Light penetration ocean

Sunlight consists of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, which includes gamma, X, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, micro- and radio waves. The major part of solar radiation is in the form of visible and infrared rays that vary in wavelength. The transparency of water surfaces varies. The percentage of incident light reflected by a surface is called the albedo. The annual albedos of water bodies range from 5 to 7 percent at the Equator to 12 to 13 percent at 60 degrees latitude.

The deep sea or deep layer [1] is the lowest layer in the ocean , existing below the thermocline and above the seabed , at a depth of fathoms m or more. Little or no light penetrates this part of the ocean, and most of the organisms that live there rely for subsistence on falling organic matter produced in the photic zone. For this reason, scientists once assumed that life would be sparse in the deep ocean, but virtually every probe has revealed that, on the contrary, life is abundant in the deep ocean. From the time of Pliny until the late nineteenth century It took a historic expedition in the ship Challenger between and to prove Pliny wrong; its deep-sea dredges and trawls brought up living things from all depths that could be reached. Yet even in the twentieth century scientists continued to imagine that life at great depth was insubstantial, or somehow inconsequential.

The energy reaching Earth from the sun is a form of electromagnetic radiation, which is represented by the electromagnetic spectrum Figure 6. Electromagnetic waves vary in their frequency and wavelength. High frequency waves have very short wavelengths, and are very high energy forms of radiation, such as gamma rays and x-rays.

Use Advanced Search to search by activities, standards, and more. Visible sunlight makes up about 40 percent of the total energy Earth receives from the sun. The rest of the energy Earth receives from the sun is not visible. About 50 percent is infrared energy, nine percent is ultraviolet UV energy, and one percent is X-rays or microwaves.