But his mission was cut short due in part to a hydraulic fluid leak that coated the window of the sub's "pilot sphere," obscuring his view. The expedition was designed so that Cameron could spend up to six hours collecting samples and video at the bottom of the trench. ( Video: James Cameron Breaks Solo Dive Record.)Īfter a descent that took roughly two and a half hours, Cameron spent about three hours conducting the first manned scientific exploration of Challenger Deep.įor his return trip, Cameron experienced a faster-than-expected, roughly 70-minute ascent, which he described as a "heckuva ride."īobbing in the open ocean, his custom-designed sub, the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, was spotted by helicopter and plucked from the Pacific by a research ship's crane. ET Sunday), the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker's "vertical torpedo" sub broke the surface of the western Pacific, some 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Guam. Between 28 April and, the DSV Limiting Factor completed four manned dives to the bottom of Challenger Deep.The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep-the deepest point on Earth-looks as bleak and barren as the moon, according to James Cameron, who successfully returned just hours ago from the first solo dive to the ocean abyss.Īt noon, local time Monday (10 p.m. In March 2012 a manned solo descent was made by film director James Cameron in the deep-submergence vehicle Deepsea Challenger. This was followed by the unmanned ROVs Kaikō in 1995 and Nereus in 2009.
The first descent by any vehicle was by the manned bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. According to the August 2011 version of the GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names, the location and depth of the Challenger Deep are 11☂2.4′N 142☃5.5′E and 10,920 m (35,827 ft) ☑0 m (33 ft).The high water pressure at this depth makes designing and operating exploratory craft difficult. It is located in the ocean territory of the Federated States of Micronesia.The depression is named after the British Royal Navy survey ship HMS Challenger, whose expedition of 1872–1876 made the first recordings of its depth. The closest land to the Challenger Deep is Fais Island (one of the outer islands of Yap), 287 km (178 mi) southwest, and Guam, 304 km (189 mi) to the northeast. Both the western and eastern basins have recorded depths (by sonar bathymetry) in excess of 10,920 m (35,827 ft), while the center basin is slightly shallower. The three basins feature extends about 48 km (30 mi) west to east if measured at the 10,650 m (34,941 ft) isobath. The Challenger Deep consists of three 6 to 10 km (3.7 to 6.2 mi) long about 2 km (1.2 mi) wide basins, each over 10,850 m (35,597 ft) in depth, oriented in echelon from west to east, separated by mounds between the basins 200 to 300 m (656 to 984 ft) higher. It is a relatively small slot-shaped depression in the bottom of a considerably larger crescent-shaped oceanic trench, which itself is an unusually deep feature in the ocean floor. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench near the Mariana Islands group.
The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the Earth's seabed hydrosphere (the oceans), with a depth of 10,902 to 10,925 m (35,768 to 35,843 ft) by direct measurement from submersibles and (sometimes) slightly more by sonar bathymetry. Wikipedia Rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votes
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