Derived from an essay by Robert Ballard in the October 2014 issue of Smithsonian Magazine.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-we-must-explore-sea-180952763/
The bottom of the ocean
is not what some imagine: a giant bathtub
filled with mud—boring, flat, dark.
Most of it is unmapped; the far side of the moon
is known more intimately than three
quarters of the planetary surface on which we live.
Beneath the oceans lie the largest mountain
range on earth, rifts that make the Grand Canyon
seem like a scratch, vertical cliffs
three miles high. If you threw a giant blanket
over a table set for a dinner party, you would know
more about that meal than satellites
or surface sonar will ever tell us about
the bottom of the ocean.
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