Sometimes we think of the sea - the deep sea - as a splendidly Gothic place. Listen to this BBC article on oceanic exploration:
[oceanographer Sylvia Earle] believes the very deepest parts of the ocean have been the most neglected.
Most of the sea floor lies between 4,000m and 6,000m (13,000-20,000ft) below sea level: a layer known as the abyssal zone.
"abyssal zone": lovely.
Let's go deeper:
But trenches, although few in number, are twice as deep, and they occupy an area called the Hadal Zone.
She says: "That last little bit only accounts for maybe 3% of the ocean. Well think about it - that's an area the size of Australia, North America, or China - and we're ignoring it?"
A huge, unknown land, deep under us: what a fine Gothic area of potential.
We noted the Gothic lure of the sea a few years back, reading Peter Watts. Some gorgeous stuff like
Ballard makes a strangled sound and dives into the mud. The benthic ooze boils up around her in a seething cloud; she disappears in a torrent of planktonic corpses.
(thanks to Ed Webb's pelagic Diigo); images via OceanLink and Xewkija Council)
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