Chapter 174 The Significance of Exploring the Deep Sea
Xiao Peng's inner thoughts were: first salvage the Italian warship "Ansaldo", after all, there were precious relics from the Old Summer Palace on that ship.
However, many of the people on board were new to the project, and it was unclear whether they could be trusted. Furthermore, Zhang Cuijian's cultural relics experts hadn't arrived yet. This matter needed to be carefully considered.
The remaining options are the merchant ship "Pescara" and the search for the whereabouts of the S-80 submarine.
What Xiao Peng didn't expect was that Duan Bo, Xu Xingde and Hu Guohui strongly urged them to search for the "Pescara" first.
These three people must know the secrets on the 'Ansaldo' warship, otherwise the country would not have sent them here. However, the three of them are obviously more interested in the 'Pescara' than the 'Ansaldo', which makes Xiao Peng very puzzled.
"Why are you so excited to find the 'Pescara'?" Xiao Peng asked his biggest confusion.
Hu Guohui took out a white conch shell and asked Xiao Peng, "Boss, is this the conch you brought from the place where the Pescara sank?"
Xiao Peng hummed a sigh of relief and brought back a few conch shells for Cathy as a gift. He also placed a few at home as decorations.
The first time Hu Guohui visited his house, he couldn't let go of the conch shell and took all kinds of photos. Xiao Peng simply gave it to him. God knows what he could figure out by looking at a broken conch shell.
"What's wrong with this conch shell?" Xiao Peng asked puzzledly.
Xu Xingde asked, "You said there was a 'hot spring' there, right?"
Xiao Peng nodded. "Indeed, I was shocked when I got there. Black smoke kept coming out of the cracks on the seabed. The water there is extremely hot, at least 400 degrees Celsius! There are at least dozens of hot springs like this in that area. What's going on with this black smoke on the seabed?"
Xu Xingde took out a map of the Mediterranean and placed it on the table. "This is where the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate meet. These plates don't fit together perfectly, and they're constantly moving, so earthquakes, volcanoes, and other things can happen. Boss Xiao, do you understand this?"
Xiao Peng's face was filled with black lines. "Of course I understand! Isn't it because Japan is located at the intersection of the Pacific Plate and the Eurasian Plate that it has earthquakes and tsunamis all the time?"
Xu Xingde continued to explain, "Seawater sometimes flows directly through the cracks between the plates into the Earth's core. Even if it only reaches the outer core, the temperature there is as high as 5,500 degrees Celsius! When the seawater encounters the high temperature of the core, it instantly vaporizes and gushes back out of the seabed cracks. This creates the black smoke you see, and the temperature of the seawater in that area also becomes extremely high."
"And then?" Xiao Peng asked, puzzled. "What does this mean?"
Xu Xingde explained: "Almost all terrestrial energy sources, such as oil and natural gas, have been discovered. Discovering new energy sources is difficult, but 70% of Earth's energy is in the ocean, most of which is in the deep sea. The gases emitted by these 'black smokers' are alkanes and hydrogen sulfide, which we call natural gas."
Xiao Peng suddenly realized: "So every hot spring is a natural gas well?"
Xu Xingde shook his finger. "It's more than that. Each 'hot spring' has erupted over thousands of years. The sulfides on the seabed have slowly settled. All hot springs are also 'natural mineral deposits', rich in metal veins like copper, iron, zinc, and lead."
Xiao Peng concluded: "In other words, finding a hot spring is equivalent to finding an underwater energy source!"
Xu Xingde snapped his fingers. "That's exactly what I mean! The country is surveying everywhere to find submarine energy."
Xiao Peng said helplessly: "But that's the Italian high seas, what if they find it?"
Xu Xingde smiled and said, "Technology. Not all countries have the technology to find energy from such a deep seabed, and what we are doing now is to be one step ahead. The energy on the ground will only be slowly depleted. Whoever occupies the sea first will seize the initiative!"
Xiao Peng sighed, "The people at this national think tank are truly extraordinary. They're all very cautious. When the Jiaolong was diving 7,000 meters, I saw some idiots online complaining, saying things like, 'What's the point of diving so deep? It's just a waste of taxpayers' money.' Now it seems fortunate that these idiots aren't in charge."
Xu Xingde said, "The unchanging truth of this world is 'a nation strong in science and technology.' But Boss Xiao, don't sigh so much. Generally, someone who can say such things wouldn't be a taxpayer."
Xiao Peng laughed. He had never realized that Xu Xingde was even more venomous than himself.
However, what Xu Xingde said makes sense. Those trolls are generally people with low education and low income, and low-income people do not have to pay taxes.
He turned to Hu Guohui and asked, "Professor Hu, if Professor Xu is concerned about the location of the Pescara shipwreck, I can understand that he is going there to investigate the seabed. But you are a marine biologist. Why are you so anxious to go there?"
Hu Guohui became anxious after hearing this: "I am more excited than Lao Xu, okay? Look what this is?" He said, shaking the conch shell.
"It's a conch, probably a kind of spiny snail. I gave it to you. Is there any problem with it?" Xiao Peng asked in confusion.
Hu Guohui took a deep breath. "Boss Xiao, at a depth of 200 meters, human eyes can basically no longer see sunlight. Between 200 and 1,000 meters, some creatures with special vision can still see sunlight. But below 1,000 meters, no living creature in the world can see sunlight! This means that below 1,000 meters on the seabed, there are no plants, and all living things are animals."
"Then what?" Xiao Peng was even more confused: "What does this mean?"
Hu Guohui's eyes widened. "The water temperature near the hot springs is over 400 degrees! And the seawater is full of sulfides! That's extremely poisonous! Tell me, how did this snail survive there?"
Xiao Peng was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses. "Yeah, I wouldn't have realized it if you hadn't told me. There aren't just conches over there, there are shrimps, crabs, mussels, anemones, and even a fish, about 60 centimeters long, that looks like a giant tadpole. It has no scales and is almost translucent. It looks so ugly. How do they survive?"
Hu Guohui said, "This is the result of my research. If we can figure out the secrets here, it could solve some of our health problems. On a larger scale, it could improve our chances of survival in harsh environments, such as increasing our chances of survival during extraterrestrial exploration. This is truly big science!"
"Let's go find the Pescara first," Xiao Peng said. "Let's get ready and set off immediately!"
But Hu Guohui said, "No, no, no, don't worry! Give us three more days!"
"Three days? What are you going to do?" Xiao Peng was confused.
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