Light Depth

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

Light Depth is is how far light penetrates in water, specifically the ocean. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) the ocean has three zones based on depth and light level:

Euphotic (sunlight) Zone: from the surface to 200 meters below = 656 feet. This is the area where there is underwater light. Colors appear different here because water absorbs warm colors and scatters cool colors, making warm colors look gray or black as one descends, and cool colors look more blue-violet.

“In clear ocean water, visible light decreases approximately 10-fold for every 75 m that you descend. This means that at 75 m the light is 10% as bright as it was at the surface; and at just twice that depth, 150 m, it is another 10-fold dimmer, or 1% of surface light.” ~NOAA

Dysphotic (twilight) Zone: 200 meters to 1000 meters = 656 feet to .6 miles. At this depth photosynthesis is no longer possible.

Aphotic Zone (no light) which is further subdivided into:

• bathypelagic (midnight) zone: 1000-4000 meters = .6 miles-2.5 miles
• abyssopelagic (abyss) zone: 4000-6000 meters = 2.5 miles to 3.7 miles
• hadopelagic (hadal-chiefly oceanic trenches) zone: 6000 meters/ 3.7 miles and deeper
  

This Oceanic Light Depth is also called Deep Light. When I looked up Deep Light, I found some other interesting things:

Deeplight – The European company manufactures ultra narrow linewidth lasers. You may want to keep them in mind for when you’re building your quantum computer.

DeepLight Labs – The people of DeepLight Labs have created an eternity mirror in a light up dodecahedron.

Depth & Light (Abstract connection)

When we say that someone has “seen the light” we may mean that she has come to a sudden deep understanding or had an epiphany. It can mean to understand something that you did not understand before.

Seeing the light is also associated with near death experiences in which people describe seeing a tunnel of bright light.

In Depth Psychology, light represents the ego and consciousness, where shadow represents the unconscious.

Today’s Poem

Losing Light

Sunlight illuminates pleasure-babble
of bikini-clad sunbathers, baking
on bow decks, woohoo-ing over
boat motors and buoy bells
warning horns and crashing waves.

The light slants past the surface
not only absorbed, but also scattered.
Snorklers’ fins slap, seaweed slurps
and shells clack against rocks.
Propellers whir beneath the hulls
stirring air bubbles, gurgling.

In the twilight zone, light
decreases rapidly with depth.
Sonar pings play tricks.
A distant whale song
both eerie and beautiful
surrounds me as the humpback
rises to breech from the darkness.

In the midnight zone, I’m
in an echo chamber
of my own breath.
My running fears pulse
in my head, a horrifying
heartbeat.

Even from these depths
I can see the light.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about Light Depth? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.