Exploring the Unexplored: The Depths of the

EXPLORING THE UNEXPLORED: THE DEPTHS OF THE RED SEA

Joining global research to map the floors of oceans and seas

Around 90% of the world’s oceans remain unexplored, and humankind still knows more about the surface of the moon than our planet’s sea floor. However, global efforts to explore and map the deepest depths of our oceans are picking up speed. The Red Sea off Saudi Arabia’s coast is one of the most diverse maritime ecosystems in the world, but also one of the least explored. KAUST’s Coastal and Marine Resources (CMR) Core Lab has been assisting research efforts to explore its secrets.

The CMR Core Lab is one of the Kingdom’s distinguished marine research facilities and exploring the Red Sea’s depths is among its major priorities. As part of its mission to support marine research, led by former KAUST Core Lab Executive Director Justin Mynar, CMR Core Lab participated in the inaugural meeting of the Philanthropic Ocean Research Vessel Operators Group, initiated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute in 2019. This group aims to coordinate exploration efforts globally and includes more than a dozen leading like-minded institutions and private enterprises in this field. Stemming from that meeting, in early 2020, the lab’s researchers jumped at the opportunity to partner with private research company Caladan Oceanic, which is leading worldwide efforts to map ocean floors.

KAUST researchers are specifically interested in the brine lakes – ultra-dense pools of water – at the bottom of the Suakin Trough. The interface between normal seawater and these brine lakes where extremophile micro-organisms live is receiving particular attention from Daniele Daffonchio, KAUST Professor of Bioscience, who worked with the expedition. Professor Daffonchio’s team will analyze the video footage obtained by the deep submergence vehicle (DSV) to support their research on extremophiles. Meanwhile, Froukje M. van der Zwan, KAUST Assistant Professor of Earth Science and Engineering, is principally interested in locating hydrothermal vent fields in the Kebrit Deep, and wants to better understand how and why they are formed. The hydrothermal vent field in the area was entirely unmapped up until now, but with the bathymetry of the sea floor and visual data collected by the DSV, Associate Professor van der Zwan’s geological knowledge of the ocean floor has increased significantly.

Not only was the collaboration between KAUST and Caladan Oceanic a major success for researchers, it also created invaluable and life-changing opportunities for the Kingdom’s youth. Mohammed A. Aljahdli, a young Saudi engineer and CMR Core Lab team member, accompanied Caladan Oceanic’s expedition team to the Suakin Trough, becoming the deepest-diving Saudi national of all time.

MOHAMMED A. ALJAHDLI CMR Core Lab team member

I WAS AMAZED AT JUST HOW SILENT EVERYTHING WAS AS WE LOOKED OUT ON THE SEA FLOOR. IT IS SOMETHING I WILL NEVER FORGET.

CALADAN OCEANIC

“It was wonderful to join a young Saudi national, KAUST diver Mohammed A. Aljahdli, on a journey to the bottom of the Red Sea in a manned submersible for the first time in history.”