“The search for life in space begins on the ocean floor…”

How did we manage to get to the 21st century and miss an area the size of Australia on our own planet that we don’t know anything about? With this question Canadian born Film Director, environmentalist and let’s not forget explorer James Cameron started his Deepsea Challenger mission and others…. The clip above is from the brilliant 2005 Aliens of the Deep (CLIP) (Educators’ Guide) (BUY BLU-RAY HERE)…Cameron teamed up with NASA scientists to explore the Mid-Ocean Ridge, a submerged chain of mountains that band the Earth and are home to some of the planet’s most unique life forms. A-ONE-TO-WATCH HERE!. Seven years ago Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger mission started which is in select theatres in the US since August 8th 2014 – DEEPSEA CHALLENGE 3D (TRAILER). Cameron and his team designed and build the Challenger with it’s goal to advance the world’s understanding of our ocean’s vast range of biological and geological phenomena. Cameron has logged more than 3,000 hours underwater and is a veteran of 85 submersible dives, most of them to depths greater than two miles, and of eight oceanographic expeditions. With the words ‘release, release, release’ Cameron dived on March 26th, 2012 to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean. Almost 11,000 meters deep. He was the first person to do this in a solo descent, and the 3rd person to do so ever. Cameron and his science colleagues already presented findings at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Fransicso on December 21st 2012:“ Microbiologist Douglas Bartlett from the University of California, San Diego described crustaceans called amphipods (WIKI)—oceanic cousins to pill bugs—that were collected from the New Britain Trench and grow to enormous sizes five miles (eight kilometers) down. Normally less than an inch (one to two centimeters) long in other deep-sea areas, the amphipods collected on the expedition measured 7 inches (17 centimeters). Bartlett also noted that sea cucumbers (WIKI), some of which may be new species, dominated many of the areas the team sampled in the New Britain Trench. The expedition visited this area before the dive to Challenger Deep. Marine geologist Patricia Fryer with the University of Hawaii described some of the deepest seeps yet discovered. These seeps, where water heated by chemical reactions in the rocks percolates up through the seafloor and into the ocean, could offer hints of how life originated on Earth. And Emerging Explorer Kevin Hand, and astrobiologist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, spoke about how life in these stygian ecosystems, powered by chemical reactions, could parallel the evolution of life on other planets. Thankx again for raising the bar Mr. Cameron! Check the latest National Geographic documentary on James Cameron’s Voyage To The Bottom Of The Earth here (VIDEO) (TRAILER). For more information go to DeepSea Challenge Website. MORE: Robert Ballard (TED), Most Bizarre Deep-Sea Creatures (PHOTOS), NOA YOUTUBE CHANNEL (VIDEO), Roatan Institute of Deep Sea Exploration R.I.D.E. (VIDEO) (VIDEO), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Creatures of the Deep Ocean (VIDEO HD), Alien deep with Bob Ballard (VIDEO), BBC’s LIfe Excerpt – (DVD), Discovery Channel – Aliens of the Deep Sea (VIDEO), BBC’s Planet Earth: Creatures of the Deep Excerpt – (DVD), 18 Episode series ’The Undersea World of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau (WIKI) (VIDEO 1 till 18) and Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard’s dive with the Trieste bathyscaphe into the Mariana Trench. (VIDEO).