I know the title might sound very grandiose, but the idea of this article came about due to one of those interesting occurrences that happen occasionally and surprise and fascinate you. In this case, it was two fascinating visualisations that I came across yesterday.

I wrote about the first one yesterday. It’s a visualisation about the vastness of space and how infinitesimally small we are in the grand scheme of things.

Just a couple of hours after I wrote about this, I came across another visualisation. This one described the weird and almost unbelievable world that, some would say, we know less about than even space. These are the oceans that make up 70% of our planet and the amazing animals that live in its depths.

I did not know that Sperm whales could dive up to a kilometre below the surface of the ocean, or that there is a species of shark that spend their day at a depth of over 1.5 kilometres below the surface. Elephant seals can dive up to an incredible 2,400 metres below sea level. But the record holder is the Cuvier’s Beaked Whale that can dive up to a scarcely believable depth of 3 kilometres!

But that’s not the only fascinating trivia that you can find in this incredible visualisation. Around 6 kilometres below the surface of the ocean is where the Hadal Zone starts. And it’s humbling to read that more people have been to the moon than the Hadal Zone!

These two visualisations just made me realise how little we, as humans, know of the world immediately beyond the surface of our planet. It will be fascinating to learn more about these vast spaces as and when we gather more information. There is still so much to study and understand!