TED, Jill Heinerth: The mysterious world of underwater caves

Jill Heinerth: The mysterious world of underwater caves

00:12I'm an underwater explorer, more specifically a cave diver. 00:20I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a little kid, but growing up in Canada as a young girl, that wasn't really available to me. But as it turns out, we know a lot more about space than we do about the underground waterways coursing through our planet, the very lifeblood of Mother Earth. So I decided to do something that was even more remarkable. Instead of exploring outer space, I wanted to explore the wonders of inner space.

00:50Now, a lot of people will tell you that cave diving is perhaps one of the most dangerous endeavors. I mean, imagine yourself here in this room, if you were suddenly plunged into blackness, with your only job to find the exit, sometimes swimming through these large spaces, and at other times crawling beneath the seats, following a thin guideline, just waiting for the life support to provide your very next breath. Well, that's my workplace. 01:21But what I want to teach you today is that our world is not one big solid rock. It's a whole lot more like a sponge. I can swim through a lot of the pores in our earth's sponge, but where I can't, other life-forms and other materials can make that journey without me. And my voice is the one that's going to teach you about the inside of Mother Earth. 01:49There was no guidebook available to me when I decided to be the first person to cave dive inside Antarctic icebergs. In 2000, this was the largest moving object on the planet. It calved off the Ross Ice Shelf, and we went down there to explore ice edge ecology and search for life-forms beneath the ice.

02:11We use a technology called rebreathers. It's an awful lot like the same technology that is used for space walks. This technology enables us to go deeper than we could've imagined even 10 years ago. We use exotic gases, and we can make missions even up to 20 hours long underwater.

02:32 I work with biologists. It turns out that caves are repositories of amazing life-forms, species that we never knew existed before. Many of these life-forms live in unusual ways. They have no pigment and no eyes in many cases, and these animals are also extremely long-lived. In fact, animals swimming in these caves today are identical in the fossil record that predates the extinction of the dinosaurs. So imagine that: these are like little swimming dinosaurs. What can they teach us about evolution and survival? When we look at an animal like this remipede swimming in the jar, he has giant fangs with venom. He can actually attack something 40 times his size and kill it. If he were the size of a cat, he'd be the most dangerous thing on our planet. And these animals live in remarkably beautiful places, and in some cases, caves like this, that are very young, yet the animals are ancient. How did they get there?

04:31Paleoclimatologists are also interested in where the sea level stands were at other times on earth. Here in Bermuda, my team and I embarked on the deepest manned dives ever conducted in the region, and we were looking for places where the sea level used to lap up against the shoreline, many hundreds of feet below current levels.

04:51I also get to work with paleontologists and archaeologists. In places like Mexico, in the Bahamas, and even in Cuba, we're looking at cultural remains and also human remains in caves, and they tell us a lot about some of the earliest inhabitants of these regions. 05:09But my very favorite project of all was over 15 years ago, when I was a part of the team that made the very first accurate, three-dimensional map of a subterranean surface. This device that I'm driving through the cave was actually creating a three-dimensional model as we drove it. We also used ultra low frequency radio to broadcast back to the surface our exact position within the cave. So I swam under houses and businesses and bowling alleys and golf courses, and even under a Sonny's BBQ Restaurant, 05:42Pretty remarkable, and what that taught me was that everything we do on the surface of our earth will be returned to us to drink. Our water planet is not just rivers, lakes and oceans, but it's this vast network of groundwater that knits us all together. It's a shared resource from which we all drink. And when we can understand our human connections with our groundwater and all of our water resources on this planet,then we'll be working on the problem that's probably the most important issue of this century. 06:16So I never got to be that astronaut that I always wanted to be, but this mapping device, designed by Dr. Bill Stone, will be. It's actually morphed. It's now a self-swimming autonomous robot, artificially intelligent, and its ultimate goal is to go to Jupiter's moon Europa and explore oceans beneath the frozen surface of that body. 06:38And that's pretty amazing. 06:41(Applause)

