Predicting another Tonga: Answers may lie in the deep trenches of the Pacific
A team of scientists pulled off an amazing human feat, descending into a deep abyss to set up a "lab" of sensors they hope will gauge oncoming earthquakes and tsunamis. Along the way, the deep dive yielded some striking discoveries.
By
Marianne Mizera, AccuWeather front page editor
Published Mar 24, 2022 1:19 PM EST
|
Updated Mar 24, 2022 1:19 PM EST
Scientists are on an expedition to discover new microscopic organisms off the coast of Chile.
A team of Chilean and American scientists ventured to a place where no human has ever gone before.
And although it may sound like a space voyage straight out of a Star Trek episode, this real-life expedition instead led scientists to a different kind of final frontier -- one away from the outer reaches of the universe and deep into the pitch-black recesses of a 3,650-mile-long trench in the Earth’s ocean floor.
It was there, off the coast of Chile, that a crew of researchers for the first time plunged more than 26,000 feet (8,000 meters) into the depths of the wide-open sea to begin creating a first-of-its-kind underwater laboratory at the bottom of the Atacama Trench.
"We pulled off the feat of taking humans into the trench where no other human being had been," Chilean scientist Osvaldo Ulloa, a professor and the director of the Millennium Institute of Oceanography at the University of Concepcion in Chile, told AFP.
The team of Ulloa, American veteran oceanographer Victor Vescovo and Millennium assistant director Ruben Escribano set out on its 12-day journey on Jan. 13, 2022, using a 12-ton submarine (or "deep sea vehicle") specially equipped to withstand the extraordinary pressure and extreme environment of deep oceanic dives.
During several descents along the trench, their exploration revealed a treasure trove of never-before-discovered micro-organisms -- an array of deep-sea life that surprised even the scientists.
The crew was amazed at what they had found: The many vast fields of translucent sea cucumbers, a species of amphipods (a type of shrimp-like crustacean), along with bacteria with huge, brilliant gold tendrils.
Vescovo, who in 2019 broke the record for the deepest submarine dive ever in the Pacific Ocean, posted images and video of the expedition.
“Extraordinary marine life observed: very many holothurians (sea cucumbers), rock faces showing chemosynthesis, and the largest bacterial tendrils I've seen,” Vescovo, a former U.S. Navy officer, said on social media.
He described the fields of sea cucumbers "as almost looking like one of the pastures that I see with the cows in Texas. They were everywhere, feasting on the food that had drifted down from the higher parts of the ocean. It was great to see all these creatures in all their forms."
Some discoveries, Ulloa noted, like the bacterial communities with filaments that feed on chemical and inorganic compounds "opened up a huge number of questions: What are those compounds? What type of bacteria are they? We have no idea. We're going to have to go back there."
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Diving that far into the deep abyss of the trench’s canyons proved daunting. The crew had to first overcome and adjust to the deep-sea darkness.
Starting at a depth of 328 feet (100 meters), the crew had already reached the point of pitch-black depths of the ocean, with the crew members' vision limited to what the submarine's powerful LED light could illuminate. As they moved further down into the darkness, the remarkable sea life emerged.
But studying the aquatic life along the trench’s seabed was part of a broader laboratory of sorts that the scientists hope to set up -- the installation of sensors at various points along the trench.
The Atacama Trench, which lies some 100 miles off the coast of Chile in the eastern Pacific Ocean, is one of many deep-sea troughs formed by converging tectonic plates. This series of trenches is part of the Pacific Ocean Ring of Fire, a belt of 450 either dormant or active volcanoes, volcanic arcs and tectonic plate boundaries that frame the Pacific Ocean, extending from southern Australia to the southern tip of South America.
Most of the world’s volcanoes and strongest earthquakes and tsunamis occur within the Ring of Fire. The researchers hope that learning more about the movement of these specific Nazca and South American tectonic plates could help scientists better predict when the next temblor will take place.
So later this year, the team will return to the trench to place five sensors on the plates -- three on the South American Plate and two on the Nazca Plate -- that will allow scientists to best observe where energy is building in areas that have not experienced an earthquake. Their expedition in January allowed them to closely map the seabed to determine the optimal spots to place the sensors.
For the moment, Ulloa said, "these types of sensors only exist on land."
He noted that there is great interest from the international community “to put more sensors in this region to study all the processes associated with the collision of these two plates.”
Vescovo added that events like the huge Jan. 15 volcano explosion on Tonga and the ensuing deadly tsunami are examples that "we need to explore and understand deep ocean geology."
"It is an incredibly ambitious project," said Ulloa, adding that it is "the largest experiment that has been done in underwater geology here in Chile."
