American Explorer Completes Deepest Submarine Dive In History (gcaptain.com) 49
schwit1 quotes the maritime industry news site gCaptain:
A private equity investor from Dallas, Texas and his team of explorers have completed a series of record-breaking dives to Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, commonly known as the deepest place on earth. The initial record-setting dive took took place on April 28 when American, Victor Vescovo, a retired U.S. Navy officer, made a solo dive to the bottom of the 'Eastern Pool' of the Challenger Deep, reaching a depth of 10,928 meters (35,853 feet deep) and setting a new world record for the deepest dive by any human in history. Vescovo spent four hours (248 minutes) exploring the basin, setting another new record for the longest period of time ever spent on the bottom of the ocean by an individual.
The 10,928-meter depth beats the previous manned dive record by 16 meters (52 feet). [A record set in 2012 by James Cameron.]
CNN reports the explorer "returned to the surface with the depressing news that there appears to be plastic trash down there... As well as four new species that could offer clues about the origins of life on Earth, Vescovo said he observed a plastic bag and candy wrappers at the deepest point on the planet."
The 10,928-meter depth beats the previous manned dive record by 16 meters (52 feet). [A record set in 2012 by James Cameron.]
CNN reports the explorer "returned to the surface with the depressing news that there appears to be plastic trash down there... As well as four new species that could offer clues about the origins of life on Earth, Vescovo said he observed a plastic bag and candy wrappers at the deepest point on the planet."
Hmmm (Score:1)
Must be waiting for the maintenance guy with the sharp stick for cleaning up trash. ... Waiting for a laugh
Re: (Score:1)
Geez, just being 20 miles under water is no excuse for not popping open the hatch and grabbing the refuse. Is it really that hard... :)
Yes it is, with a couple of thousand tonnes pushing against that hatch...
How many plastic bags did he encounter? (Score:2)
Or straws.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're Republican, lying isn't a problem (Score:1)
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The gravity of the situation... (Score:2)
Trash rolls downhill. I would be surprised if there *wasn't* a bunch of trash down there.
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Challenger Deep? More like Challenger Dump amirite?
Are They Really Going Any Deeper Anymore? (Score:4, Informative)
If you go down to the lowest point of the deepest indentation in the deepest depression in the world-ocean then you are at the bottom, and there is no "deeper" - unless we start talking about where the human is placed in relation to the bottom of the submersible. Hasn't this already been done? Or was it finally done this time?
The difference here (claimed) is 52 feet. It seems unlikely that Cameron, the last person to set the record thought "I won't go all the way to the bottom, but leave 100 feet (or something) for the next guy". This distance is similar in magnitude to the uncertainty of the actual depth the lowest point of Challenger Deep (39 ft at the 68% confidence level). Are all we getting now are uncertainty measures in depth as "new records"?
Re:Are They Really Going Any Deeper Anymore? (Score:4, Informative)
Oops, forgot to add that this depth record is 10 feet deeper than the last best estimate at setting the absolute greatest depth of Challenger Deep in 2016. This suggests that new depth records may just be larger errors in measurement.
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If you visit the location of the last depth record, you can take that pressure/depth value as a "zero point" and continue to explore. If you find a point of higher pressure (within a fairly limited search area and time, such that there is negligible variance in the thermocline layers above), you are safe to assume you found a deeper point, even if the exact calculation of the depth below the surface is tricky to derive.
Finally, depending on the terrain of the sea floor, you might even be able to measure the
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Cameron may have been there when the sea level was lower due to the moon's gravity.
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If you go down to the lowest point of the deepest indentation in the deepest depression in the world-ocean then you are at the bottom, and there is no "deeper"...
See, most blokes are gonna be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up. You're on ten-where can you go from there? Where?
- I don't know.
- Nowhere. Exactly! If we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
- Put it up to 11.
- Exactly. One louder.
Only a week ago (Score:2)
This was only a week ago. By crapdot standards this story's almost from the future.
Not plastic! (Score:1)
He is mistaken. The plastic bags are in fact plasticbag fish, an exotic benthic species of fish. The candy wrappers are, in fact, a deep sea slug. Those colors that look suspiciously like a Snickers wrapper? No, that's actually the sea slug's coloration.
And yes, the plasticbag fish has a warning on it that it could cause suffocation if misused by children under 3. ;-)
Did they find ... (Score:5, Funny)
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It's so simple! If we go down there again and open the door, the ocean will start pouring through it. Then we close the door again when we've drained out enough water to make new beach front property around the world.
Informative Map (Score:2)
Here is the best map I can find [fivedeeps.com] of Challenger Deep, prepared by the team doing this series of dives. The 2012 dive, involving Cameron, and the "Limiting Factor" dives this year, all visit the same basin-within-a-basin called the Eastern Pool, which looks to be about 600 meters by 200 meters in size, the area of 24 U.S. football fields (or to use Metric units 18 international play soccer fields). It has a maximum depth variation across the entire are of no more than 50 meters.
Regardless of the absolute depth
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How would you go about it? No traditional accurate measurement methodology I can think of works through this much salt water with this many thermal layers. You have to give it a lot of error margin.
Obligatory Onion Story (Score:2)
Whenever I Feel Sad, I Just Go Down To The Wreck Of The Titanic [theonion.com].
Bathyscaphe Trieste, 1960 (Score:2)
Surely this was done 60 years ago?
Or are they just claiming they found a slightly deeper spot?
Interesting to have a modern and maneuverable sub go that deep. But claims to a record are a technicality at best.
It is like someone claiming to beat Edmund Hillary to climb the highest mountain on earth because they climbed Mt Everast but when they go to the top the climbed a 3 foot latter to get higher than he ever did. (Actually would not work as Everest has been shrinking. Would need to be quite a long ladde
No photos in linked article... very strange (Score:2)
The odd thing about the linked article is there are no photos at all of where they went exploring.
Going straight to the source, I went to the expedition website (fivedeeps.com). Still no photos from the expedition, really. Just lots and lots of photos of the Jethro Tull-looking guy grinning and posing next to his submersible. And lots of links to the company that makes the submersible.
Very strange.
Whatâ(TM)s the value? (Score:2)
Why does it matter whether we can send a human to the bottom of the ocean? Wouldnâ€(TM)t a robot be more suitable and probably able to do far more down there?
Obligatory... (Score:2)