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If you held your nose and jumped into the water for a look around, you wouldn’t have time to see much. Soon, you’d have to come up for air.
If you wore scuba gear, you could carry an oxygen supply and stay underwater much longer. You might go as deep as 300 feet. Want to go really deep? Wear an atmospheric diving suit, or ADS, to protect you from water pressure, and you can go down about 2,000 feet.
To explore deeper, you’ll need an undersea craft, such as a submarine. To go even deeper, you could use Alvin. You might ask, who’s Alvin?, but a better question would be: what’s Alvin? It’s a manned submersible that can descend nearly three miles. Undersea craft have pressure-proof cabins, so they can travel much deeper than any diver can.
Ocean explorers discovered rich natural resources and foods in the ocean. They found that some plants and animals could be used to make medicines. They found remains of shipwrecks and new animal species.
Ocean exploration provides endless, fascinating information. It may provide us with clues to lost civilizations. Some day, it may even help us understand how life began on Earth.
