Press Releases | 05.06.2008

Deutsche Welle and the MARUM Research Center Travel to the Ocean Floor

"Exploring the Deep" on DW-TV presents fascinating insights about the work of oceanographers in a new series on Tomorrow Today.

Those who see a “black smoker” for the first time must feel like they are seeing images from a different world – but it is really just the deep sea. Starting Sunday, June 8, 2008, DW-TV will broadcast “Exploring the Deep” and show extraordinary views from the empire of darkness. This new, five-part series was filmed with the MARUM research center in Bremen, Germany, and will be shown on Tomorrow Today – The Science Magazine.

Scientists from the research center take the viewers on a diving trip to the methane gas fields in the India Ocean, the asphalt volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico and the cold-water coral reefs in the Mediterranean Sea. They also head to the Arctic Ocean with a drilling ship. In the middle of the Atlantic, where new ocean bed is constantly being produced, viewers will see what makes “black smokers” so interesting.

“With this series, we will get an international audience excited about deep-sea research and the work of our research center,” says MARUM Director Gerold Wefer about the media partnership with DW-TV.

“Our viewers our extremely interested in exciting scientific films – viewer response from the around the world has confirmed this,” says Christoph Lanz, Head of DW-TV. “German research is therefore one of the topics that viewers want to see.”

The series will start on June 8, 2008, and be broadcast in weekly episodes in English, German and German with Arabic subtitles.

DW-TV broadcasting times (UTC):

Tomorrow Today – The Science Magazine:

Mondays at 00:30 and 16:30, Tuesdays at 8:30

June 5, 2008