Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1901-02-15
She Mysteries OF the Very Deep Seas ueau
Valleys Far Below the Sunlight

'ahcys BeiOW the Sunlight.
The mysteries of the deep seas are
coming TO light. Sc entists nave meas
ured the mountains of the ocean bed
and their lead lines have penetrated
INTO valleys so deep that the suns rays
are lost miles above their bottom.
some of these are more than 10000
teet below the surface. IL the highest
mountain in the world were set at the
oottom Its summit would be nearly
nalf a mile under water. A rope long
enough to sound their remote depths
would reach from the Battery to Sixty
second street
In these valleys there are no plants.
weeds or vegetation OF any kind. be-
cause such forms CT life need light, and
at these depths there is total darkness
But animal life fiourishes. Many of
these deep-sea animals are gigantic.
Ihese animals are all, or nearly all,
without eyes. Most of them eat mud
and slime, but there are others who
seek living prey, find it by means of
great feelerS and then grasp and kill
1t with 10. g tentaeles.
1t is strange that H. these dark and
freezing abysses vast quan.it es Of veg
etable matter are found that during
their lives were bathed in tr pical sun
light and in water so degrees above
zero. These deposits lie side by side
with other organisms w. Oh passed all
bhe1r lives in darkness. and at a tenn
perature near to the fire ezing poinfH
The vegetable organisms were original
~ absorbed by plants and animals on
the earth's surface or N tie shallow
waters. and 1t is estimated that three
fourths OF the deposits now covering
the bottom OF the ocean have at some
time passed through the ali .ntary
canals OF marine animals.
The geography of the sea-oceano-
graphy' 1t is called-began with the
laying OF the ocean cables and was
elevated into a branch of sc ence by the
cruise OF the Challenger Since then
1t has been found that there are forty
three great deep-sea valleys. The Pa
cdfic Ocean, like the Pacific slope, Is
the great mountainous region OF the
water world. There are twenty-four
vast valleys concealed beneath it.
The area occupied by these deeps is
estimated at 1854 900 geographical
square miles, or about per cent. OF
the water surface of the globe. With
In them over ESQ soundings have been
recorded, OF which twenty-four exceed
$4,000 feet, including three exceeding
10000 feet. Depths exceeding $4,000
feet have been recorded within eight OF
the deeps, viz, in the North Atlantic
within the Mares deep, in the Antarc-
tic within the Ross deep, in the Banda
Sea within t1e Weber deep, In the
North Pacific within the Challenger,
Tuscarora and Supau deeps, and in the
South Pacific within the Aldrich and
Richards deeps. Depths exceeding 30
900 feet have been hitherto recorded
cnly within the Aldrich deep OF the
South Pacific, to the east of the Ker-
madecs and Friendly Islands, where
the greatest depth is 5,155 fathoms, or
$50 feet more than five geographical
miles, being about 1000 feet more be-
low the level Of the sea than the sum-
init OF Mount Everest, in the Himalay-
as, Is above it.
1t Is estimated that 90 per cent. Of
the sea floor has a temperature lower
than 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The tenn
perature at the floor of the Indian
Ocean is under 35 degrees. A similar
temperature occurs over large part of
the South Atlantic and certain parts
of the Pacific, but at the bottom or the
no. tn Atlantic lasin, and over a large
portion OF the Pacific the temperature
"a higher than SO degrees.
~AsTORTAo
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