Midnight Zone Research Paper

Words: 500
Pages: 2

The deepest zone is called the midnight zone, the bathyal zone (or bathypelagic), or the aphotic zone (aphotic means “no light” in Greek), and it is the very last zone in the ocean. On average, this zone begins at about 3,000 ft and stretches onto the ocean floor. The midnight zone makes up about three-quarters of the total ocean, which is an estimated 250 million cubic miles of water. It is often called “the ocean’s basement” because the temperature is nearly freezing, and decreases with the depth. The water pressure here may exceed two tons per square inch, and it is completely dark. The animals in this zone are stunted, and small. They may look fierce but they are only a few inches long. In addition to being small, most deep-sea creatures …show more content…
One of the only food sources in this zone is the animal remains from the ocean’s upper layers. On the bottom of the ocean floor, there is a substance that is called “ooze.” It is made out of deep layers of silt formed over thousands of years by a steady rain of plankton remains, which cover the plains. For the most part, the deep sea floor is a very deserted place. This is because there is not as much food this deep into the ocean. Some floor dwelling animals, such as the sea pens, are anchored to the ooze and filter tiny food particles from the water surrounding them. Others, however, such as sea cucumbers and acorn worms, crawl along or burrow into the oozey floor in their search for nutrients. There are special vent communities found along deep sea ridges that are the exception to almost every generalization about the midnight zone. A great number of animals live in a small area around these communities, and they grow quickly and may become relatively large. Unlike most other inhabitants of the deep sea floor, these creatures do not depend on plant and animal remains from the surface waters (and ultimately, sunlight) for