Marine snow

Marine snow is a continuous shower of organic material that falls from the sunlit upper layers of the ocean down through the water column to the deep sea. It is made up of dead organisms, phytoplankton waste, fecal matter, sand, other inorganic dust, and natural polymers secreted by marine organisms, all of which clump together as they sink. Acting as a biological pump, marine snow carries energy and carbon from productive surface waters down to depths sunlight never reaches, and it is a vital food source for deep-sea organisms; a single particle's descent can take weeks. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/