Deep Sea Exploration

Deep-sea exploration

Deep-sea exploration is the investigation of physical, chemical, and biological conditions in the ocean waters and sea bed beyond the continental shelf, for scientific or commercial purposes. Deep-sea exploration is an aspect of underwater exploration and is considered a relatively recent human activity compared to the other areas of geophysical research, as the deeper depths of the sea have been investigated only during comparatively recent years. The ocean depths still remain a largely unexplored part of the Earth, and form a relatively undiscovered domain.

Deep sea

The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 m (660 ft) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combination of low temperatures, darkness, and high pressure. The deep sea is considered the least explored Earth biome as the extreme conditions make the environment difficult to access and explore.

Sea

A sea is a very large body of salty water. The term has two distinct meanings. The first is the interconnected body of seawater that spans most of Earth, known as the sea or the ocean. The second is a named body of water: usually either a marginal sea, or a large, nearly landlocked body of water.

Exploration

Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some expectation of discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organisms capable of directed locomotion and the ability to learn, and has been described in, amongst others, social insects foraging behaviour, where feedback from returning individuals affects the activity of other members of the group.

deep

Adjective

1. Extending, reaching or positioned far from a point of reference, especially downwards.

Adverb

1. Far, especially far down through something or into something, physically or figuratively.
2. In a profound, not superficial, manner.

sea

Symbol

1. ISO 639-3 language code for Semai.

Noun

1. A large body of salt water.
2. The ocean; the continuous body of salt water covering a majority of the Earth's surface.

exploration

Noun

1. The process of exploring.
2. The process of penetrating, or ranging over for purposes of (especially geographical) discovery.