For the latest weather news, check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
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Predicting another Tonga: Answers may lie in the deep trenches of the Pacific
A team of scientists pulled off an amazing human feat, descending into a deep abyss to set up a "lab" of sensors they hope will gauge oncoming earthquakes and tsunamis. Along the way, the deep dive yielded some striking discoveries.
By Marianne Mizera, AccuWeather front page editor
Published Mar 24, 2022 1:19 PM EST | Updated Mar 24, 2022 1:19 PM EST
Scientists are on an expedition to discover new microscopic organisms off the coast of Chile.
A team of Chilean and American scientists ventured to a place where no human has ever gone before.
And although it may sound like a space voyage straight out of a Star Trek episode, this real-life expedition instead led scientists to a different kind of final frontier -- one away from the outer reaches of the universe and deep into the pitch-black recesses of a 3,650-mile-long trench in the Earth’s ocean floor.
It was there, off the coast of Chile, that a crew of researchers for the first time plunged more than 26,000 feet (8,000 meters) into the depths of the wide-open sea to begin creating a first-of-its-kind underwater laboratory at the bottom of the Atacama Trench.
"We pulled off the feat of taking humans into the trench where no other human being had been," Chilean scientist Osvaldo Ulloa, a professor and the director of the Millennium Institute of Oceanography at the University of Concepcion in Chile, told AFP.
The team of Ulloa, American veteran oceanographer Victor Vescovo and Millennium assistant director Ruben Escribano set out on its 12-day journey on Jan. 13, 2022, using a 12-ton submarine (or "deep sea vehicle") specially equipped to withstand the extraordinary pressure and extreme environment of deep oceanic dives.
During several descents along the trench, their exploration revealed a treasure trove of never-before-discovered micro-organisms -- an array of deep-sea life that surprised even the scientists.
The crew was amazed at what they had found: The many vast fields of translucent sea cucumbers, a species of amphipods (a type of shrimp-like crustacean), along with bacteria with huge, brilliant gold tendrils.
Vescovo, who in 2019 broke the record for the deepest submarine dive ever in the Pacific Ocean, posted images and video of the expedition.
“Extraordinary marine life observed: very many holothurians (sea cucumbers), rock faces showing chemosynthesis, and the largest bacterial tendrils I've seen,” Vescovo, a former U.S. Navy officer, said on social media.
He described the fields of sea cucumbers "as almost looking like one of the pastures that I see with the cows in Texas. They were everywhere, feasting on the food that had drifted down from the higher parts of the ocean. It was great to see all these creatures in all their forms."
Some discoveries, Ulloa noted, like the bacterial communities with filaments that feed on chemical and inorganic compounds "opened up a huge number of questions: What are those compounds? What type of bacteria are they? We have no idea. We're going to have to go back there."
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
Diving that far into the deep abyss of the trench’s canyons proved daunting. The crew had to first overcome and adjust to the deep-sea darkness.
Starting at a depth of 328 feet (100 meters), the crew had already reached the point of pitch-black depths of the ocean, with the crew members' vision limited to what the submarine's powerful LED light could illuminate. As they moved further down into the darkness, the remarkable sea life emerged.
But studying the aquatic life along the trench’s seabed was part of a broader laboratory of sorts that the scientists hope to set up -- the installation of sensors at various points along the trench.
The Atacama Trench, which lies some 100 miles off the coast of Chile in the eastern Pacific Ocean, is one of many deep-sea troughs formed by converging tectonic plates. This series of trenches is part of the Pacific Ocean Ring of Fire, a belt of 450 either dormant or active volcanoes, volcanic arcs and tectonic plate boundaries that frame the Pacific Ocean, extending from southern Australia to the southern tip of South America.
Most of the world’s volcanoes and strongest earthquakes and tsunamis occur within the Ring of Fire. The researchers hope that learning more about the movement of these specific Nazca and South American tectonic plates could help scientists better predict when the next temblor will take place.
So later this year, the team will return to the trench to place five sensors on the plates -- three on the South American Plate and two on the Nazca Plate -- that will allow scientists to best observe where energy is building in areas that have not experienced an earthquake. Their expedition in January allowed them to closely map the seabed to determine the optimal spots to place the sensors.
For the moment, Ulloa said, "these types of sensors only exist on land."
He noted that there is great interest from the international community “to put more sensors in this region to study all the processes associated with the collision of these two plates.”
Vescovo added that events like the huge Jan. 15 volcano explosion on Tonga and the ensuing deadly tsunami are examples that "we need to explore and understand deep ocean geology."
"It is an incredibly ambitious project," said Ulloa, adding that it is "the largest experiment that has been done in underwater geology here in Chile."
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For the latest weather news, check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
Report a Typo