Jill Heinerth: The mysterious world of underwater caves Джилл||||||| Jill||||||sous-marines|grottes sous-marines 吉尔|海纳斯||神秘的|世界||水下|洞穴 Jill Heinerth: Die geheimnisvolle Welt der Unterwasserhöhlen Jill Heinerth: El misterioso mundo de las cuevas submarinas Jill Heinerth : Le monde mystérieux des grottes sous-marines Jill Heinerth: Il misterioso mondo delle grotte sottomarine ジル・ハイネル水中洞窟の神秘的な世界 Jill Heinerth: Tajemniczy świat podwodnych jaskiń Jill Heinerth: O misterioso mundo das grutas subaquáticas Джилл Хайнерт: Таинственный мир подводных пещер Jill Heinerth: Sualtı mağaralarının gizemli dünyası Jill Heinerth：水下洞穴的神秘世界

00:12I'm an underwater explorer, more specifically a cave diver. 我||水下|探险者||更具体地说||洞穴|潜水员 00:20I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a little kid, but growing up in Canada as a young girl, that wasn't really available to me. |想||||宇航员||||||小孩||长大|||加拿大|||年轻女孩|女孩||并不|真的|可用|| ||||||||||||||||||||||||accessible|| But as it turns out, we know a lot more about space than we do about the underground waterways coursing through our planet, the very lifeblood of Mother Earth. |||事实证明|结果||||很多|||太空|比|||||地下|水道|流动的水道|穿过||地球|||生命之源|||地球 Pero resulta que, sabemos mucho más sobre el espacio que sobre los cursos de agua subterráneos que recorren nuestro planeta, la sangre vital de la Madre Tierra. Но, как оказалось, мы знаем о космосе гораздо больше, чем о подземных водных путях, протекающих через нашу планету, самой жизненной силе Матери-Земли. So I decided to do something that was even more remarkable. ||决定|||||||| Instead of exploring outer space, I wanted to explore the wonders of inner space. 而是||探索||内心世界||想||探索||奇迹||内在| Вместо того, чтобы исследовать космическое пространство, я хотел исследовать чудеса внутреннего космоса.

00:50Now, a lot of people will tell you that cave diving is perhaps one of the most dangerous endeavors. 现在||很多|||会||||洞穴|潜水||也许||||最|危险的|活动 ||||||||||la plongée|||||||dangereuses|activités 00: 50 Ahora, mucha gente te dirá que el buceo en cuevas es quizás uno de los esfuerzos más peligrosos. Veel mensen zullen je vertellen dat grotduiken misschien wel een van de gevaarlijkste inspanningen is. 00:50 Многие скажут вам, что пещерный дайвинг — это, пожалуй, одно из самых опасных занятий. I mean, imagine yourself here in this room, if you were suddenly plunged into blackness, with your only job to find the exit, sometimes swimming through these large spaces, and at other times crawling beneath the seats, following a thin guideline, just waiting for the life support to provide your very next breath. |我的意思是|想象一下|你自己|在这里||这|房间||||突然|陷入|进入|黑暗||你的|唯一|任务||寻找||出口|有时|游泳|穿过|这些|大空间|空间|||其他时候|有时|爬行|在座位下||座位|跟随||细微的|细绳||等待|||生命支持|生命支持||提供|你的||下一口气|呼吸 Я имею в виду, представьте себя здесь, в этой комнате, если вы вдруг погрузились в темноту, с единственной задачей найти выход, иногда проплывая через эти большие пространства, а иногда ползая под сиденьями, следуя тонкой направляющей, просто ожидая для жизнеобеспечения, чтобы обеспечить ваш следующий вдох. Well, that's my workplace. 好吧|||工作场所 01:21But what I want to teach you today is that our world is not one big solid rock. |||||教||今天||||||||一块大|坚固的|岩石 It's a whole lot more like a sponge. Es mucho más como una esponja. I can swim through a lot of the pores in our earth's sponge, but where I can't, other life-forms and other materials can make that journey without me. Я могу проплыть через множество пор в нашей земной губке, но там, где я не могу, другие формы жизни и другие материалы могут совершить это путешествие без меня. And my voice is the one that's going to teach you about the inside of Mother Earth. 01:49There was no guidebook available to me when I decided to be the first person to cave dive inside Antarctic icebergs. In 2000, this was the largest moving object on the planet. It calved off the Ross Ice Shelf, and we went down there to explore ice edge ecology and search for life-forms beneath the ice. Se desprendió de la plataforma de hielo de Ross y bajamos para explorar la ecología del borde del hielo y buscar formas de vida debajo del hielo. Он откололся от шельфового ледника Росса, и мы отправились туда, чтобы исследовать экологию кромки льда и искать формы жизни подо льдом.

