Try to imagine, just for a moment That somewhere in the endless reaches of the universe On the outer edge of a galaxy of a hundred thousand million Suns Deep within a cluster of slowly forming planets A small sphere of just the right size Lies just the right distance from its mother star cooling in the coldness of space Try to imagine … … Now that sphere’s creation continues As countless volcanos spew clouds of gas and steam into the sky from melted mineral formations And then that cloud covered planet waits … And waits … And waits … Until finally those clouds of gas and steam condense and rain upon that planet …. Rain Upon that planet, ... Earth. … And they rain … And rain … And rain. … The Deluge. ... A Deluge of such magnitude that the world’s greatest waterfalls flowing together for a MILLION YEARS would only JUST BEGIN to approach its results. For when it finally stopped …. The Seas had been born. ... Seas that would make this planet unlike any other within the realm of our knowledge. For it was there-- sheltered from cosmic radiation--that the means to support life on Earth was able to emerge. Tiny single celled plants—Phytoplankton—that captured the energy of the Sun and convert it into the most basic of life sustaining elements—oxygen, Creating more than half the Earth’s supply. But more than that, those same seas interact with that same solar energy and the Earth’s rotation to serve as the engine that drives all the world’s weather. Yet… these phenomena occur in only the first few hundred feet, of seas that average greater than TWO MILES in depth. And it is there... In those depths… In an endless night… Darker than the darkest night on land… That we are just now beginning to explore an amazing world. There, among raging underwater storms and fiery underwater volcanos, mountain ranges that dwarf the Himalayas and gorges four times deeper than the Grand Canyon, There, two miles deep in that darkness… An amazing world. A world where the cold sea pours into the mountain’s warm core Through immense cracks in its surface And then rises back to the ocean floor As a superheated mineral laden fluid Emitting what to us would be lethal concentrations of poisonous chemicals. Yet.. Incredibly, Around these strange vents Exotic lifeforms flourish! Lifeforms that have astonished biologists by finding the means of their survival not in photosynthesis and the Sun, but in the chemicals of the Earth itself… Chemosynthesis! An ecosystem like none other on Earth! Until now scientifically inconceivable, Yet there, nevertheless! Deep beneath the sea Waiting for our discovery. Waiting in a world where we’ve spent less time then on the SURFACE OF THE MOON. A world we’ve only just begun to explore with tools we’ve only just begun to imagine. Tools with which we’ll go Where No On Has Gone Before. Searching these seas for the knowledge they conceal, And the resources they hold. For the answers to our past And the keys to our future. What kind of future will it be? Try to imagine... Just for a moment, A future of amazing technological creativity, Of incredible adventure and discovery. A future of remarkable awareness and understanding. Try to imagine… For we welcome you now to take the first steps into that future. We welcome you to the Living Seas. We welcome you… to Seabase Alpha.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 07:15:53 +0000
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