The Last Flight of MH370 and the Abyss Below
On 8 March 2018, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 veered off its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. An hour later, military radar spotted the plane heading west over the Andaman Sea. Six or seven hours later, it is presumed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
The search for the missing aircraft required mapping a vast stretch of seafloor. Over three years, ships from Australia, China, and Malaysia scanned the bottom using submersible robots and sonar, charting an area about 1,500 miles long and 150 miles wide. The maps revealed undersea canyons, crevasses, volcanic plateaux, and a cliff taller than the Swiss Alps.
"The deep ocean, deeper than 200 meters, covers about 66% of the Earth's surface. Most of it has never been surveyed in detail. At current rates, a complete visual survey would take about 5 million years."
The Engine of Our Planet
The oceans regulate climate, absorb about 30% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and generate 80% of the planet's oxygen. The deep ocean is the largest ecosystem on Earth, with extreme conditions: crushing pressures, temperature extremes, and near total darkness.
Recent discoveries include more than 1,100 new marine species in the past year, such as a ghost shark, a ping-pong ball sponge, and a jelly-like organism that scientists have not yet classified.
Life in the Extremes
Hydrothermal vents, discovered in 1977 and 2000, support vibrant animal communities using chemical energy. Some vents, like the Lost City in the Atlantic, are unique and may offer insights into the origins of life.
The Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone in the Pacific is rich in manganese nodules, which contain metals needed for batteries and microchips. The International Seabed Authority has granted 31 mining exploration contracts, covering an area the size of Alaska. Mining could destroy slow-growing nodule ecosystems, with 90% of species in the zone new to science.
A Final Frontier
The deep ocean remains largely pristine. Its biodiversity is a reservoir of unknown chemical compounds, with some already used in products like an anti-cancer drug derived from a sea squirt.