Life at the bottom: The first underwater base for studying the oceans – Photos

The idea of you live under water for a month is enough to terrify any claustrophobic person – but it could become a reality in just three years if this new plan is anything to go by.

Scientists from DEEP Research Labsan ocean exploration and technology company, have revealed plans to build a base 660 feet below the surface of the water off Wales where researchers could live for up to 28 days.

The base, called Sentinel, would give scientists extended access to the “epipelagic zone,” where 90 percent of marine life is thought to reside.

DEEP said: “Being able to fully explore the full extent of this part of the ocean, rather than just performing incursions from the surface, will represent a step change in how scientists can observe, monitor and to understand the oceans’.

The epipelagic zone is often referred to as the sunlight zone and extends from the surface to 660 feet (200 meters).

THE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington he explained: “In this zone there is most of the visible light.”

“With this sunlight reaching the earth with heat from the sun, which is responsible for large variations in temperature in this zone, both with seasons and latitudes. Sea surface temperatures range from 97 F (36 C) in the Persian Gulf to 28 F (-2 C) near the North Pole.

While scientists can explore this zone in submarines, they can usually stay underwater for only a few hours at a time.

To give researchers more extensive access to this zone, DEEP is proposing to build a permanent base off the west coast of the UK.

DEEP President Steve Etherton said: “We need to conserve the oceans, and to do that we need to understand them.”

“Oceans are at the heart of the challenges the world has faced over the years, and they also offer opportunities we have not even begun to understand.

It is the source of at least every other breath we take. They affect the weather. They affect the climate but also us”

The pictures of the submarine’s design, reveal how it will feature a central “great hall”, with laboratories on a mezzanine above it.

The scientists they will live in private bedrooms with a single bed with built-in storage and a small coffee table, while their bathrooms will have a fairly spacious shower, along with a toilet and sink. Also, the kitchen will have a dining area and large windows facing the sea floor.

DEEP hopes its first base will be off the coast of the South West and Wales, although the exact location has yet to be found and the amount it will need to build remains unclear.

This area was chosen because of its “unique cluster of relevant marine engineering, diving, hyperbaric and underwater expertise and links with the wider UK commercial and technical diving industry”, DEEP said.