If Someone Is Like A Rubber Band

the future of our climate

A platform deposited in a canyon at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean shows that the trenches act as receptors of carbon dioxide. And then play an important role in regulating Earth's climate and chemical

OVER THERE ', at the deepest point of the planet, the Mariana Trench, is one of the hidden secrets most important to understand the future Earth's climate. The submarine has unveiled a platform built by a group of international researchers that was tabled for a few hours on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the Challenger Deep, a canyon that winds 10,900 feet deep. The first results it seems that it was Oceans act as important receptors of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gases present in Earth's atmosphere, the water escapes from it in large quantities. And this suggests that it plays a major role in regulating and unexpected chemistry and climate of the Earth.

the bottom of the Mariana Trench, there are only two explorers arrived, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh was 1960. Since then only three other unmanned submarines touched the deepest oceans. In all cases, however, despite having found some data, it was always treated with technological challenges and one whose primary objective was to achieve Then with such extreme conditions than normal.

Now the team of scientists led by Ronnie Glud, University of Southern Denmark and Sams (Scottish Association for Marine Science), has reached the bottom of the pit to start a real scientific exploration. "With the technology of today we have been able to lay many of the tools that have collected scientific information, including how much carbon there is in". In reality what has been laid on the ocean floor is a platform equipped with special sensors placed inside a cylinder of titanium, built to withstand the pressures present at that depth. Brought to the site by ship Yokosuka Japanese submarine took about 3 hours to get in free fall on the sea floor. There he carried out the experiments that were planned and, once the ballast is released back to the surface.

Glud explains: "Our interest has focused on how much organic material there is a check in there and once dead if it is digested by bacteria or simply buried. The percentage of material that is degraded bacteria tells us how much oxygen and carbon dioxide is present and therefore how much is subtracted from the atmosphere. "

Queste caratteristiche sono già state studiate in altre parti degli oceani, a 4 o 5 chilometri di profondità, ma mai sul fondo delle fosse oceaniche, a 10-11 chilometri dalla superficie marina. "Dai primi dati che abbiamo ottenuto si può sostenere che le fosse, nonostante occupino solo il 2% dei fondali marini, hanno un ruolo fondamentale nel clima terrestre, perché intrappolano grandi quantità di anidride carbonica", ha sottolineato Glud.

Non è la prima volta che le fosse oceaniche lasciano attoniti gli stessi ricercatori. Nel 2008, ad esempio, una ricerca condotta dalla University of Aberdee's Oceanlab trovò ad oltre 7.000 di profondità, in una fossa del Giappone, un numeroso banco di pesci e numerosi altri organismi solitari del tutto inaspettati.

Ma tornerà mai l'uomo laggiù? Sì, e anche abbastanza presto, se il regista di Titanic e Avatar , James Cameron, manterrà la promessa di voler costruire un sottomarino per girare un film in 3D proprio nella Fossa delle Marianne e al contempo vincere il premio da 10 milioni di dollari messi in palio dalla X-Prize per chi, per primo, ripercorrerà le gesta di Piccard e Walsh.

SOURCE: Luigi Bignami (repubblica.it)