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Article: Deep Sea Exploration
- Article from:
- World of Earth Science
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Deep sea exploration
Deep ocean basins cover almost 70% of Earth's surface, and they contain 96% of the planet's life-sustaining
water
. The
oceans
support the
biosphere
by modulating global
climate
and hydrology, and are home to the marine organisms that form the diverse base of the global ecosystem. Geology's unifying paradigm, the theory of
plate tectonics
, arose from deep-sea discoveries of the 1950s and 1960s. The title of marine geologist Philip Kuenen's 1958 paper, "No Geology without Marine Geology," rings especially true with hindsight of late twentieth century advancements in the field of marine geology.
The nature of the seafloor was an unrevealed mystery until the ...