Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The Mariana Trench (in the Pacific Ocean) supposedly was formed by “Ocean to ocean subduction” and is the deepest place in the sea and the earth, and at seven miles deep, only one attempt to reach the bottom has been successful. The names of the oceanographers who made it are: “Don Welsh” and “Jacques Piccard,” they reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in a mini-sub called the Trieste and were members of the U.S. Navy.

The Navy purchased the “bathyscaphe” (or “deep subs” are the deepest diving subs) from Italy for $ 250,000 ($1,819,517 in 2010 value) in the 1960s for the purpose of scientific research. The sub was almost completely a gas tank, being able to carry 70 tons of gas, and the only occupied part of the sub was the dome on the bottom, which was plated with bronze.

The Trench is divided in several sections and the deepest of them is the Challenger Deep named by Piccard while on a fishing boat “Converted into a laboratory.” Their goal was to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep. On 26 August 1953 they dived, and they went down using thrusters and at 9,840 feet they began to slow down as a impact would be fatal. The sudden pressure of stopping cracked one of the windows, but it was an outer window and was of no danger.  To come back up they released 2.2 tons of “iron-pellet ballast.” They reached the surface and they set the record for the deepest dive in history, the record has never been broken. One robot came within two feet of the record, but had to surface. Jacques died November 1, 2008 and Don Walsh is still alive at the age of 80

———————
“Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.” ~ Gillian Anderson

End Comments:
The Trench is located approximately 585.96 miles from Tokyo Japan
Visit the image gallery for more images.
You can see a video of the Trieste here.

Source[s]:
http://marianatrench.com/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageseas/deep-side-journey.html
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/just_remember-you_can_do_anything_you_set_your/207562.html
Odious Oceans, by: Anita Ganeri

Earth

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The earth is the third planet from the sun and the fifth largest planet in the solar system. The earth is also one of the four terrestrial planets, the earth is sometimes referred to as the world, the blue planet, Terra (the Latin word for earth) earth is also the densest in the solar system. The earth has Millions of species and supposedly has tectonic plates. One theory is that the tectonic plates float around like boats and when the collide it causes an earthquake. There are different kinds of movement: Convergent boundaries, that is when the plates smash into each other, Divergent boundaries when the plates are pulled away from each other, and Transform boundaries, when the plates scare alongside each other. The oldest rock ever dated is 4,030 million years old. The oldest oceanic rock ever found was 200 million years old. Most of the ocean floor is 100 million years old. The slowest moving is the Eurasian Plate. It moves at about 21 mm a year. Most move at the same speed as your fingernail grows. The fastest moving plate, is the pacific plate moving at 59-69 mm a year. But in the  Francisco earthquake the scientist are compelled to think that the Francisco was not in the direct path of the vibrations. Instead they think that the vibrations started approx. 120 miles away from Fransisco, and traveled at an angle and hit the outer core of the earth and went in a direct line under Fransisco. the core is said to have a layer, and when the pressure becomes intense it can give way causing it to bulge up and forming a mountain. When the ash/magma begins to push on the top of the mountain it makes it erupt. In the mount saint Helen incident, it was mostly ash and not magma,  The main threat at that time was the “pyroclastic flows”  These flows can be 50 feet high and usually go faster than 70 miles an hour and can wipe out anything in their way, because they have the consistency of wet cement, If they hit anything it crushes it. These flows are created by debris but mostly melted water from the mountain which combines with all the dirt resulting in these flows. Scientists think that is an asteroid any larger than 20+ miles could destroy all life on the planet in approximately 4 months. If it landed in the ocean it would cause tidal waves bigger than any in history. If Yellow Stone state park or any other super volcano erupted it would send ash into the upper atmosphere blocking out the sun and steadily freezing the planet (which supposedly already happened). It would also make glaciers come down from the upper part of the earth (Alaska, Russia, Canada…). These giant glaciers would cover approximately 50% of the earths surface (as they supposedly did in the last ice age). This would of course devastate the rest of the earth horribly and would eventually destroy it. They also believe that giant tornado’s called “hypercanes” could cause severe global damage. The scientists are mildly sure that there have been prehistoric hypercanes thousands of years ago. There is one little snag, it is very difficult to raise a hypercane in the modern oceans. The temperature of the water is hundreds of degrees short of the required water temperature to make a hypercane. The water would have to be approximately 200°f. because the water would have to evaporate quickly enough for the winds to catch it at the right angle to swirl it into a vortex creating a hypercane. They could move a long distance inland and go 80 miles an hour, they have even been blamed for killing the dinosaurs. They were (according to models) roughly 50 miles wide and would draw everything within 20 miles to be crushed.

The Giant Clam

The Giant Clam is from the Tridacna gigas. T. gigas is one of the one of the most endangered clam species. It was mentioned in scientific reports as early as 1825. They live in shallow coral reefs and can weigh up to 441 lbs. They can also live as deep as 66 ft. They live in flat coral sand or broken coral. They are also found off the coast of the Philippines where they are called taklobo. Although larval clams are planktonic they become sessile in adulthood. The creatures mantle tissues act as a habitat for the symbiotic single-celled Dino Flagellate algae from which it gets its nutrition. By day the clam opens it’s shell and extends it’s mantle tissue so that algae receives the sunlight they need to photosynthesize. Young T. gigas are difficult to distinguish from other species of Tridacnidae. Adult T. gigas are the only clams unable to close they’re shells completely even when closed part of the mantle remains exposed. unlike the very similar T. derasa T. gigas have 4-5 folds in they’re shells unlike the T. derasa which has 6-7 folds. The largest known T. gigas specimen measured 137 cm it was discovered around 1817 on north-western coast of Sumatra the weight of the two shells was 230 kilograms 507 lbs this suggests that the live weight of the animal would have been roughly 551 lbs today these shells are on display in a museum in north Ireland today. Algae provides T. gigas with all supplement needed, in small clams 10 milligrams dry tissue weight filter feeding provide about 65% of total carbon needed for respiration and growth. Large clams 10 g acquire only 34% of carbon from this source. Legend as is often the case with uncharacteristically large species the giant clam has been historically misunderstood was known as “killer-clam” and “man-eating clam” and versions of the U.S. Navy Diving Manual even gave detailed instructions for releasing oneself from its grasp by severing the abductor muscles used to close its shell. In a colorful account of the discovery of the pearl of Lao Tzu, Wilburn Cobb said he was told that a Dyak diver was drowned when the Tridacna closed it’s shell on his arm. They also have thousands of tiny eyes all over them. They are not particularly good eyes, just good enough so that they can see a shadow pass over them so they can close they’re shell.

(Giant Clam)                                                                                                 (Pearl of Lao Tzu)