Spotlight – September 2019

8 Spotlight 9/2019 IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Fotos: best_works/Shutterstock.com; Linda Steward/iStock.com; Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images; ddp/INTERTOPICS

WORLD

What’s

down there?

ADVANCED

If you were to put 34 Eiffel Towers together end to end, and

lower this weird construction into the waters of the western

Pacific (about 200 kilometres east of the Mariana Islands), you

would reach the lowest point of the Mariana Trench. This 2,550-

kilometre-long tectonic slit in the ocean floor has a famous sec-

tion at its southern end called the Challenger Deep, which lies

between 10,994 and 11,034 metres under the sea. This is thought

to be the deepest natural trench in the world.

The Mariana Trench has attracted explorers since the late 19th

century. The most recent attempt to examine its lowest point

was made by a former US naval officer named Victor Vescovo,

whose journey this spring was described by The Guardian as the

“deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine”. He

reached a depth of 10,927 metres and saw, in addition to marine

life, “a plastic bag and candy wrappers”. But the rubbish, he said,

didn’t spoil the thrill.

“Honestly, towards the end, I simply turned the thrusters off,

leaned back in the cockpit, and enjoyed a tuna fish sandwich

while I very slowly drifted just above the bottom of the deep-

est place on earth, enjoying the view and appreciating what the

team had done technically,” Vescovo told CNN. “It was a very

happy, peaceful moment for me.”

burden [(b§:d&n]

, Last, Bürde

captive [(kÄptIv]

, Gefangene(r)

commemorate

[kE(memEreIt]

, gedenken

famine [(fÄmIn]

, Hungersnot

indigenous

[In(dIdZEnEs]

, eingeboren

ravages [(rævIdZIz]

, verheerende Aus-

wirkungen

candy wrapper

[(kÄndi )rÄpE] N. Am.

, Bonbonpapier

Mariana Trench

[)mÄri(A:nE trentS]

, Marianengraben

naval [(neIv&l]

, Marine-

slit [slIt]

, Spalt

spoil [spOI&l]

, verderben

thruster [(TrVstE]

, Schubdüse

weird [wIEd] ifml.

, seltsam

UNITED STATES

Angela’s world

ADVANCED US

For Americans, Jamestown (see Spot-

light 7/16) — the first permanent Eng-

lish settlement in the Americas — is

synonymous with the tough early

years of the nation. While European

colonists suffered the ravages of dis-

ease and attacks by indigenous tribes,

other people new to the Virginia coast

had an additional burden: slavery.

As The Washington Post reports, his-

torians are commemorating the 400th

anniversary of the arrival of the first

Africans at Jamestown in 1619. Their

special focus is on a woman docu-

mented as “Angela” (her Anglicized

name), thought to have been the first

African woman in Virginia.

Stolen from her home in Angola,

Angela made a 150- to 300-kilometer

forced march to the port at Luanda.

Then, together with hundreds of

other captives, she survived terrible

conditions aboard a Portuguese boat

that was set upon by pirates. Once

in Jamestown, she lived through at-

tacks by local tribes and famine, while

working in the household of Captain

William Pierce. The Jamestown Redis-

covery Foundation and the National

Park Service are still studying Pierce’s

property at Jamestown to learn all

they can about Angela’s world.

10,994 m

Mariana

Trench

8,848 m

Mount

Everest

0 m