02:11We use a technology called rebreathers. 02: 11 We gebruiken een technologie die rebreathers wordt genoemd. It's an awful lot like the same technology that is used for space walks. Es muy parecido a la misma tecnología que se utiliza para los paseos espaciales. Это очень похоже на ту же технологию, которая используется для выхода в открытый космос. This technology enables us to go deeper than we could've imagined even 10 years ago. We use exotic gases, and we can make missions even up to 20 hours long underwater.

02:32 I work with biologists. It turns out that caves are repositories of amazing life-forms, species that we never knew existed before. Resulta que las cuevas son depósitos de formas de vida asombrosas, especies que no sabíamos que existían antes. Оказывается, пещеры — это хранилища удивительных форм жизни, видов, о существовании которых мы никогда не знали. Many of these life-forms live in unusual ways. They have no pigment and no eyes in many cases, and these animals are also extremely long-lived. In fact, animals swimming in these caves today are identical in the fossil record that predates the extinction of the dinosaurs. Фактически, животные, плавающие в этих пещерах сегодня, идентичны в летописи окаменелостей, существовавшей до вымирания динозавров. So imagine that: these are like little swimming dinosaurs. What can they teach us about evolution and survival? When we look at an animal like this remipede swimming in the jar, he has giant fangs with venom. Als we kijken naar een dier als deze remipede die in de pot zwemt, heeft hij gigantische giftanden met gif. Когда мы смотрим на такое животное, как этот ремипед, плавающий в банке, у него гигантские клыки с ядом. He can actually attack something 40 times his size and kill it. If he were the size of a cat, he'd be the most dangerous thing on our planet. And these animals live in remarkably beautiful places, and in some cases, caves like this, that are very young, yet the animals are ancient. И живут эти животные в удивительно красивых местах, а в некоторых случаях и в пещерах вроде этой, очень молодые, но животные древние. How did they get there?

03:40I also work with physicists, and they're interested oftentimes in global climate change. They can take rocks within the caves, and they can slice them and look at the layers within with rocks, much like the rings of a tree, and they can count back in history and learn about the climate on our planet at very different times. Pueden tomar rocas dentro de las cuevas, y pueden cortarlas y mirar las capas internas con rocas, como los anillos de un árbol, y pueden contar en la historia y aprender sobre el clima de nuestro planeta en momentos muy diferentes. The red that you see in this photograph is actually dust from the Sahara Desert. So it's been picked up by wind, blown across the Atlantic Ocean. Así que ha sido recogido por el viento, soplado a través del Océano Atlántico. Значит, его подхватил ветер, перенесший через Атлантический океан. It's rained down in this case on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. It soaks in through the ground and deposits itself in the rocks within these caves.And when we look back in the layers of these rocks, we can find times when the climate was very, very dry on earth, and we can go back many hundreds of thousands of years. Se empapa a través del suelo y se deposita en las rocas dentro de estas cuevas. Y cuando miramos hacia atrás en las capas de estas rocas, podemos encontrar momentos en que el clima era muy, muy seco en la tierra, y podemos regresar muchos cientos de miles de años. Он впитывается сквозь землю и откладывается в скалах в этих пещерах. И когда мы оглядываемся назад в слои этих скал, мы можем найти времена, когда климат на земле был очень, очень сухим, и мы можем вернуться на многие сотни лет назад. тысяч лет.

