marine snow
n.— «The discarded mucus houses are one of the components of what scientists call “marine snow,” remains of dead organisms that sink down to the seabed. Marine snow is an important part of the marine vertical carbon flux.» —“What is on the menu for zooplankton?” by Lars Holger Ursin På Høyden (Bergen, Norway) Jan. 19, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way...