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Exploring the Deep Ocean

A consortium of world-class academic and cultural institutions, Fathom creates high-quality online learning experiences. Developed with leading scholars and experts, Fathom content caters to your learning interests: from in-depth free seminars to shorter features, interviews and articles.

Learn more about underwater exploration--from animal communications to deep-sea discoveries--in this collection of educational materials from Fathom.

Fathom's free seminars are in-depth learning experiences crafted around learning objectives and often accompanied by instructional video, slideshows, interactives or action points. Click on a link below to begin your learning experience:
Deep Ocean by Tony Rice, The Natural History Museum Only 150 years ago the best-informed scientists thought that the depths of the seas were totally lifeless. We now know that animal life is to be found everywhere in the oceans, even at the bottom of the deepest trenches and around super-heated water gushing through cracks in the sea floor. Tony Rice takes us down to the mysterious world at the bottom of the sea to explore what we know--or think we know--of life in the deep oceans.	Bioacoustics: Cetaceans and Seeing Sounds by Patrick Miller, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution How does one see a sound? Scientists like WHOI's Patrick Miller use a spectrogram, or visual representation of sound waves graphed over time. This seminar uses an engaging interactive series of actual recordings and spectrograms of various marine mammals to explore how dolphins and whales communicate.
Jaws: The Natural History of Sharks by Michael Bright, The Natural History Museum Primitive fishes resembling sharks were swimming in the oceans over 450 million years ago. Their descendants survived successive mass extinctions, saw the dinosaurs come and go, and were still thriving when the mammals returned to the sea. In this seminar Michael Bright reviews the broad range of living sharks in order to explore their biology, behaviour and evolution.	Life on the Reef: The Amazing World of Coral Fishes by Linda Pitkin, The Natural History Museum Coral reefs occupy less than one percent of the Earth's crust, but they are extremely important centres of biodiversity. In this seminar, Linda Pitkin of The Natural History Museum explores some of the varied specializations that enable coral fishes to live in every part of the reef environment, the means by which they derive food and shelter from the reefs, and their interactions--often fiercely territorial--in a densely populated living space.

Fathom works with the members of its consortium, such as Columbia University, The British Museum, Cambridge University Press and the University of Chicago, to create free features, including interviews with faculty members and originally authored content.

Seafloor to Surface to Satellite to Shore

By R. Detrick, D. Frye and J. Collins, WHOI

Mitten Crabs: Oriental Invaders of the River Thames

By P. Rainbow, R. Robbins and P. Clark, The Natural History Museum

Hydrothermal Vents: Deep and Dark Oases Isolated from the Earth's Changing Surface

By Richard Herrington, WHOI

The Human Impact on Freshwater Ecosystems

By Dickson Despommier, Columbia University

The Complexity of Freshwater Ecosystems

By Dickson Despommier, Columbia University

Finding a Home on the Ocean Floor

By Edwin Schiele, WHOI

Where the Surf Meets the Turf

By B. Raubenheimer and S. Elgar, WHOI

Living Fossils: Coelancanths and the Ancestry Debate

By Peter Forey, The Natural History Museum

Deep Submergence Vehicles

By Rick Chandler, WHOI

Shallow Hydrothermal Vents: The Bubbling Seas of the Greek Archipelago

By Eva Valsami-Jones, The Natural History Museum

The Secret Life of Barnacles

By Phil Rainbow, The Natural History Museum

Phytoplankton: "Grass of the Seas"

By Ray Sambrotto, Columbia University

Exploring the Arctic Basin

By R. Sohn, H. Singh and S. Webb, WHOI and Columbia University

Getting the Big Picture of the Seafloor

By Hanumant Singh, WHOI

Outposts in the Ocean

By R. Weller, M. McCartney, J. Toole and N. Hogg, WHOI

Voyage to Vailulu'u: Searching for Underwater Volcanoes

By Laurence Lippsett, WHOI

Biodiversity: Nature's Insurance Policy Against Catastrophe

By Vicky Cullen, WHOI

Exploring the Global Mid-Ocean Ridge

By Ken Macdonald, WHOI

Sustaining Coastal Landforms

By J. O'Connell and J. McDowell, WHOI

A companion site for the BBC Nature Programme, The Abyss Live site includes interactive dive diaries, dive site information and deep-sea animal facts.