titanium nine centimeters thick. The submarine also carries enough emergency oxygen for up to 96 hours.

Robert McCallum is the leader of the expedition. He said vehicles that can dive deep into the ocean are rare.

The scientists will use sensors and mapping technology to identify new species and landforms deep beneath the sea. But, they also want to observe the effects humans have on the deep sea environment. They will be trying to measure the presence of plastic pollution and possible effects of climate change.

Limiting Factor crew already have seen evidence that pollution is affecting places considered untouched. In May, they saw a plastic bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world’s oceans.

The manned submersible emerges from the water after a dive off the coast of the island of St. Joseph in the Seychelles, Monday April 8, 2019. For more than a month researchers from Nekton, a British-led scientific research group.

Dan Laffoley is a marine expert for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a group based in Switzerland. He said exploration of the Earth’s living space is extremely important. He added, “…over 90 percent of that living space is in the ocean and most of that ocean is unexplored.”

Laffoley said it is urgent, during a time of change, “…that we get people down there, we get eyes in the ocean and we see what’s happening.”

The Nekton scientists will combine their observations with an earlier study of the deep Indian Ocean last year. They plan to present their findings in 2022.

I’m Mario Ritter, Jr.

James Brooks wrote this story for AP. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

Do you think deep sea exploration is important for our knowledge of Earth? Let us know in the comment section below.

Quiz - Scientists Aim to Explore Area of Life 1000 Meter Under the Sea

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Words in This Story

thrive –v. to grow and develop successfully

compartment –n. a separate area within a vehicle

The ocean covers more than 2/3 of Earth's surface and is a fundamental reason why life exists on Earth—but much of it remains unexplored and under-appreciated.

Coastal Ocean

The sliver of ocean less than 200 meters (650 feet) deep near land accounts for just 7 percent of the sea surface, but is among the most productive parts of the ocean. Human activity in coastal regions on land and in the ocean accounts for nearly two-thirds of global GDP, but runoff, pollution, and overfishing put many of these resources at risk, while sea level rise and storm surges threaten cities and other infrastructure near the ocean.

Surface Ocean

The surface ocean extends from 0 to roughly 100 meters (330 feet) depth across the entire ocean. This is where the ocean meets the atmosphere and absorbs carbon dioxide from the air—a key link in the planetary carbon cycle and primary cause of ocean acidification.

Mid-water

The mid-water stretches from the bottom of the surface ocean to about 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) depth. The darkness that pervades this region hides many of the organisms that inhabit it, but recent studies have found that it may hold the largest mass of fish on the planet. Currents here connect the surface to the deep ocean, an important part of Earth's carbon cycle and climate system.

The Deep Ocean

The deep ocean extends from 1,000 to 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) and constitutes most of the ocean's volume as well as the largest living space on Earth. The crushing pressure, permanent darkness, and vast expanse of the deep ocean combine to make it one of the least explored parts of the planet. From 6,000 meters to nearly 11,000 meters (nearly 7 miles)—50 percent of the ocean's depth?is a patchwork of extremely deep Hadal Zone regions, which are even less understood.

Seafloor and below

Whether it's made of rock, mud, coral or sand, the seafloor is just as much a part of the ocean as the water above it. Water that percolates down through cracks often comes back to the surface of the seafloor, heated and chemically altered, at hydrothermal vents or cold seeps, where it helps support unique life forms that survive on the chemicals in the water.

The Human Ocean

Humans are leaving a large and growing imprint on Earth's largest feature, the ocean. Carbon dioxide emissions are warming and acidifying ocean waters, runoff and fishing are decimating coral reefs, and warming waters are threatening critical species with extinction. Even far from the surface and far from land, evidence of human activity is often close at hand—?synthetic chemicals have been found in many fish and trash can be found even in the deepest parts of the ocean. The good news is that we humans can make a difference by working to conserve the ocean.

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How deep in the ocean before it gets dark?

The aphotic zone exists in depths below 1,000 meters. Sunlight does not penetrate to these depths and the zone is bathed in darkness.

How much pressure is 1000m underwater?

As you descend into the ocean, pressure increases linearly with depth; there is an increase in pressure of 1 atm for every 10 m increase in depth. So at 1000 m depth the pressure would be 101 atm (100 atm of pressure due to the 1000 m depth, plus the 1 atm that is present at the surface).