Live Background
2005/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
The highest point on Earth is the top of Everest. Everyone knows. Many also know the deepest: Mariana fosa. Located west of the Pacific Ocean, its bottom is eleven kilometers from the land surface. Japanese researchers have been able to collect some samples of life there present and have noticed them in the journal Science.
These living beings are found in the mud called Challenger of the Mariana Trench. In this place the pressure is 1,090 times higher than on the land surface, and to reach it the submarine of the Remote Control Dock has been used.
Most of the live samples collected by the submarine were bacteria, but there were also 432 foraminifers. Foraminifers are probably the most alive in the sea, behind bacteria. They are small microorganisms that fit hundreds on the head of a needle. Almost all have a wall or barrier around, are spherical or elongated and brown.
Normally foraminifers usually have calcium carbonate shells, but those found in Challenger have no lids. It seems that at that depth there is little calcium carbonate and they have not been able to make the shell. However, they have shown that they are able to withstand really high pressures.
