Seafloor Sunday #89: Photo From the Deepest Part of the Ocean

Last night I realized I haven't done a Seafloor Sunday image since June. One reason for the lack of seafloor image posts is that when I search for images of seafloor bathymetry (topography) out there on the internets most of what I find is stuff I've posted before!

Anyway, I shouldn't limit myself to just maps of bigger-scale features. There are some really cool photographs of the seafloor researchers put on their websites for all to see. For example, the image above from the Max Planck Institute of Microbiology is from the Marianas Trench, the deepest place in our ocean, where a team of scientists are investigating the relationship of microbes in the sediments to carbon:

A sophisticated deep-diving autonomous lander has carried out a series of descents to the seafloor of the Challenger Deep, a canyon 10.9 km beneath the ocean surface. Here it performed detailed investigations of microbial processes occurring in the sediment. Such detailed science has never been carried out at these extreme depths.

So, this photo is from the seafloor nearly seven miles underwater -- this blows my mind a little bit. Read more about the science they are doing here.

Image: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) www.jamstec.go.jp/e/