Help Wanted: Expedition seeks explorers brave enough to face bizarre, glow-in-the-dark creatures. Must be able to navigate safely past vents spewing liquid carbon dioxide, erupting mud volcanoes, and a treacherous lake of molten sulfur.
What strange corner of the universe is this expedition headed for? It's a cozy little planet known as Earth and a spot miles under the surface of the Pacific Ocean called the Mariana Trench.
A Hole in the Ocean Floor
In 1872, the HMS Challenger expedition set out to map the ocean floor. The explorers spent four years crisscrossing the globe, sailing 70,000 miles (112,654 kilometers)-one-third of the distance to the Moon. It was backbreaking, boring work. Sail about 200 miles (322 kilometers), drop a weighted rope into the water. Measure how much rope it took to hit bottom. Sail another 200 miles and do it again. And again. This expedition was a total snooze fest, until a day in 1875 about 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the coast of Guam. That morning, when the to pe was dropped, the ocean swallowed up five miles (eight kilometers) of it. The Challenger's crew had discovered a "hole" in the ocean floor.
Braving the Depths
It wasn't until the 1950s that we knew just how big Challenger's discovery was. Scientists turned to sonar, an instrument that sends out sound waves and measures how long it takes them to come back. They discovered that the hole is actually a trench. It is crescent-shaped and twice as long as the state of California and 43 miles (69 kilometers) wide. Parts of the trench are only five miles (eight kilometers) deep, but at its southern end, the trench drops to almost seven miles (11 kilometers). That means if you planted Mount Everest on the bottom and stacked three Empire State buildings on top, you still wouldn't reach the surface of the ocean.
Denne historien er fra July/August 2023-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Denne historien er fra July/August 2023-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
