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  • Hello. This is 6 Minute English

  • from BBC Learning English.

  • I'm Sam. And I'm Neil. The 20th of

  • July 1969 was a big day in

  • history. Do you know why, Sam? Wasn't that when Neil Armstrong

  • first set foot on the Moon? Right. But it's often forgotten

  • that some of the most dramatic

  • photographs taken on the

  • Apollo space mission weren't

  • of the Moon at all - they

  • were of Earth. It wasn't

  • until we went to the Moon

  • that we really saw the

  • size of Earth's oceans

  • and named ourselves,

  • the Blue Planet. Despite most of our planet

  • being covered by water,

  • the ocean remains of place

  • of unexplored mystery, of

  • sea monsters like

  • Moby Dick, and the Kraken.

  • In this programme, we'll

  • be diving into the

  • deep seas, seeing some

  • of its strange sights,

  • and as usual, learning

  • some related vocabulary too. But before that I have a

  • question for you, Sam.

  • You were right when you

  • said that most of the

  • Earth is covered

  • by water. But do you

  • know exactly how much

  • of the Earth's surface

  • is ocean? Is it: a) 50 percent?  

  • b) 60 percent? or, c) 70 percent?  

  • Well, it is called

  • the Blue Planet, so

  • I ll say c) 70 percent. OK. I'll reveal the answer

  • later in the programme.

  • The first thing to say

  • about the deep ocean is

  • that the rules of life

  • down there are very

  • different from the rules

  • on land. Sunlight

  • cannot reach the very

  • bottom of the ocean,

  • a place between two and

  • three kilometres down

  • known as the 'deep abyss',

  • so it totally dark and

  • extremely cold. And the

  • weight of water creates

  • massive amounts of pressure. This extreme environment is

  • stranger than fiction, and

  • home to things which seem

  • to be from another planet;

  • things like hydrothermal

  • vents - volcanic hot springs

  • which break through the

  • ocean floor. Oceanographer,

  • Alex Rogers, joined an

  • expedition which discovered

  • a hydrothermal vent in

  • the ocean near Antarctica.

  • He told his story to BBC

  • World Service programme,

  • Discovery: Well, the first problem is

  • actually finding them

  • because they cover a very

  • small area so it's

  • literally like trying to

  • find a needle in a haystack,

  • but when you do come across

  • them, I mean, the deep ocean

  • is food limited, so life

  • is quite thin on the ground,

  • and then suddenly your

  • camera just stumbles into

  • this area where there is

  • just abundant life all

  • over the sea floor and

  • around these vents. Alex says that finding

  • these small thermal vents

  • at the bottom of the ocean

  • is like finding a needle

  • in a haystack, an idiom

  • meaning almost impossible

  • to find because the area

  • you have to search

  • is so large. Because there's no sunlight

  • on the ocean floor, it's

  • hard for plants and

  • creatures to survive, so

  • forms of life are thin

  • on the ground - there are

  • only a few of them. Alex

  • cannot find anything to film

  • with his camera, until

  • suddenly he nears the vent

  • and sees plants and animals

  • everywhere. Here, there is

  • more than enough, or

  • abundant life. To picture a hydrothermal

  • vent, imagine an underwater

  • volcano. Billowing clouds of

  • what looks like smoke

  • heat the seawater to a

  • temperature of 386 degrees C.

  • This creates a warm

  • environment of all kinds

  • of weird and wonderful

  • creatures, including vent

  • mussels, tube worms and

  • blind 'yeti crabs', so

  • called because of their

  • hairy claws, some of

  • which get cooked because

  • the water is so hot. What's amazing is that

  • while these vents may be

  • as old as Earth itself,

  • they were only discovered

  • in the 1970s. So, are

  • there more mysteries hiding

  • in the deep ocean? That's

  • the question BBC World

  • Service's, Discovery, asked

  • marine biologist, Kerry Howell.

  • Here's what she said. I have absolutely no doubt

  • that there is plenty more to

  • discover down there. It's really

  • vast, I mean it's quite hard to

  • get your head around how vast

  • the deep sea is, and it is

  • most of our planet. So... and

  • we've barely scratched the

  • surface of exploration of this

  • unique environment, and if

  • you think that vents were

  • only discovered in the 70s,

  • you know, there's great

  • potential for a lot else

  • to come, I think. We've only

  • been exploring this

  • environment for the last

  • 150 years, I mean. Before

  • that we didn't think

  • there was any life down

  • there at all. So, it's

  • a very young science is

  • Deep Sea biology. And so,

  • there's... yeah, there's

  • a lot more to discover.

  • I have no doubt. In terms of ocean

  • exploration Kerry thinks

  • we've only scratched the

  • surface - found out a

  • little bit about something,

  • but not enough to

  • fully understand it. That's because the ocean

  • is vast - extremely big.

  • So vast, in fact, that it's

  • hard to get your head

  • around it, or difficult

  • to really understand. But how vast, exactly,

  • Sam? In my question I asked

  • how much of the Earth's

  • surface is covered by water.  

  • And I said it was c) 70 percent. Which was the correct answer!

  • Well, 71 percent to be precise,

  • but either way it's hard to

  • get your head around or

  • difficult to fully understand. OK, we'd better recap the

  • other vocabulary too,

  • starting with the idiom,

  • finding a needle in a haystack

  • meaning that something is

  • almost impossible to find

  • because you have to

  • search so widely for it. If something is thin on the

  • ground, there's very little

  • of it, but if it's abundant,

  • there's plenty or

  • more than enough. When you only scratch the

  • surface, you find out a

  • little about something,

  • but not enough to

  • fully understand it. And finally, vast is

  • another way of saying

  • extremely large,

  • huge or enormous. Unlike the vast oceans,

  • our time is limited to

  • just six minutes and

  • it's up. So, join us

  • again soon for more

  • amazing adventures and,

  • of course, useful

  • vocabulary, here at 6 Minute

  • English. Goodbye for now! Goodbye!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English

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