There is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about deep space - mysterious ocean floor. It's believed that world science I haven't really even started studying it yet.

On March 26, 2012, 50 years after the first dive, a man again sank to the bottom of the deepest trench on Earth: the Deepsea Challenge bathyscaphe with Canadian director James Cameron sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Cameron became the third person to reach the deepest point in the ocean and the first to do it alone.

Mariana Trench- the deepest trench on earth in the western Pacific Ocean. It stretches along the Mariana Islands for 2,500 km. The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is called "Challenger Abyss". According to latest research 2011, its depth is 10,994 meters (±40 m) below sea level. By the way, the highest peak in the world - Everest rises to a height of "only" 8,848 meters.

At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the water pressure reaches 1,072 atmospheres, i.e. 1072 times the normal atmospheric pressure. (Infographics ria.ru):

Half a century ago. Bathyscaphe "Trieste", designed by the Swiss scientist Auguste Picard, on which a record dive into the Mariana Trench was made in 1960:

Two researchers then discovered at a terrible depth only 6 species of living creatures, including flat fish up to 30 cm in size:

Let's go back to our days. This is the Deepsea Challenge Deep Sea Bathyscaphe, on which James Cameron sank to the bottom of the ocean. It was developed in an Australian laboratory, weighs 11 tons and has a length of more than 7 meters:

The dive began on March 26 at 05:15 am local time. Last words James Cameron were: "Lower, lower, lower."

When diving to the bottom of the ocean, the bathyscaphe turns over and falls vertically down:

This is a real vertical torpedo that glides through a huge column of water at high speed:

The compartment in which Cameron was during the dive is a metal sphere with a diameter of 109 cm with thick walls that can withstand pressures of more than 1,000 atmospheres:

In the photo, to the left of the director, you can see a hatch covering the sphere:

HD video. Dive:

James Cameron spent more than 3 hours at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, during which he took photos and videos of the underwater world. The result of this underwater journey will be a joint film with National Geographic. The photo shows manipulators with cameras:

At a depth of 11 kilometers:

3D camera:

However, the underwater expedition was not entirely successful. Due to malfunction metal "hands", controlled by hydraulics, James Cameron was unable to take samples from the ocean floor that scientists need to study geology:

Many were tormented by the question of animals that live at such a monstrous depth. “Probably everyone would like to hear that I saw some kind of sea monster, but it was not there ... There was nothing alive, more than 2-2.5 cm.”

A few hours after the dive, the Deepsea Challenge bathyscaphe with the 57-year-old director successfully returned from the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The rise of the bathyscaphe:

James Cameron - the first person in the world to make a solo dive into the abyss- to the bottom of Mariana. In the coming weeks, it will sink to a depth of 4 more times.

The Mariana Trench is the deepest place in the world's oceans. It is located between Japan and Papua New Guinea, not far from the island of Guam. Its maximum depth is about 11 thousand meters (this place of the Mariana Trench is called the "Challenger Abyss").

The Mariana Trench has an elongated appearance, and in a vertical section it is a V-shaped canyon, tapering to the bottom. The bottom of the depression is flat, several kilometers wide.

Start of research

The first studies of the Mariana Trench began in the 19th century, when the crew of the Challenger sailboat managed to measure its depth using a deep-sea lot. According to the results of measurements, the depth of the depression was a little more than eight kilometers. A hundred years later, a research vessel of the same name made repeated measurements of the depth of the depression using an echo sounder. The maximum depth was almost eleven kilometers.

Diving with people

Only scientists in a special research apparatus can dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The pressure at the bottom of the depression is huge - more than a hundred megapascals. This is enough to crush an ordinary bathyscaphe like an eggshell. In the entire history of mankind, only three researchers have managed to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench - US Army Lieutenant Don Walsh, scientist Jacques Picard and film director James Cameron.

The first attempt to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was made by Jacques Picard and Don Walsh. On a specially designed bathyscaphe, they plunged to a depth of 10,918 meters. To the surprise of the researchers, at the bottom of the depression they saw fish, appearance reminiscent of flounder. How they manage to survive under such enormous pressure is still a mystery.

Third and on this moment The last person to sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was director James Cameron. He did it alone, descending to the deepest point of the trench in the Deepsea Challenger. This significant event took place in 2012. Cameron descended into the Challenger Deep, took soil samples and filmed the dive process on. Based on the footage filmed by James Cameron, the National Geographic Channel released a film.

Diving without participation of people

In addition to people, “unmanned” research vehicles also descended into the Mariana Trench. In 1995, the Japanese Kaiko probe studied the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and in 2009, the Nereus apparatus sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The Mariana Trench is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, not far from the Mariana Islands, just two hundred kilometers away, thanks to the neighborhood with which it got its name. It is a huge marine reserve in the status of a national monument of the United States, therefore it is under state protection. Fishing and mining are strictly prohibited here, but you can swim and enjoy the beauty.

