Below a few hundred meters, sunlight fades and the ocean becomes a realm of darkness, cold, and immense pressure. Most of the seafloor lies more than three kilometers down, and the deepest trench, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, plunges nearly eleven kilometers. The weight of the water there is more than a thousand times the pressure at the surface. Yet life persists in surprising abundance. Many deep-sea creatures produce their own light through bioluminescence, using it to lure prey, find mates, or confuse predators. Around hydrothermal vents, where hot mineral-rich water gushes from the crust, whole communities of tube worms, clams, and shrimp thrive without any help from the sun, feeding on bacteria that draw energy from chemicals.
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