04:31Paleoclimatologists are also interested in where the sea level stands were at other times on earth. 04:31 Палеоклиматологов также интересует, где стояли отметки уровня моря в другие времена на земле. Here in Bermuda, my team and I embarked on the deepest manned dives ever conducted in the region, and we were looking for places where the sea level used to lap up against the shoreline, many hundreds of feet below current levels. Aquí en Bermudas, mi equipo y yo nos embarcamos en las inmersiones tripuladas más profundas que se hayan realizado en la región, y estábamos buscando lugares donde el nivel del mar solía caer contra la costa, muchos cientos de pies por debajo de los niveles actuales. Здесь, на Бермудских островах, моя команда и я предприняли самые глубокие пилотируемые погружения, когда-либо проводившиеся в этом регионе, и мы искали места, где уровень моря раньше касался береговой линии, на много сотен футов ниже нынешнего уровня.

04:51I also get to work with paleontologists and archaeologists. In places like Mexico, in the Bahamas, and even in Cuba, we're looking at cultural remains and also human remains in caves, and they tell us a lot about some of the earliest inhabitants of these regions. В таких местах, как Мексика, на Багамах и даже на Кубе мы ищем культурные останки, а также человеческие останки в пещерах, и они многое говорят нам о некоторых из самых ранних обитателей этих регионов. 05:09But my very favorite project of all was over 15 years ago, when I was a part of the team that made the very first accurate, three-dimensional map of a subterranean surface. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||underground| This device that I'm driving through the cave was actually creating a three-dimensional model as we drove it. Este dispositivo que estoy conduciendo a través de la cueva estaba creando un modelo tridimensional mientras lo conducíamos. We also used ultra low frequency radio to broadcast back to the surface our exact position within the cave. También utilizamos radio de frecuencia ultra baja para transmitir a la superficie nuestra posición exacta dentro de la cueva. So I swam under houses and businesses and bowling alleys and golf courses, and even under a Sonny's BBQ Restaurant, Así que nadé debajo de casas y negocios y boleras y campos de golf, e incluso debajo de un restaurante Sonny's BBQ, 05:42Pretty remarkable, and what that taught me was that everything we do on the surface of our earth will be returned to us to drink. 05: 42 Muy notable, y lo que me enseñó fue que todo lo que hagamos en la superficie de nuestra tierra nos será devuelto para beber. 05:42 Довольно примечательно, и это научило меня тому, что все, что мы делаем на поверхности нашей земли, вернется к нам, чтобы выпить. Our water planet is not just rivers, lakes and oceans, but it's this vast network of groundwater that knits us all together. Наша водная планета — это не только реки, озера и океаны, это обширная сеть подземных вод, которая связывает нас всех вместе. It's a shared resource from which we all drink. And when we can understand our human connections with our groundwater and all of our water resources on this planet,then we'll be working on the problem that's probably the most important issue of this century. 06:16So I never got to be that astronaut that I always wanted to be, but this mapping device, designed by Dr. Bill Stone, will be. 06:16 Так что я никогда не был тем астронавтом, которым всегда хотел быть, но это картографическое устройство, разработанное доктором Биллом Стоуном, им станет. It's actually morphed. C'est en fait transformé. Он на самом деле трансформировался. It's now a self-swimming autonomous robot, artificially intelligent, and its ultimate goal is to go to Jupiter's moon Europa and explore oceans beneath the frozen surface of that body. Теперь это автономный плавающий робот с искусственным интеллектом, и его конечная цель — отправиться на спутник Юпитера Европу и исследовать океаны под замерзшей поверхностью этого тела. 06:38And that's pretty amazing. 06:41(Applause)