In shape, the Mariana Trench resembles a grandiose crescent - 2550 km long and 69 km wide. The deepest point - 10994 m below sea level - is called the "Challenger Abyss".

Discovery and first observations

The Mariana Trench began to explore the British. In 1872, the Challenger sailing corvette entered the waters of the Pacific Ocean with scientists and the most advanced equipment of those times. After taking measurements, we set the maximum depth - 8367 m. The value, of course, differs markedly from the correct result. But this was enough to understand: the deepest point was discovered the globe. So the next riddle of nature was “challenged” (translated from English “Challenger” - “challenging”). Years passed, and in 1951 the British carried out "work on the mistakes." Namely: a deep-sea echo sounder recorded a maximum depth of 10863 meters.

Then the baton was intercepted by Russian researchers who sent the Vityaz research vessel to the area of ​​the Mariana Trench. In 1957, with the help of special equipment, they were not only able to fix the depth of the depression, equal to 11022 m, but also established the presence of life at a depth of more than seven kilometers. Thus, having made a small revolution in the scientific world of the middle of the 20th century, where there was a strong opinion that there are no and cannot be such deeply living beings. This is where the most interesting begins ... Many stories about underwater monsters, huge octopuses, unseen bathyscaphees crushed into a cake by huge paws of animals ... Where is the truth and where is the lie - let's try to figure it out.

Secrets, riddles and legends

The first daredevils who dared to dive to the "bottom of the Earth" were US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and explorer Jacques Picard. They dived on the Trieste bathyscaphe, which was built in the Italian city of the same name. A very heavy structure with thick 13-centimeter walls was immersed to the bottom for five whole hours. Having reached the lowest point, the researchers stayed there for 12 minutes, after which the ascent was immediately begun, which took approximately 3 hours. At the bottom, fish were found - flat, similar to flounder, about 30 centimeters long.

Research continued, and in 1995 the Japanese descended into the "abyss". Another “breakthrough” was made in 2009 with the help of the Nereus automatic underwater vehicle: this miracle of technology not only took several photos at the deepest point of the Earth, but also took soil samples.

In 1996, the New York Times published a shocking story about equipment from the American scientific vessel Glomar Challenger diving into the Mariana Trench. The spherical apparatus for deep-sea travel was affectionately nicknamed the “hedgehog” by the team. Some time after the start of the dive, the instruments recorded terrifying sounds, reminiscent of the grinding of metal on metal. The “Hedgehog” was immediately raised to the surface, and they were horrified: the huge steel structure was crushed, and the strongest and thickest (20 cm in diameter!) Cable seemed to be sawn. There were many explanations immediately. Some said that these were the “tricks” of the monsters inhabiting the natural object, others were inclined to the version of the presence of an alien mind, and still others believed that there were mutated octopuses! True, there was no evidence, and all assumptions remained at the level of conjecture and speculation ...

The same mysterious case happened to the German research team, which decided to lower the Highfish apparatus into the waters of the abyss. But for some reason he stopped moving, and the cameras impartially showed on the monitor screens an image of the shocking size of the lizard, which was trying to gnaw through the steel "thing". The team was not taken aback and by an electric discharge from the device “scared away” an unknown beast. He sailed away, and did not appear again ... It remains only to regret that for some reason those who came across such unique inhabitants of the Mariana Trench did not have the equipment that would allow them to be photographed.

In the late 90s of the last century, at the time of the "discovery" by the Americans of the monsters of the Mariana Trench, the "fouling" of this geographical feature legends. Fishermen (poachers) talked about glows from its depths, lights running back and forth, various unidentified flying objects emerging from there. Crews of small ships reported that ships in the area were "towing at great speed" by a monster with incredible strength.

Confirmed testimonies

Along with the many legends associated with the Mariana Trench, there are incredible facts, confirmed by irrefutable evidence.

In 1918, Australian lobster fishermen told of a translucent white fish about 30 meters long that they saw in the sea. According to the description, it looks like an ancient shark of the species Carcharodon megalodon, which lived in the seas 2 million years ago. Scientists from the surviving remains were able to recreate the appearance of a shark - a monstrous creature 25 meters long, weighing 100 tons and an impressive two-meter mouth with teeth 10 cm each. Can you imagine such "teeth"! And it was they who were recently found by oceanologists at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean! The "youngest" of the discovered artifacts ... "only" 11 thousand years old!

This find allows us to be sure that not all megalodons died out two million years ago. Perhaps the waters of the Mariana Trench hide these incredible predators from human eyes? Research continues, the depths are still fraught with many unsolved mysteries.

