2006-12-04 00:44:30 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
please supply the source you got the information from.
2006-12-04 00:45:34 · update #1
There's one major challenge that must be overcome to explore the ocean floor, that is the pressure of water. The pressure at the Mariana Trench at the depth of around 11.000 meters can be around 1.000 ATM (atmospheric pressure).
The ocean floor can be divided into around three kinds according to depth:
- Continental shelf, which goes to down to the depth of around 200 meters.
- Abyssal plain, which goes to down to the depth of around 4.000 meters.
- Deep sea trench, which goes to down to the depth of around over 10.000 meters.
Humans have gone to all of these depths using manned crafts, but don't explore much of them.
Cyclinders and spheres are often used to explore these depths, but a torus would combine features from the two, more resistant to pressure than a cyclinder and offer more flexible arrangement than a sphere.
2006-12-04 04:34:12 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What type of exploration do you mean?
The Ocean Drilling Program has been drilling, and sampling the ocean floor for about 40 years. They have also sampled the water, so we have a good understanding of water rock interactions, etc.
The main challenges are the high pressure, and the amount of money involved. For drilling the main difficulty is to develop a more efficient technique that improve the recovery of the core and the collapse and entrapment of the drilling hammers.
You can find a lot of information at:
http://www.odplegacy.org/
http://www.iodp.org/
2006-12-04 13:12:52 · answer #2 · answered by Scientist13905 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ocean floor can be divided into 4 sections. We have the technology (for around 2 years) to explore most of the first two sections. Basic scuba gear can get you down 100 feet. Other scuba type equipment can get you down 300 or so feet. After that you need a submersible (manned or remote operated). The key to they submersibles is that they can withstand the extreme pressures at depth. I believe that the deepest we can go in submersibles is currently 3000 feet. Whales can actually dive much deeper and we are not sure why.
2006-12-04 09:56:05 · answer #3 · answered by Jeffrey Hay 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like a great question for you to research your self on the web. Then you will know the source as well.
2006-12-04 08:48:39 · answer #4 · answered by shaman 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