The Azoic theory had been put around by a naturally scordedwood Forbes who said that there couldn't possibly be life below 300 meters. They weren't expecting to find much down there and then recent scientific voyages just before the challenge had started to disprove this theory. The main surprising conclusions would be that at the bottom there was an environment that was okay for things to live. And they were also studying currents through the ocean, so it was interesting to study some of the temperature variations in some of those areas where the currents were well formed.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the voyage of HMS Challenger which set out from Portsmouth in 1872 with a mission a to explore the ocean depths around the world and search for new life. The scale of the enterprise was breath taking and, for its ambition, it has since been compared to the Apollo missions. The team onboard found thousands of new species, proved there was life on the deepest seabeds and plumbed the Mariana Trench five miles below the surface. Thanks to telegraphy and mailboats, its vast discoveries were shared around the world even while Challenger was at sea, and they are still being studied today, offering insights into the ever-changing oceans that cover so much of the globe and into the health of our planet.
The image above is from the journal of Pelham Aldrich R.N. who served on the Challenger Surveying Expedition from 1872-5.
With
Erika Jones
Curator of Navigation and Oceanography at Royal Museums Greenwich
Sam Robinson
Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute Research Fellow at the University of Southampton
And
Giles Miller
Principal Curator of Micropalaeontology at the Natural History Museum London
Producer: Simon Tillotson