Features of the deep sea world

The water pressure at the lowest point of the Mariana Trench is 108.6 MPa, that is, it exceeds normal Atmosphere pressure 1072 times. A vertebrate animal simply cannot survive in such monstrous conditions. But, oddly enough, shellfish have taken root here. How their shells withstand such colossal water pressure is not clear. The discovered mollusks are an incredible example of "survival". They exist near serpentine hydrothermal springs. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which not only do not pose a threat to the “population” found here, but also contribute to the formation of living organisms in such a seemingly aggressive environment. But hydrothermal springs also emit a gas that is deadly for molluscs - hydrogen sulfide. But the "cunning" and life-hungry mollusks have learned to process hydrogen sulfide into protein, and continue, as they say, clover to live in the Mariana Trench.

Another incredible mystery of the deep-sea object is the Champagne hydrothermal spring, named after the famous French (and not only) alcoholic drink. It's all about the bubbles that "boil" in the waters of the source. Of course, these are by no means the bubbles of your favorite champagne - this is liquid carbon dioxide. Thus, the world's only underwater source of liquid carbon dioxide is located in the Mariana Trench. Such sources are called "white smokers", their temperature is below the temperature environment, and there are always vapors around them that look like white smoke. Thanks to these sources, hypotheses were born about the origin of all life on earth in water. Low temperature, an abundance of chemicals, colossal energy - all this created excellent conditions for the ancient representatives of flora and fauna.

The temperature in the Mariana Trench is also very favorable - from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius. The "black smokers" took care of that. Being the antipode of "white smokers", hydrothermal springs contain a large amount of ore substances, and therefore they are dark in color. These springs are located here at a depth of about 2 kilometers and spew water, the temperature of which is about 450 degrees Celsius. Immediately remembered school course physics, from which we know that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. So what's going on? Does the spring spew boiling water? Fortunately, no. It's all about the colossal pressure of water - it is 155 times higher than on the surface of the Earth, so H 2 O does not boil, but pretty much "warms up" the waters of the Mariana Trench. The water of these hydrothermal springs is incredibly saturated with various minerals, which also contributes to the comfortable habitation of living beings.

Incredible Facts

How many more mysteries and incredible wonders is fraught with this incredible place? Lots of. At a depth of 414 meters, the Daikoku volcano is located here, which served as another proof that life originated here, at the deepest point on the globe. In the crater of the volcano, under water, there is a lake of the purest molten sulfur. In this "cauldron" sulfur seethes at a temperature of 187 degrees Celsius. The only known analogue of such a lake is located on Jupiter's moon Io. There is nothing else like it on Earth. Only in space. It is no wonder that most of the hypotheses about the origin of life from water are associated with this mysterious deep-sea object in the Pacific Ocean.

Let's remember a little school biology course. The simplest living creatures are amoeba. Tiny, single-celled, they can only be seen through a microscope. They reach, as it is written in textbooks, a length of half a millimeter. Giant toxic amoebas 10 centimeters long have been found in the Mariana Trench. Can you imagine this? Ten centimeters! That is, this single-celled living being can be perfectly examined with the naked eye. Isn't this a miracle? As a result scientific research it has been established that amoebas acquired such gigantic sizes for their class of unicellular organisms, adapting to the “savory” life on the seabed. Cold water, coupled with its colossal pressure and lack of sunlight, contributed to the "growth" of amoebas, which are called xenophyophores. The incredible abilities of xenophyophores are quite surprising: they have adapted to the effects of most harmful substances - uranium, mercury, lead. And they live in this environment, like mollusks. In general, the Mariana Trench is a miracle of miracles, where everything living and inanimate is perfectly combined, and the most harmful chemical elements, which are capable of killing any organism, not only do not harm the living, but, on the contrary, contribute to survival.

The local bottom has been studied in some detail and is not of particular interest - it is covered with a layer of viscous mucus. There is no sand there, only the remains of crushed shells and plankton, which have been lying there for thousands of years, and due to the pressure of the water, they have long turned into a thick greyish-yellow mud. And the tranquility and measured life of the seabed are disturbed only by the bathyscaphes of researchers descending here from time to time.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

Research continues

Everything secret and unknown has always attracted a person. And with each secret revealed, there were no fewer new mysteries on our planet. All this fully applies to the Mariana Trench.

At the end of 2011, researchers discovered unique natural stone formations in it, shaped like bridges. Each of them stretched from one end to the other for as much as 69 km. Scientists had no doubt: it is here that the tectonic plates - the Pacific and the Philippine - touch, and stone bridges (there are four in total) were formed at their junction. True, the very first of the bridges - Dutton Ridge - was opened in the late 80s of the last century. He impressed then with his size and height, which were the size of a small mountain. At its highest point, located just above the Challenger Deep, this deep-sea "ridge" reaches two and a half kilometers.

