Exploring the Ocean
Know that oceanographers and marine biologists study the ocean using submarines, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), satellites, and diving, and that much of the ocean remains unexplored. We know more about the Moon's surface than the deep ocean floor
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name at least two tools scientists use to explore the ocean: submarines, ROVs, satellites
- State that most of the deep ocean remains unexplored
- Explain why ocean exploration is difficult: darkness, pressure, vastness
1 · Read
The ocean covers most of our planet, but people have explored only a tiny piece of it. You already know the ocean floor has canyons, mountains, and strange creatures living in total darkness. Scientists want to see more of this hidden world, so they build special tools to help them look.
Oceanographers and marine biologists use submarines to carry people deep underwater, and ROVs, or remotely operated vehicles, that scientists control from a ship above. Divers explore shallower water directly, while satellites in space take pictures of the ocean's surface and track its currents.
A marine biologist sends an ROV down into a deep trench. The robot's lights cut through total darkness, and its strong metal body resists pressure that would crush a diver. Cameras on the ROV send back video of fish no one has ever seen before.
Exploring the deep ocean is hard because it is dark, the water pressure is crushing, and the ocean is enormous. That is why robots and submarines do jobs too dangerous or too deep for human divers.
Scientists explore the ocean with submarines, ROVs, satellites, and diving, but darkness, pressure, and sheer size mean most of the deep sea is still a mystery.
More to read
Explore the Salish Sea - Unit 5: Ocean Tech
Did you know we have better maps of the Moon than of the ocean floor? It is true! The ocean is huge, deep, and dark, so it is very hard for people to visit most of it. Where it is too dangerous or too deep for divers to go, we build machines to go for us. One of the coolest machines is the ROV, which stands for remotely operated vehicle. An ROV is a robot that swims underwater while scientists steer it from a ship above. It has cameras and lights so the scientists can see the deep sea, and it has arms that can pick up rocks and sea creatures to study. Building an ROV takes a whole team. Some engineers design the body, some work on the motors, and some handle the electronics. They test their ideas, fix what breaks, and try again, just like real ocean explorers do. Thanks to tools like ROVs, submarines, and satellites, scientists keep discovering new things about the ocean every year.
Building Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs)
An ROV is a robot that explores the ocean while its pilot stays safe and dry on a boat. The pilot uses a controller to move the ROV, a little like flying a drone, but underwater. A long cable connects the robot to the ship, carrying power down and video back up. ROVs can dive far deeper than any human diver. Down deep it is pitch black and the water pushes with crushing pressure, so the robot needs bright lights, tough cameras, and a strong frame. In this activity, students design and build their own small underwater ROV. They figure out how to make it float level, how to steer it, and how to keep the water out of the electronics. It is hands-on science and engineering, and it shows how much teamwork and problem solving real ocean exploration takes.
Ocean Zones Key Terms
Scientists divide the ocean into zones to describe it. The benthic realm is the part that runs along the ocean bottom, from the shoreline all the way out to the deepest parts of the seafloor. The aphotic zone is the part where no sunlight can reach at all, so it is always completely dark there. The very deepest part of the ocean, deeper than about 4,000 meters, is called the abyssal zone. That is so deep that if you dropped a tall mountain in, the water would cover its top. These words help explain why exploring the deep ocean is so hard. It is dark, it is freezing cold, and the water pressure is enormous. That is why scientists use special submarines and robots instead of just swimming down to look.
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2 · Watch
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Where it sits
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Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.