hadal

[prettygoodword]

hadal (HAYD-l) - adj., of, relating to, or being the parts of the ocean below a depth 6000 m/20,000 ft.


Above that is the abyssal zone, 4000-6000 m down, and above that from 200-4000 m, is the bathyal. There are only a few places on Earth that are hadal, in the deepest ocean trenches, and there are enough changes in forms of life down there that a new term was needed for clarity. Coined in 1956 by Danish oceanographer Anton Frederik Bruun after Hades, the realm of the underworld of Greek Mythology/the god of that realm, with a root sense popularly connected to "invisible/unseen" (but possibly better connected to a sense of "seeing together" i.e. "uniter," as we're all united in death).

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

A term I learned in this engrossing infographic by Neal Agarwal (with the then-true icy Wham Line, “More people have been to the Moon than the Hadal Zone.”)

https://neal.fun/deep-sea/

[prettygoodword]

Agarwal does some really great stuff.

[dhampyresa]

I love that infographic and can't help scrolling through it every time. What are Cuvier's Beaked Whales doing 3km down? WHAT ARE THEY HIDING

[prettygoodword]

VERY GOOD QUESTION!

[full_metal_ox]

An even more troubling question: what are they hiding from?

[prettygoodword]

When in doubt, assume orcas.