Abyssal Zone - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The abyssal zone, or the abyss, is the seafloor and water column from 3,000 to 6,500 meters (9,842 to 21,325 feet) depth, where sunlight doesn’t penetrate
Abyssal Zone – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is the world's leading non-profit oceanographic research organization Our mission is to explore and understand the ocean and to educate scientists, students, decision-makers, and the pub
Ocean Zones - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The abyssal zone, or the abyss, is the seafloor and water column from 3,000 to 6,500 meters (9,842 to 21,325 feet) depth, where sunlight doesn’t penetrate Hadal Zone The region extending from 6,000 to 11,000 meters is called the hadal, or hadalpelagic, zone after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld
Fueling a Deep-Sea Ecosystem - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Miles beneath the ocean surface in the dark abyss, vast communities of subseafloor microbes at deep-sea hot springs are converting chemicals into energy that allows deep-sea life to survive, and even thrive, in a world without sunlight Until now, however, measuring the productivity of subseafloor microbe communities (or how fast…
Where the Food Is in the Sea, and Why Between the shallow, gently sloping continental shelf and the abyss of the deep ocean lies the steep continental slope The edge between the shelf and the slope is called the shelf break Phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish, seabirds, whales, and dolphins thrive in the waters above the shelf break, supported by nutrients brought from great depths
Midnight Zone - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The midnight zone, or bathypelagic, extends to about 4,000 meters (about 13,100 feet), which reaches the ocean floor in many places is in perpetual darkness
Twilight Zone - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution What is the ocean twilight zone? The ocean twilight zone is a layer of water that stretches around the globe It lies 200 to 1,000 meters (about 650 to 3,300 feet) below the ocean surface, just beyond the reach of sunlig
The Discovery of Hydrothermal Vents - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The long-held notion that life at the bottom of the ocean couldn’t exist without food that rained down from the sunlit surface was tossed out the window Along with photosynthesis, there was chemosynthesis supporting an entirely new kind of ecosystem in the abyss “Everyone sat around speechless,” said Ballard
Sunlit Zone - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The upper layer of the ocean is known as the sunlit, or euphotic, zone Because water strongly absorbs light, sunlight penetrates only to depths of about 200 meters (656 feet)
To the Abyss on a Wire - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution To the Abyss on a Wire April 5, 2008 Seated inside the control van for the remotely operated vehicle Jason, pilot Scott Hansen (background) and chief scientist Bill Chadwick (Oregon State University) work to collect samples from the hydrothermal vents along the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the North Pacific (Photo by Lance Wills, Woods Hole