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The Quran on Deep Seas and Internal Waves:
God has said in the Quran:
"Or (the
unbelievers’ state) is like the darkness in a deep sea. It is covered by waves, above which
are waves, above which are clouds.
Darknesses, one above another.
If a man stretches out his hand, he cannot see it.... " (Quran,
24:40)
This verse mentions the
darkness found in deep seas and oceans, where if a man stretches out his
hand, he cannot see it. The
darkness in deep seas and oceans is found around a depth of 200 meters and
below. At this depth, there is
almost no light. Below a depth
of 1000 meters there is no light at all.1 Human beings are not able to dive more than forty meters
without the aid of submarines or special equipment. Human beings cannot survive unaided
in the deep dark part of the oceans, such as at a depth of 200 meters.
Figure shows Between 3 and
30 percent of the sunlight is reflected at the sea surface. Then almost all of the seven colors
of the light spectrum are absorbed one after another in the first 200
meters, except the blue light.
Scientists have recently
discovered this darkness by means of special equipment and submarines that
have enabled them to dive into the depths of the oceans.
We can also understand from
the following sentences in the previous verse, “...in a deep sea. It is covered by waves, above which
are waves, above which are clouds....”, that the deep waters of seas and
oceans are covered by waves, and above these waves are other waves. It is clear that the second set of
waves are the surface waves that we see, because the verse mentions that
above the second waves there are clouds. But what about the first waves? Scientists have recently discovered
that there are internal waves which “occur on density interfaces between
layers of different densities.”
Figure shows Internal waves
at interface between two layers of water of different densities. One is dense (the lower one), the
other one is less dense (the upper one).
The internal waves cover
the deep waters of seas and oceans because the deep waters have a higher
density than the waters above them.
Internal waves act like surface waves. They can also break, just like surface waves. Internal waves cannot be seen by the
human eye, but they can be detected by studying temperature or salinity
changes at a given location.
Location: Islam-Guide
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