Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss

Open this book and you'll plunge five miles below the surface of the sea into an unforeseen realm inhabited by living creatures that strain the bounds of credibility.Prior to John Ross's successful retrieval in 1818 of six pounds of worm-filled mud from the bottom of Baffin Bay, it was widely believed that no life could possibly flourish in the dark, cold, pressurized waters of the deep Atlantic Ocean. Subsequent expeditions have unveiled a mind-boggling menagerie of deep-sea fauna with which we are still only marginally acquainted. Richard Ellis recounts the stories of the exploration of the deep sea and brings us face-to-face with these unexpected efflorescences of evolution.