“When we go down to the depths of the oceans, at what point are we in the abyss? », asks Vinh Hung Loi on our Facebook page. This is our reader question of the week. Thank you all for your participation.
To answer this, (re)discover below an extract from the book Abysses, l’ultime frontier (Alisio editions) by journalist Olivier Lascar, editor-in-chief of the digital division of Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche. Other extracts can be discovered in our previous article “Abysses, the final frontier, an enlightening dive into the deep seabed”, from the monthly magazine Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche n°920, dated October 2023.
The abyss, below 1000 meters deep
‘‘[…] most specialists speak of an abyss for anything less than 1000 meters deep. And this represents a considerable part of our planet, 71% of whose surface is covered by oceans. In a study published by the Fondation de la Mer, it is specified that 88% of the ocean floor is located beyond 1000 meters depth.
Sectional diagram of the abyssal seabed
Located from -6000 to -11,000 meters, the hadal zones remain to be discovered. Credit: BRUNO BOURGEOIS
We know the surface of the Moon better than the bottom of the oceans
[…] Immense in their surface area, these deep seabeds remain extraordinarily little known, since less than 20% are mapped and less than 5% explored. […] What about the animals that live there? Mineral resources? The formula sounds cliché, but it’s true: we know the surface of the Moon better than the bottom of the oceans. It’s up to scientific exploration to lift the veil on these questions to shine a little light into this darkness.
