Chinese vessel dives into world’s deepest ocean valley
- Manned submersible touches down on the floor of the Mariana Trench, beaming live footage back to the surface
- Scientists will collect specimens and observe life on seabed, state media report says
China live-streamed footage of its new manned submersible parked at the bottom of the Mariana Trench on Friday, part of a historic mission into the deepest underwater valley on the planet.
The Fendouzhe, or Striver, descended more than 10,000 metres (about 33,000 feet) into the submarine trench in the western Pacific Ocean with three researchers on board, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Only a handful of people have ever visited the bottom of the Mariana Trench, a crescent-shaped depression in the Earth’s crust that is deeper than Mount Everest is high and more than 2,550 kilometres (1,600 miles) long.
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Chinese manned deep-sea submersible gets rare look at deepest ocean depths, the Mariana Trench
The first explorers visited the trench in 1960 on a brief expedition, after which there had been no missions until Hollywood director James Cameron made the first solo trip to the bottom in 2012.
Cameron described a “desolate” and “alien” environment.
Video footage shot and relayed by a deep-sea camera this week showed the green-and-white Chinese submersible moving through dark water surrounded by clouds of sediment as it slowly touched down on the seabed.
The Fendouzhe, which has made multiple dives in recent days, had earlier this month set a national record of 10,909 metres for manned deep-sea diving after landing in the deepest known point of the trench, Challenger Deep, just shy of the 10,927-metre world record set by an American explorer last year.
