20.09.2007 - Secrets of the Deep Sea

Pedersen quickly captivated his audience by having them imagine diving into a swimming pool and feeling the constraints of pressure and lack of air on their bodies. He then used google-earth technology to transport his listeners into space looking down on the “Blue Planet” – the surface features of vast domains on earth are hidden by the uniform blue covering of the oceans. The oceans hold the key to life on earth, but what exactly is under all that water?

Pedersen showed how technology is helping researchers to reveal and uncover some of the unknown world of the deep-sea. With videos, pictures and graphical images he spun the story of three deep-sea secrets out to his captive audience.

First there are some amazing landforms there; high mountains and ridges, volcanoes and earthquake zones, and incredibly steep cliffs where the continental shelves drop off the abyssal plains. Second, there are some amazing animals living there; tiny ones in the marine snow, relatively few and far between ones in the deepest areas, and rich gatherings of diverse animals where the water is less deep. Finally, where the water is coldest, there are hot vents where very hot water streams out from deep within the earth’s crust.

These hot water or hydrothermal vents are the research focus of the Centre for Geobiology. Here primeval geological and biological forces are working together, perhaps as they worked together at the beginnings of life on earth.

There were a number of young people in the audience who may one day be the marine researchers of the future. One of these was Ørjan Strand. He and his father stayed afterwards to speak with Professor Pedersen.