The unknown land – the deep sea
The unknown land – the deep sea is a sensory exhibition about life at 3,000 metres depth. With sound, light and a huge panoramic screen, we recreate the deep sea, teeming with strange creatures, where volcanoes spew lava from the Earth's interior. You walk on a specially designed, soft seabed.
What can you see in the exhibition?
In The unknown land – the deep sea, you can experience:
- A huge panoramic screen recreating life at 3,000 metres depth
- A soft 'seabed' you walk on, based on photographs from the Norwegian Sea
- Underwater vehicles and sensors that explore the depths
- The story of the sea lily the zoologist Michael Sars retrieved from 800 metres depth
Down into the unknown
It is said that we know more about the surface of the moon than about the seabed. New research is nevertheless making us increasingly familiar with the deep sea. Down there you find rare minerals, underwater volcanoes spewing lava from the Earth's interior, and bacteria that feed on iron.
In this sensory exhibition, we use sound, light and a huge panoramic screen to recreate life at 3,000 metres depth. The simulation changes as you move along the soft seabed, a specially designed carpet based on photographs from the Norwegian Sea.
An ocean teeming with life
Until the mid-1800s, people believed the limit for life in the ocean lay at 500 metres depth. Then the Norwegian zoologist Michael Sars retrieved a sea lily from 800 metres depth off Lofoten. Today we know that the deep sea teems with strange and fascinating creatures.
The deep sea covers around 60 per cent of the Earth's surface, but only a small part of it has been explored. Only now do we have technology that can withstand the harsh conditions several kilometres below the surface. In the exhibition, you follow the development from simple dredges to self-propelled underwater vehicles and sensors that map the seabed.
The seabed as a history book
You will gain insight into how the seabed crust forms, and into how researchers read the layers of seabed sediment like the pages of a history book. The book tells us not only about life in the sea, but also about ice ages and massive volcanic eruptions on land.
The exhibition shows how an internationally leading environment for deep-sea research has grown up in Bergen and Norway. Here there is an unbroken line from Sars's time right up to today.
Resources in the deep and the responsibility that follows
Deep-sea research helps map mineral deposits and other resources that may prove useful for industrial and medical purposes. It is therefore important that research also provides robust knowledge about the ecosystem in the deep.
This way, any resources can potentially be used in a manner that does not disrupt the finely balanced interactions in nature.
The exhibition was produced in collaboration with the Centre for Deep Sea Research (formerly the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Deep Sea Research) at the University of Bergen.
