However, according to the information available so far, the reward for exploring the world at the bottom of the oceans would be extremely lucrative, because in this dark world, there are rich deposits of minerals, natural gas, and oil. In addition, the results of the exploration of the marvelous world of the ocean floor may well change our traditional view of the origin and evolution of life on Earth. Beyond these tangible benefits, there is the intangible but definite satisfaction of the great joy of exploring the last edge of the planet.
The oceans - a place so far unconquered by man - cover 3/4 of the Earth's surface, with a volume of 14 billion cubic kilometers of seawater and an average depth of 3,700 meters. The intricate food web of the ocean supports a great variety of marine life, which is much more complex than any ecosystem on land, from sulfur-eating microorganisms and bacteria living on the crater rims of the ocean floor, to a variety of deep-sea fish, which put out fluorescent light that can illuminate a great distance, attracting a multitude of organisms for them to eat. In some places, there may even be new species of animals to be discovered, called "sea monsters," such as the 20-meter-long quail.
Scientific research tells us that in this underwater world, the potential economic value of the same is inestimable: the energy of the huge whirlpool currents, affecting most parts of the world's meteorological, if you can understand the mechanism of their formation and the law, the occurrence of climate disasters can be predicted, avoiding the loss of trillions of dollars in economic losses. The ocean also has a huge commercial exploitation value of nickel, manganese, iron, cobalt, copper, etc.; deep-sea bacteria, fish and plants, may become a source of miraculous drugs to protect human health and longevity. It has been estimated that in the next few decades, the benefits to be gained from the oceans will far exceed the current gains from human exploration of space. If people could freely and safely access the ocean floor, the economic benefits would be immediate.
But reaching the ocean floor, like reaching outer space, is impossible for people without special equipment. Common sense tells us that without the help of an oxygen tank, a person cannot dive for long periods of time into water that is less than 3 meters - which is only one-thousandth of the average depth of the ocean! As one continues to dive underwater, the pressure increases. A person's inner ears, lungs and some orifices then feel the pressure, which is agonizing. The low temperature underwater can quickly suck the heat out of the body. It makes it difficult to hold on for 2 to 3 minutes in water below 3 meters.
For all these reasons, contemporary deep-sea expeditions have had to sit on the sidelines waiting for the development of two key technologies: the deep-sea spherical submersible and the deep-diving chain-bolted steel ball deep-diver. Swimmers have always wondered how to get oxygen underwater. For thousands of years, it has been so. Ancient Greek divers got oxygen from gas-filled bottles, and more recent divers use compressed air more often to get into the dive. Usually a person can dive to a depth of 30 meters. Even the most experienced users of underwater breathing apparatus do not dare to risk diving to a depth of less than 45 meters, because of the increase in the pressure of deep diving and the pressure changes in the process of surfacing, resulting in decompression sickness or even death. The use of sealed diving suits can only dive to a depth of 440 meters.
The spherical deep-sea submersible created a depth of 923 meters, but it was very difficult to operate. Later, a very small deep-sea submarine was invented, but it could only be used for scientific research. Advanced deep-sea submarines are equipped with underwater cameras, collection of specimen baskets and operating robotic arms with manual functions. The practice of deep submarines has answered in the affirmative. The United States, France, Japan, Russia and other countries have developed deep-water submarines for different purposes to collect specimens of animals, plants, rocks, water samples and other information from the depths of the sea. This opened up a new era of deep sea exploration. A great deal of information has been obtained about the world of the deep sea, which has changed some of the traditional views of biology, geology and ocean geography. Scientists are looking at the patterns of wind and ocean currents in a new light; El Ni?o in the Pacific Ocean is extremely harmful to commercially valuable fish stocks and induces peculiar changes in the Earth's climate. The instability of ocean circulation could lead to global climate change or the slow disappearance of the now stable climate on Earth.
Scientists have also recognized that the ocean floor is not flat; it is undulating and more complex than our terrestrial topography, with canyons that could fit the Himalayan mountain range. What is even more amazing is that there is a unique, global, 60,000-kilometer-long mountain range at the bottom of the ocean that snakes through the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans like a giant snake, which scientists call the "mid-ocean ridge".
Toward the end of the 1970s, when geologists scrutinized the mountains in the middle of the ocean, they became more convinced of the theory of plate tectonics. According to this theory, the surface of the Earth is not a single crust of stone; it is made up of several giant plate tectonics, the smallest of which are thousands of square kilometers, that float above the mantle. The uplifted portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge may be where the crust was first created; the new plate tectonics may have been created by the internal camping forces of the crust beneath it before it formed the seafloor. Rock samples taken from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge have proved this. This is striking evidence of the validity of the theory of plate tectonics. The fact that the hot, mineral-rich seawater that is constantly flowing out of the ocean floor turns out to come from the chimney-like peaks on the ocean floor is yet another piece of evidence. It suggests that there is still a tremendous amount of heat underneath the rocks, and that it comes from relatively young substrate formations. Here, there are what are called hydrothermal vents, which have an average depth of 2,225 meters. Marine geologists have scrutinized the hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Observations have shown that these vents are actually geysers on the ocean floor, like the "Faithful Spring" in Yellowstone Park in the United States. Hot seawater flows out from the cracks on the ocean floor, and although the temperature is as high as 400 degrees Celsius, it does not boil because the pressure here is too great. The hot water cools down very quickly after being spewed out. The ejected water contains a lot of minerals, including zinc, copper, iron, a mixture of sulfur, and silicon, which collect and fall on the seabed. This builds up thicker and thicker, eventually forming chimney-like peaks that look like "black smokers".
