London, June 30 (ANI): In the middle of the Pacific, there is a patch that scientists claim contains the clearest ocean waters on Earth. It is as clear as the clearest lake on Earth, as salty as ocean waters, and is roughly the size of the Mediterranean.
In October 2004, Patrick Raimbault of the University of the Mediterranean, in Marseille, France, together with colleagues, set out to study the remarkable patch of ocean water on a three month cruise – called BIOSOPE.
They left from Tahiti in French Polynesia, passed by Easter Island and ended on the Chilean coast. Along the way, they sampled the water's chemistry, physics and biology.
Marc Tedetti, also from the University of the Mediterranean, who was on the expedition to investigate the water's clarity, described the color of the water as closer to violet than to blue.
According to him, this patch contained “unequivocally" the clearest ocean waters on Earth.
"Some bodies of freshwater are equally clear, but only the purest freshwater. For instance, researchers have found equivalent measurements in Lake Vanda in Antarctica, which is under ice, and is really extremely pure,” said Tedetti.
Tedetti further found that at the clearest point, near to Easter Island, UV rays penetrated more than 100 meters below the surface.
According to Raimbault, this suggested that the patch contained roughly 10 times less chlorophyll than what was generally found in most ocean waters.
"Satellite images that track the amount of chlorophyll in ocean waters suggest that this is one of the most life-poor systems on Earth," said Raimbault.
He however, said though this patch of ocean was one of the least productive marine region known to man, it nevertheless did support a food chain.
According to Raimbault, this might be due to the organisms' ability to recycle nutrients.
"As there is no supply, there cannot be any loss either," he said.
Raimbault made another surprising discovery: the patch of the ocean that was poorest in life appeared to be extremely rich in dissolved organic carbon.
The team is now currently sifting through data in an attempt to explain the apparent contradiction, which they believe, may be due to the limited availability of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
It means the bacteria that would normally degrade the dissolved organic matter are not able to complete the task, he said.
The findings appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, reports New Scientist. (ANI)