EARTHDEEPEST
MANNED DESCENT
On 23 Jan 1960,
Dr Jacques Piccard
(CHE, top) and Lt Donald
Walsh (USA, bottom)
piloted the Swiss-built
US Navy bathyscaphe
Trieste to a depth of
10,911 m (35,797 ft) in
the Challenger Deep
section of the
Mariana Trench.DEEPEST SALVAGE OF CARGO
FROM A SHIPWRECK
The British passenger steamship SS City of
Cairo was torpedoed on 6 Nov 1942 and sank
with the loss of 104 lives. In Apr 2015, it was
revealed that the wreck had been found at a
depth of 5,150 m (16,896 ft) by salvage company
Deep Ocean Search in 2011. The ship had been
carrying 100 tonnes (220,460 lb) of silver coins.
The salvage team was able to recover almost
£34 m ($52.2 m) worth of coinage from the wreck.DEEPEST-DIVING SUBMERSIBLE IN SERVICE
Of the submersibles currently in service, the Chinese
research submarine Jiaolong is capable of diving the
deepest. On 24 Jun 2012, piloted by Ye Cong, Liu Kaizhou
and Yang Bo (all CHN), it descended to a depth of 7,020 m
(23,031 ft) in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific
Ocean. During an 11-hr submersion, the “oceanauts” spent
3 hr exploring the ocean floor, taking sediment and water
samples and positioning markers.
DEEPEST DIVE USING AN
ATMOSPHERIC DIVING SUIT
On 1 Aug 2006, Chief Navy Diver
Daniel Jackson of the US Navy
dived 2,000 ft (610 m) off the
coast of La Jolla in California, USA.
He was testing the Navy’s latest
atmospheric diving suit (ADS), the
Hardsuit 2 000, which was designed
to be used in submarine rescue
scenarios. Its robust design enables
the user to walk on the seabed,
although dual-plane propellers
provide most of its propulsion.YOUNGEST PERSON
TO DIVE TO THE TITANIC
On 4 Aug 2005, aged
13 years 319 days,
Sebastian Harris (USA,
b. 19 Sep 1991) dived down
to the wreck of the Titanic
with his father Michael
on board the Russian
submersible Mir-2. The
pair spent 8 hr exploring
the wreck. Shown right is
a styrofoam cup that the
duo took on their dive. It
was compressed almost
to the size of a shot glass
by the intense pressures
on the seabed.DEEPEST MANNED DESCENT (SOLO)
On 25 Mar 2012, film-maker James Cameron
(CAN) made a solo two-hour descent of
the Challenger Deep, reaching a depth of
10,898 m (35,755 ft) on board the DEEPSEA
CHALLENGER, a specially designed one-
man “vertical torpedo” submersible. The
director of ocean-based dramas Titanic
(USA, 1997) and The Abyss (USA, 1989)
spent several hours in the trench, during
which he encountered a fine silt and a
few small, unidentified life forms.
DEEPEST OBSERVED
VOLCANIC ERUPTION
On 6–7 May 2009, US
scientists filmed a
volcanic eruption that
took place more than
1,208 m (3,963 ft) deep
in the Pacific Ocean near
Samoa. The footage,
which was captured by a
robotic submersible named
Jason 2 , shows molten lava
erupting from the West
Mata volcano. One of the
most active submarine
volcanoes in the world, it
is located around 200 km
(125 mi) south-west of
the Samoan Islands.