009 – Geology with Heather Stewart

We are both biologists and a little bias toward the deep-sea critters, but the deep ocean contains a wealth of geological discoveries, after all, it is the geology which creates the deep sea.

We catch up the latest news, including life discovered 100s of km under the ice, slowing water currents, vampire squid history and the rules of naming something new, be it a species or an undersea feature.

We then have a chat with geologist and explorer (and friend of the show) Heather Stewart about the geology of the deep sea and how we produce maps of the ocean floor. Why do people talk about how little of the ocean has been mapped when we can clearly see it is all mapped on google earth?

What about some of the more unusual features that we see on the deep seabed in Google Earth, are those roads and pyramids? I have a chat with ‘my mate Dave™’, David Howell, about marine archaeology and looking for sunken human settlements.

Finally, we hear from Don Walsh, who recollects the time he used the bathyscaph Trieste to deploy devices to listen out for nuclear tests.

Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or you own tales from the high seas on:

[email protected]

Read the show notes and find out more about us at:

www.armatusoceanic.com

Links

Life under the ice

Gulf Stream weakening

Fossil evidence of vampire squid

Plastic waste as biodiversity hotspots

New species without holotype (of the many papers you can read on this):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5672740/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.620702/full

A proposal for modesty

Here is a great tool where you can see the direct and satellite global data

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel