The Floor Of The Ocean Has Sprung A Leak

  • last year
So, get this – the ocean floor has decided to spring a leak! It's like Mother Nature's version of a surprise water feature. Scientists discovered some cracks in the Earth's crust beneath the ocean, and water is seeping in like an underwater plumbing malfunction. These leaks are happening near tectonic plate boundaries, adding an extra layer of mystery to our planet's plumbing system. It's not a catastrophic flood, but it's enough to make researchers scratch their heads and dive deeper into understanding these aquatic anomalies. Mother Earth's got a quirky sense of humor, and her plumbing surprises are keeping scientists on their toes!

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Transcript
00:00 Oh wow, there's a hole in the bottom of the ocean!
00:03 It seems that the ocean has a leak.
00:05 But it's not like a leak you would expect,
00:08 where water is flowing out.
00:09 It's more like a spring since water is flowing in, not out.
00:13 This unique leak is something we know as Pythia's Oasis.
00:18 A grad student was the one who accidentally discovered it.
00:21 He noticed bubbles that were rising to the surface.
00:25 Normally, bubbles in the ocean tell us there might be some hydrothermal vents,
00:29 which are hot spots for some pretty cool things.
00:31 These vents are actually like hot springs on the seafloor.
00:36 But instead of bubbling with warm water,
00:38 they release a fluid that has been superheated in the crust of our planet.
00:42 When seawater seeps into these cracks and travels deep into the crust,
00:47 it comes into contact with the extremely hot mantle.
00:50 This heats seawater to very high temperatures,
00:53 and as it moves back up towards the surface, it carries dissolved gases and minerals.
00:59 When the hot fluid shoots out of the vents,
01:01 it mixes with the surrounding seawater and quickly cools down.
01:04 Just a short distance away from the vent,
01:07 the temperature can drop to a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit or so.
01:11 Which is, as it seems, exactly what some creatures like.
01:15 And there are some real weirdos living down there in the darkness,
01:20 like ghostly fish, giant red-tipped tube worms,
01:23 and a unique type of shrimp with eyes on their back.
01:26 And some of them, like tube worms and bacteria,
01:28 rely on the chemicals and minerals released by the vents to survive in harsh conditions.
01:33 But in this case, the bubbling water didn't come from a hydrothermal vent.
01:39 It was there because of a spring.
01:42 And that's a bit more concerning.
01:44 You see, the water in this reservoir needs to stay where it is.
01:48 If too much of it seeps out, there could be some serious consequences,
01:52 especially for the surrounding area.
01:55 You can see this unusual leak along the Cascadia subduction zone,
01:59 which is a massive fault line off the Pacific Northwest coast.
02:02 It's a place where two pretty big plates that make up Earth's crust
02:06 come together and slide along each other.
02:09 The water from Pythia's oasis kinda acts as a lubricant between these plates.
02:14 You can think of the fault zone as an air hockey table.
02:18 When the fluid pressure is high, it's like you've turned the air on.
02:21 That means the friction between the plates is reduced,
02:24 which allows the plates to move.
02:26 But if the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates can lock together,
02:31 which then leads to the buildup of stress.
02:33 Not that they'll feel bad.
02:36 In the context of tectonic plates,
02:38 stress is some pressure or force that can cause deformation.
02:41 And if this stress starts to build up, at some point, it's gotta go somewhere.
02:46 When it's too much, it can trigger earthquakes and most likely not small ones.
02:51 For example, a release of stress in the Cascadia subduction zone
02:55 could lead to a magnitude 9 earthquake.
02:58 For comparison, the biggest earthquake we've ever recorded
03:02 happened in Chile in 1960, and it had a magnitude of 9.5.
03:07 The damage was enormous.
03:10 So we hope the water will stay in its reservoir
03:13 and keep maintaining the delicate balance between the tectonic plates.
03:16 We've explored only 5% of the ocean.
03:20 Who knows how many cool things are there at the bottom, waiting to be found?
03:24 For example, check out these mysterious holes
03:27 scientists have stumbled upon in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores.
03:32 They're neatly aligned and are about 4 inches apart, or in some cases, even several feet.
03:39 They resemble punctures left by a sewing machine.
03:42 Some think these holes could have a biological origin.
