Secrets from the Deep

摘要

The surface area of the earth is approximately 510 million square kilometers, and about 70% of that expanse is covered by ocean. But how much do we actually know about the ocean. Not very much, according to Dr. Koki Horikoshi, Director General of the Frontier Research System for Extremophiles at the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC), an the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC), an organization licensed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Techn ology. Marine research was originally conducted with the mjain goal of exploring marine resources. This involved researching the surface layer of oceans, where a great many fish and other marine organisms live. Research at depths of more than 1,000 meter s is a relatively recent development, so there are many questions that have yet to be answered. "More of the Earth's oceans have depths of over 4,000 eters; the ocean is still an unknown frontier to us,: say Dr. Horikoshi.