The chemical reactions at these hot vents answered questions that had plagued scientists for years. Why did the large amounts of magnesium present in seawater remain relatively stable while its components were constantly being corroded? It is now recognized that the magnesium was stripped from the seawater as hot water flowed over the rocks.
While scientists see these hot vents as chemical laboratories for studying the undersea world, commercially minded entrepreneurs see them as metal smelters because of the enormous variety of valuable metals they can obtain from the earth's interior. Marine geologists have known for a long time that the ocean floor, at depths of 4,300 to 5,200 meters, is layered with manganese nodules. These potato-sized manganese nuclei contain iron, nickel, cobalt and other metals. Since the 1970s, a number of mining companies have used sophisticated equipment to harvest them.
If the hot vents on the ocean floor are surprising, scientists are even more surprised to learn that there is life around these sulfur-containing geysers! In 1977, scientists found a number of microorganisms in the water of these hot vents, and also a 20-centimeter-long tubular worm. A strange fish with red skin and blue eyes! When this fact was reported on the news, many people at first did not believe it, but this "disbelief" was soon replaced by "curiosity". People naturally asked questions such as: If there really are creatures, what do they eat for a living? How do they survive when there is no light at all? Strangely enough, more than 100 years ago, a Russian scientist discovered the above fact, saying that underwater bacteria live on oxygen sulfide, a compound that is highly toxic to most life! Now scientists have figured out that these bacteria are the opposite of the terrestrial photosynthesized bacteria, which get their survival energy from chemicals; the terrestrial photosynthesized bacteria get their energy from light.
Many biologists now believe there are forms of life on Earth that are synthesized through chemistry. And undersea thermal vents may be the best laboratories for studying how life formed on our planet.
In recent years, the debate has raged around the question of whether people should go deeper into the ocean floor. Scientists and politicians are debating: is it worth it to keep going deeper into the ocean floor? Most recognize that probing the ocean floor is an undertaking of great theoretical and practical value, but it is too costly and therefore hesitant. Others are opposed to the idea, arguing that it is a waste of money. In the United States and France, there are those who oppose the construction of more advanced deep-sea probes. However, those in favor of the majority, they believe that the practice of exploring the bottom of the world's oceans is comparable to today's Columbus discovered the New World, the reason is that "it must be an unimaginable and magical world," the exploration of this unknown "New World" will certainly change the human race, and for mankind, many traditional views. The exploration of this unknown "new land" will certainly change many traditional views of mankind and bring great benefits to mankind. In the exploration of the ocean floor, scientists from the United States, Japan, France and other countries have done the best work, among which Japan has invested the most and made the most remarkable achievements. The Japanese are always interested in new markets, and they see the world's oceans as a new market as well, so they have a great passion for the oceans. In the case of Japan, their interest in exploring the ocean floor is due to the fact that Japan, an island nation, has its southern part right at the confluence of three structural zones of the earth's crust-which is, of course, unfortunate. As this plates collide with each other and can release huge amounts of energy. According to scientists' estimates: earthquakes here release one-tenth of the world's energy. This is why Japan is so seismic: 140,000 people died in the 1932 Tokyo earthquake. Therefore, to forecast earthquakes is also an important reason for the Japanese to explore the ocean floor. Japanese scientists have discovered that the edge of the Pacific plate tectonics, from east to west, is squeezing the Japanese land mass. Japanese deep-sea probes can reach the ocean floor at a depth of more than 10,000 meters, and researchers were able to see on the screen that it took the robot only 35 minutes to dive to a depth of 10,911.4 meters. At this depth, a sea slug, worms and tiny shrimps were found, proving once again that a wide range of life forms exist in some of the harshest environments on Earth.
In 1996, a new and revolutionary undersea exploration vessel was launched on her maiden voyage in Monterey, a coastal city in central California, USA. The name of this deep-sea exploration vessel is Deep Flight 1, which is 4 meters long, weighs 1,315 kilograms, and is shaped like a fat, bulging, winged torpedo. When it sails underwater, it is very much like a light and swift bird of prey. Compared with the slow-moving submarines that are sailing around the ocean, towing deep-sea probes, the Deep Flight 1 is like an F16 fighter jet in the water. It can do aerobatics, such as horizontal rolls, and race fast-swimming pods of whales, or jump vertically out of the water, where the pilot can see everything outside the pod from the cabin. It can fly on the surface of the water or dive below 1,000 meters to do a variety of scientific research activities.
It can be predicted that mankind's exploration of the magical ocean floor will certainly have new and greater achievements in the near future.