Researchers Take On Kermadec Trench Dive To Find Unknown Deep-Sea Creatures
Researchers Take On Kermadec Trench Dive To Find Unknown Deep-Sea Creatures
LiveScience | by Becky Oskin
Posted: 04/13/2014 8:09 am EDT Updated: 04/13/2014 11:59 am EDT
Scientists plan to explore one of Earth's coldest, deepest ocean trenches starting Saturday (April 12), the first stop in a three-year examination of the ocean's most mysterious depths.
The Kermadec Trench dives 32,963 feet (10,047 meters) deep offshore of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean. Waters flowing into the trench from Antarctica make the gorge one of the coldest ocean canyons on Earth, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation.
The team will explore life in the trenches by collecting DNA and exploring the deep-sea habitat with remotely operated vehicles such as the National Science Foundation's Nereus ROV and the University of Aberdeen's Hadal-Lander, based in Scotland.
Research teams have explored Kermadec before with ROVs and cameras, finding strange marine creatures such as massive, shrimp-like crustaceans called amphipods that live 4 miles (6 kilometers) beneath the sea surface.
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