The miraculous sea
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- The miraculous sea
- Language
- English
- Source
- Volume XII (Issue No. 11) November 1960
- Year
- 1960
- Subject
- Ocean
- Marine biology
- Aquaculture
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- THE MIRACULOUS SEA Below the surface of the sea is a world that is in many ways similar to the earth’s land areas. There are great moun tain ranges, long valleys and an amazing variety of life. But many undersea mountains are higher than those above, longer and wider, and many of the creatures living in the oceans are more vividly color ful and exotic than most forms of life on land. Down there, at the base of a co nt inental slope, seadevils, quill worms, viperfish, sea cucum bers and jellyfish glide through the silent, lightless world searching for food—and escap ing other sea creatures also in search of food. Because there is no light there is no plant life comparable to the forests on land. Only a few small, primi tive marine plants grow at this dark depth. For the creatures living here there is nothing but a continuing battle for survival. Surprisingly, life is abundant and may, someday soon, give man positive proof of his ori gin. The sea is a miracle. The feature that sets the earth apart in the uni-, verse is the great glistening sheath of water that envelops our globe. No other planet in man’s range of vision has a sea. Some other planets have ice caps, moisture, perhaps vegetation, but no sea. Yet our earth is nearly drowned in water. The seas engulf 71 percent of the world’s area. How did the earth acquire this great cover of water? Scientists believe the earth be gan as a ball of whirling gas freshly torn from the sun. Gradually, over millions of years, the ball of flaming gas es cooled. As the earth’s outer layers cooled, the earth became enveloped in heavy layers of clouds. This cloud cover con tained much of the water of the new planet. As soon as the 82 Panorama earth’s crust cooled sufficient ly, the rains began co fall. Scientists believe it rained for centuries. The water fell into waiting ocean basins, or, fall ing upon the higher land masses, drained away co be come the sea. So the ocean floor contains records of the millions of years of development that took place. What does this unchart ed, hidden world look like? Scientists agree that very high mountains and deep valleys run along the bottom of the peaks of a 1,600 mile long range that divides the Central Pacific Basin. Through the cen ter of the Atlantic Ocean, too, runs a long chain of high mountains. Strange trenches go deep down. Cliffs and canyons mark the bottom of the sea, just as they do on land. And because the ocean water con stantly scours the bottom, the mountains and vallyes are al ways changing. Studies reveal three great provinces of the sea: continen tal shelves, continental slopes, and the floor of the ocean. The continental shelf resembles land. Sunlight penetrates to it, plants drift in waters above it, and the fish in abundance there make it the meeting place of the great fisheries of the world. But once beyond the edge of the shelf, the mystery of the deep sea begins. Darkness gathers, pressure grows, and plant life disappears. In this world creatures prey on one another in brute survival. Much farther down, after miles and miles, lies the ocean floor, the most awesome part of the ocean. Flat-topped, extinct vol canoes dot the floor of the Pa cific and here and there side pressures from the earth’s cen ter have wedged up mountains, some of them volcanically ac tive. Only in the last few years has man been able to go down into the ocean to see things for himself. Lately, bathyscaphs, deep-diving manned ocean ob servatories, have gone down to the very deepest part of our ocean—seven and a half miles. These new explorations will be of great importance to the world. We know now that we are dependent on the sea for many parts of our existence. The entity called life emerged from the sea, and man’s whole environment is governed by it. Further knowledge of the sea can help us solve some of the problems of civilization. Toward this further know ledge, the study of the sea has developed. Last September oceanographers—men who have devoted their lives to the stu dy of the sea—met from all over the world at the United Nations in New York City. November 1960 83 Their reports showed vast new worlds awaiting man in the oceans. Fishing, they predict, will be replaced by fish farm ing, enabling man to reap en ough food to feed the world many times over. The ocean depths also hold great quanti ties of valuable minerals which man will eventually mine just as he does the land. The know ledge we obtain from the ocean will help us understand the weather. And finally, as man goes back into the sea around him, he may be able to find clues to another great miracle, the origin of life itself. Why is the "funny bone" so called? A ctually, it isn’t the bone that hurts. The bone (to be precise, the medial condyle of the humerus bone) simply serves as an anvil on which we strike the ulnar nerve which lies above it. Some authorities believe that funny bone was originally a pun on the two words humerus and humorous. The word first appeared in The Ingoldsby Legends (1840), by the Reverend Richard Harris Barham, who seemi to have been a mighty pun.ner. * 84 Panorama
- pages
- 82-84