The Science Quiz | On the abyssal zone

The Science Quiz appears twice a week in the daily science page. The page is available to read on all days except Saturday in the epaper.

Questions (answers at the bottom):

1. The layer below the abyssal zone is called the _____ zone. It lies within trenches and stretches 6-11 km below sea level. It is named for the Greek god of the underworld. Fill in the blank.

2. In the abyssal zone, at 4-6 km below sea level, the only ______ comes from the zones above and from deep polar ice that has melted. Fill in the blank.

3. Cusk eels belong to the genus Brotula. But in 1970, a cusk eel was found off the coast of Puerto Rico and was classified in the genus Abyssobrotula. A second species of Abyssobrotula cusk eel was found in 2016. What’s the distinction of the 1970 cusk eel?

4. One inhabitant of the abyssal zone is the _____ _______. Its name comes from its similarity to a character in a famous 1941 Disney film. Its genus is Grimpoteuthis. Fill in the blanks.

5. The formidable environs of the abyssal zone have prevented scientists from further studying abyssal _________: the propensity for invertebrate organisms to grow to be much larger than their relatives in shallower waters. Fill in the blanks.

Visual question

(Source: Ravindran R./The Hindu)

This photo shows three men inside a vessel built by the National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai, to carry a small crew to 5 km below sea level. Name the vessel.

Answers:

1. Hadal zone
2. Oxygen
3. Deepest living fish found thus far (8.37 km below sea level)
4. Dumbo octopus
5. Gigantism

Visual: MATSYA 6000