What’s the norm for life 5,000 feet below the surface? So far the article says it’s a dead zone but what should be there?
Not much.
BearManPig Algore and all the enviromentablists.
The second zone is the mesopelagic (meaning middle sea). It is often called the twilight zone because, while its upper regions where it meets the epipelagic zone are still quite light during the day, its lower boundary at about 1,000m is perpetually dark because none of the Sun's rays can penetrate this far. Many of the animals in this strange twilight world produce their own light, bioluminescence (living light), which they use as camouflage or to find, or attract, potential food or mates. The mesopelagic zone impinges on the sea floor on the outer parts of the continental shelves and the upper part of the continental slopes. In the deep sea proper the mesopelagic zone overlies the vast, dark waters of the last great depth zone.The third zone receives no sunlight at all, so it is always absolutely dark apart from the occasional flashes of ghostly blue light produced by bioluminescent animals. It is rather arbitrarily divided by ocean scientists into the bathypelagic (deep sea), which extends down to about 3,000m, the abyssopelagic (bottomless sea) from 3,000 to 6,000m, and the hadal (unseen) for the ocean trenches. But these zones can all be grouped together into the abyss.
A bunch of very cold water with very little oxygen...and little else.
Unless she's a Women's Studies teacher, Prof. Joye should know this.
Pretty bleak, I imagine.
However, ABC kept flashing videos of a beautiful coral reef with gorgeous tropical fish in very bright ambient light as a comparison.
Slime.
Instead they found oily slime.
bfd