When most of us look out at the ocean, we see a mostly flat blue surface stretching to the horizon. It’s easy to imagine the sea beneath as calm and largely static — a massive, still abyss far removed from everyday experience.
But the ocean is layered, dynamic, and constantly moving, from the surface down to the deepest seafloor. While waves, tides, and currents near the coast are familiar and accessible, far less is known about what happens several kilometers below, where the ocean meets the seafloor.
Our new research, published in the journal Ocean Science, shows water near the seafloor is in constant motion, even in the abyssal plains of the Pacific Ocean. This has important consequences for climate, ecosystems, and how we understand the ocean as an interconnected system.
Enter the abyss
The central and eastern Pacific Ocean include some of Earth’s largest abyssal regions (places where the sea is more than 3,000 meters deep). Here, most of the seafloor lies four to six kilometers below the surface. It is shaped by vast abyssal plains, fracture zones, and seamounts.
It is cold and dark, and the water and ecosystems here are under immense pressure from the ocean above.
Just above the seafloor, no matter the depth, sits a region known as the bottom mixed layer. This part of the ocean is relatively uniform in temperature, salinity, and density because it is stirred through contact with the seafloor.
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