James Cameron reaches bottom of Mariana Trench

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Thor

Its not that at all, while 99% of the ocean is unexplored, we know what it looks like, just no one has physically gone down.

Its like the ocean floor was the prairies, and we go down and always find the same stuff, so even if we've seen spots of the floor, we can predict with great certainty what we'll find, sure might find a few new species we haven't seen but the likelihood of finding something that would blow us away is unlikely.

The ocean floor is simply the same, almost everywhere on earth, we know what the floor looks like from our mapping of the ocean floor, we pick and choose interesting looking spots on those maps to go down and check out, but the vast majority of the ocean is a rather boring area.

Soooo, pretty much exactly like space then? (and I love space)

[Thor]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Soooo, pretty much exactly like space then? (and I love space)

The big difference being of course finding anything in space has massive implications and impact on humanity and our understanding of life.

My big bet is on Europa, and I know a lot of people are really excited at the possibility of life in that ocean.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Thor

The big difference being of course finding anything in space has massive implications and impact on humanity and our understanding of life.

My big bet is on Europa, and I know a lot of people are really excited at the possibility of life in that ocean.

How do we know that underwater discoveries wouldn't have the same implications?

It costs MUCH less to explore underwater than in space, too. I suppose we can see what's out in space, but we can actually GO underwater.

[Thor]

Originally Posted by T@T

When Ballard found the invertebrate tubeworms living in 600+ degree water,under extreme pressure 2-3 miles down,feeding off bacteria with zero sunlight it was probably one of the most significant scientific discoveries ever,It showed that life could exist under very strange and harsh conditions...since then though your right...meh to the ocean!

But your misunderstanding me, those areas where we have volcanic activity are of high interest to marine biologists, they are targetted areas where people are looking.

What I was suggesting is that the vast majority of the oceans is relatively flat plains of nothingness, with those odd little crabs, fishes and of course alien like life that we have seen down there.

This area of the ocean we are quite certain looks the same would represent probably 99% of the oceans, so what I mean by we know pretty much what to expect is in regards to those areas. Its like the moon, we have the layout, we know what to expect in areas we havent been before.

[Thor]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

How do we know that underwater discoveries wouldn't have the same implications?

It costs MUCH less to explore underwater than in space, too. I suppose we can see what's out in space, but we can actually GO underwater.

We can do both, the budget for NASA is 1/10th of a penny of the US dollar. The discovery of life on another body in space would be a massive discovery, one of the biggest in human existence.

I doubt we could find anything so dramatic on the ocean floor, but am all for us going there and exploring, but we have to pick areas that look interesting.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Thor

We can do both, the budget for NASA is 1/10th of a penny of the US dollar. The discovery of life on another body in space would be a massive discovery, one of the biggest in human existence.

I doubt we could find anything so dramatic on the ocean floor, but am all for us going there and exploring, but we have to pick areas that look interesting.

Agreed.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Thor

The big difference being of course finding anything in space has massive implications and impact on humanity and our understanding of life.

My big bet is on Europa, and I know a lot of people are really excited at the possibility of life in that ocean.

All these worlds are yours--Except Europa. Attempt no landings there.

[Thor]

Originally Posted by T@T

When Ballard found the invertebrate tubeworms living in 600+ degree water,under extreme pressure 2-3 miles down,feeding off bacteria with zero sunlight it was probably one of the most significant scientific discoveries ever,It showed that life could exist under very strange and harsh conditions...since then though your right...meh to the ocean!

Bah I´m just not getting this across well enough. The reason they found those was because they knew roughly the most interesting places to look. The vast majority of the ocean floor is like the desert, you know looking at any deserts in the world what you're gonna get, mind you the ocean floor has some solid chances of neat new species to find.

Those vast stretches of ocean floor are barren, and represent the large majority of the ocean floor. So when people say 99% of the ocean is unexplored and we need to explore all of it, the truth is another 10-15% of the ocean floor is very interesting and worth putting our resources into, while the desert of the ocean floor is something we can look at in the future when we start running out of those "hot spots" on the globe we expect to see the most interesting discoveries and finds.

I hope that clears it up.