Life
The expedition conducted in 1960 observed (with great surprise because of the high pressure) at the bottom large living creatures such as a sole or flounder about 30 cm (1 ft) long, and a shrimp. According to Piccard, "The bottom appeared light and clear, a waste of firm diatomaceous ooze". Many marine biologists are now sceptical of the supposed sighting of the flatfish, and it is suggested that the creature may instead have been a sea cucumber.
During the second expedition, the unmanned vehicle KaikÅ collected mud samples from the seabed. Tiny organisms were found to be living in those samples.
In July 2011 a research expedition deployed untethered landers, called dropcams, equipped with digital video and lights to explore this region of the deep sea. Amongst many other living organisms, some gigantic single-celled amoebas with a size of more than 4 inches (10 centimeters), belonging to the class of xenophyophores were observed. Xenophyophores are noteworthy for their size, their extreme abundance on the seafloor and their role as hosts for a variety of organisms.
Read more about this topic: Mariana Trench
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise; to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)
“Life isn’t meant to be easy. It’s hard to take being on the top—or on the bottom. I guess I’m something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things.... Life is one crisis after another.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“When we speak the word “life,” it must be understood we are not referring to life as we know it from its surface of fact, but to that fragile, fluctuating center which forms never reach.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)