03:46 For instance, some fish may have made them while walking along the seafloor.
03:50 Others believe we could be looking at something that's human-made,
03:54 maybe left by a spiked tire.
03:56 Of course, such holes are perfect for making up stories
03:59 about creatures from other planets who allegedly made them.
04:02 Or maybe even legendary monsters like that one from Loch Ness.
04:07 It's definitely hard to explain such symmetry of the holes,
04:12 but one deep-sea biologist offered a pretty good explanation.
04:15 He said there could be an animal burrowing beneath the sediment
04:19 and from time to time, it could make little chimneys
04:22 just to get access to clean water circulation in its small burrow.
04:25 I mean, there are sediment piles around the opening of each hole
04:30 and they do support the idea that something pushed the soil from below.
04:34 But there's still no proof these holes are actually connected beneath the surface.
04:39 And there are also a lot of things hidden at the bottom of the oceans and seas
04:45 that ancient civilizations left us.
04:48 For instance, archaeologists made a really cool discovery
04:51 off the southern coast of Croatia.
04:53 A road hidden under layers of sea mud that's 7,000 years old.
04:58 They found the ancient road at the sunken Neolithic site of Solin.
05:02 The site of Solin was a human-made island in ancient times,
05:07 and an archaeologist discovered it two years ago.
05:10 He was studying satellite images of the area around Korčula,
05:14 one of the beautiful Croatian islands,
05:16 when he realized there could be something interesting at the bottom of the sea.
05:20 He dove into the water with his colleague.
05:22 And under the surface of the Adriatic Sea,
05:26 which is part of the Mediterranean Sea,
05:28 at a depth of 13 to 16 feet,
05:30 they found stone walls that were most likely part of some ancient settlement.
05:36 The landmass where people built the settlement
05:38 was separated from the main island by a narrow stretch of land.
05:41 Luckily, this area is protected from big waves by the surrounding islands.
05:46 The site remained relatively well preserved.
05:49 It's now hidden beneath the surface of the sea and covered in mud.
05:54 But it's so exciting to imagine how people walked on that road
05:57 nearly 7,000 years ago, visiting nearby settlements.
06:00 If you want to see the weirdest creatures,
06:04 you can always head to the bottom of the sea.
06:06 Actually, scientists have determined there could be more than
06:10 30 potentially new species at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
06:14 They've collected them using their remote-controlled vehicle.
06:17 That's a big step because until recently,
06:19 they could only study such creatures through photographs.
06:23 I'm talking about segmented worms, different types of coral,
06:26 some invertebrates similar to centipedes, and many others.
06:30 But there are also many old freaky creatures that we already know about
06:35 that look like they came from sci-fi movies.
06:38 Red octopus, blobfish,
06:40 ok this one kinda looks normal until you raise it to the surface,
06:44 the goblin shark,
06:45 Sloan's viperfish,
06:47 zombie worms,
06:48 ugh, yeah I hear ya, let's move on.
06:51 The sea floor hides things from space too.
06:55 There are traces of rare forms of plutonium and iron at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
07:01 And what's awesome is that all this has come from space.
07:04 These radioactive materials probably formed during some kind of
07:09 cataclysmic event in space and eventually made their way out to our beautiful home planet.
07:14 And this extraterrestrial debris most likely appeared on Earth within the past 10 million
07:21 years. After it fell to the Pacific Ocean and settled at a depth of almost a mile,
07:26 it became part of all those layers of rock down there.
07:29 Plutonium is especially exciting for scientists.
07:33 I mean, only tiny amounts of it have been found,
07:36 hundreds of atoms maybe.
07:38 But it's still remarkable because these atoms are created by exploding stars.
07:43 Things like this can help us better understand how the universe produces elements heavier than iron
07:51 like plutonium, gold, uranium, and platinum.
07:54 We're still not sure about the origins of these elements.
07:58 For a long time, scientists believed that supernovae, which is when a star comes to its
08:03 end in a fabulous explosion, were responsible for creating these heavy elements.
08:08 But it seems it's not just that.
08:10 Some other cosmic events, such as the collision of neutron stars, which are super dense collapsed
08:16 stars, or some rare types of supernovae, could also be involved.
08:20 Whoa, let me get my popcorn!
08:24 That's it for today!
08:25 So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends!
08:30 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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