Before We Explore Space, We Need to Explore the Earth
Documentaries like BBC’s The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Planet Earth II have probably blown your mind at some point, especially when showcasing the many oceans of the world. Nearly three quarters of the Earth is covered in ocean water, and in that water is an alien world of creatures and mysteries that continually fascinate us. What is crazier is that we’ve only seen about 5% of what the oceans are hiding.
The ocean floor is not completely unknown to us though. When you go on Google Earth and look at any of the seas, you can see wrinkles and textures covering them – this is a result of geodesy, a process of mapping the gravity fields of the Earth, outlining the larger features of the ocean floor. By doing this, large, 5km+ (3.1mi+) formations are mapped out. If you want a more defined map, though, you’ll have to look through the results of scientific explorations and treasure hunting expeditions.
This is where the newly formed “OceanX” (not to be confused with the Swedish diving team “Ocean X”) comes in. Funded by the two billionaires Mark Dalio and James Cameron (not surprising), OceanX is planning to be for the oceans what SpaceX is to space, hence the name. In addition to bringing light to the largely unseen underwater world that is the ocean floor, OceanX is planning on bringing their findings to virtual classrooms, museum exhibits, and more. The company brings together more than 26 scientific or media centered companies in order to enhance the research planned and facilitate how the research is presented to the world, respectively.
OceanX is currently using the vessel Alucia for their research and expedition needs. In early 2019 though, the company is planning on introducing Alucia2, a substantially larger vessel which will feature more advanced, state-of-the-art research tools for the team to utilize. Pictures and general specifications of Alucia2 can already be found online, as it is a Maltese ship currently laid-up, or idle due to lack of cargo, in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
While the prospect of exploring the vast floor of the ocean is incredibly interesting in itself, OceanX stands to answer many of the mysteries the ocean has kept from us. Most recently is the wreck of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which just recently had another search turn up without any findings. A similarly intriguing mystery is the French submarine Minerve, which went missing in 1968 under mysterious circumstances and has yet to be seen since. On a lighter note, we could finally have more research done on the Baltic Sea Anomaly, which fueled a swell of conspiracy theories after its discovery in June 2011 by the Swedish diving team, Ocean X. It has been proven not to be a UFO, but a little extra investigation can’t hurt, right?
While there are no incredibly pressing situations that OceanX could solve, the newly introduced company stands to educate the world about the mysteries and oddities of the ocean. The company will also make a huge impact on understanding how the ocean can impact modern life, and how we can better our way of living in order to preserve its pristine beauty and complexity. Maybe now we can finally find all those sweet sea monsters, like the Kraken or a Megalodon Shark.
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