Popular Science USA – July-August 2019

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

Exploring the Deeps
From top: In the Mariana
Trench; a new species of
sea squirt in Java Trench.


a retired U.S. Navy submarine captain who was part of the mission
teams that went to Titanic and Bismarck, remembers surface activ-
ity as the worst part. Unless the ocean is completely calm, which it
rarely is, the process of getting a submersible under the water can be
white-knuckle. On the Mir, McLaren said, “even a little sea state felt
like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”
For the Puerto Rico dives, this process was very much a work in
progress. Weight limitations on Pressure Drop’s crane meant the
team had to lower Limiting Factor into the water without Vescovo
inside. He traveled out to the sub in a Zodiac and then—with the
assistance of a diver straddling the top of the bucking craft, as if
riding a bronco—climbed into the hatch.
“It’s the riskiest part of the operation,” Vescovo said. As one

7


,^1


9


2


M


E


T


E


R


S


After Vescovo’s first-ever
descent of the Java Trench,
Five Deeps chief scientist
Alan Jamieson, an expert in
so-called hadal zones, vis-
ited the ocean floor for the
first time in his career. His
team documented finds,
including what might be
new species of snailfish and
amphipod. —MR

Dive 3: Indian


54 FALL 2019 • POPSCI.COM

CO

UR

TE

SY

FI

VE

D

EE

PS

EX

PE

DI

TIO

N^

(^3 )

x 8 2/3
Burj
Khalifas
Free download pdf