Researchers to dive into ‘Midnight Zone’
BARCELONA, Spain — A team of scientists is preparing to dive deep into the depths of the Indian Ocean — into a “Midnight Zone” where light barely reaches but life still thrives.
Scientists from the British-led Nekton Mission plan to survey wildlife and gauge the effects of climate change in the unexplored area. Working with the Seychelles and Maldives governments, the five-week expedition is t a rg e t i n g seamounts — vast underwater mountains that rise thousands of meters from the sea floor.
To explore such inhospitable depths, Nekton scientists will board one of the world’s most advanced submersibles, called Limiting Factor.
“What we do know is that beneath 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), there’s no light down there, but a lot of animals ... are bioluminescent. It’s life that glows,” says Nekton mission director Oliver
Steeds.
“The area that we’re going to be researching, it’s one of the most biodiverse parts of the world’s oceans. So what we’re going to find there is unknown,” Steeds recently said in Barcelona, Spain, before sea trials for the submersible and its mother ship.
Last August, the Limiting Factor completed the Five Deeps Expedition, diving to the deepest point in each of the world’s five oceans. The deepest was almost 36,000 feet down — deeper than
Mount Everest is tall.
To withstand such crushing pressures, the sub’s twoperson crew compartment is wrapped in a 3.5-inch titanium cocoon. It also carries up to 96 hours’ of emergency oxygen.
“There are only five vehicles in the world that can get below 6,000 meters (19,685 feet), and only one that can get to the bottom half,” said expedition leader Rob McCallum. “So everything we do is new. Everything we see is virtually a new discovery.”