Why did nature need to build such bridges, and even in such a mysterious and inaccessible place for people? The purpose of these objects is still unclear. In 2012, James Cameron, the creator of the legendary film Titanic, dived into the Mariana Trench. The unique equipment and powerful cameras installed on his DeepSea Challenge bathyscaphe made it possible to film the majestic and deserted “bottom of the Earth”. It is not known how long he would have been observing local landscapes if some malfunctions had not occurred on the apparatus. In order not to risk his life, the researcher was forced to rise to the surface.

Together with The National Geographic, the talented director created the documentary "Challenge to the Abyss". In his account of the dive, he called the bottom of the trough "the boundary of life." Emptiness, silence, and - nothing, not the slightest movement or disturbance of water. No sunlight, no shellfish, no algae, much less sea monsters. But this is only at first glance. In the bottom soil samples taken by Cameron, more than twenty thousand different microorganisms were found. Great amount. How do they survive under such incredible water pressure? Still a mystery. Among the inhabitants of the depression, a shrimp-like amphipod was also found, producing a unique Chemical substance, which is being tested by scientists as a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease.

During his stay at the deepest point not only of the oceans, but of the entire Earth, James Cameron did not meet any scary monsters, or representatives of extinct animal species, or alien bases, not to mention some incredible miracles. The feeling that he was completely alone here was a real shock. The ocean floor seemed deserted and, as the director himself said, "lunar ... lonely." The feeling of complete isolation from all mankind was such that it was beyond words. However, he still tried to do it in his documentary. Well, the fact that the Mariana Trench is silent and shocking with its emptiness should probably not be surprising. After all, she simply sacredly keeps the secret of the origin of all life on Earth ...

Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) - the deepest place earth's surface. It is located on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, 200 kilometers east of the Mariana Archipelago.

Paradoxically, humanity knows much more about the secrets of space or mountain peaks than about the depths of the ocean. And one of the most mysterious and unexplored places on our planet is just the Mariana Trench. So what do we know about him?

Mariana Trench - the bottom of the world

In 1875, the crew of the British corvette Challenger discovered a place in the Pacific Ocean where there was no bottom. Kilometer after kilometer the rope of the lot went overboard, but there was no bottom! And only at a depth of 8184 meters the descent of the rope stopped. Thus, the deepest underwater crack on Earth was discovered. It was named the Mariana Trench, after the nearby islands. Its shape (in the form of a crescent) and the location of the deepest section, called the "Challenger Abyss", were determined. It is located 340 km south of the island of Guam and has coordinates 11°22′ N. sh., 142°35′ E d.

“The fourth pole”, “the womb of Gaia”, “the bottom of the world” has since been called this deep-water depression. Oceanographic scientists have long tried to find out its true depth. Research different years gave different values. The fact is that at such a colossal depth, the density of water increases as it approaches the bottom, so the properties of the sound from the echo sounder also change in it. Using barometers and thermometers at different levels along with echo sounders, in 2011 the depth value in the Challenger Abyss was set at 10994 ± 40 meters. This is the height of Mount Everest plus another two kilometers from above.

The pressure at the bottom of the underwater crevasse is almost 1100 atmospheres, or 108.6 MPa. Most of the deep-sea vehicles are designed for a maximum depth of 6-7 thousand meters. During the time that has passed since the discovery of the deepest canyon, it was possible to successfully reach its bottom only four times.

In 1960, the Trieste deep-sea bathyscaphe, for the first time in the world, descended to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench in the area of ​​​​the Challenger Abyss with two passengers on board: US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Picard.

Their observations led to an important conclusion about the presence of life at the bottom of the canyon. The discovery of the upward flow of water was also of great ecological importance: based on it, the nuclear powers refused to bury radioactive waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trough.

In the 90s, the gutter was explored by the Japanese unmanned probe Kaiko, which brought samples of silt from the bottom, in which bacteria, worms, shrimp were found, as well as pictures of a hitherto unknown world.

In 2009, the American robot Nereus conquered the abyss, raising samples of silt, minerals, samples of deep-sea fauna and photos of inhabitants of unknown depths from the bottom.

In 2012, James Cameron, the author of Titanic, Terminator and Avatar, dived into the abyss alone. He spent 6 hours at the bottom, collecting samples of soil, minerals, fauna, as well as taking photographs and 3D video. Based on this material, the film "Challenge to the Abyss" was created.

Amazing discoveries

In the trench at a depth of about 4 kilometers is the active Daikoku volcano, spewing liquid sulfur, which boils at 187 ° C in a small depression. The only lake of liquid sulfur was discovered only on Jupiter's moon Io.

At 2 kilometers from the surface, "black smokers" swirl - sources of geothermal water with hydrogen sulfide and other substances that, upon contact with cold water, turn into black sulfides. The movement of sulfide water resembles puffs of black smoke. The water temperature at the point of release reaches 450 ° C. The surrounding sea does not boil only because of the density of the water (150 times greater than at the surface).

In the north of the canyon there are "white smokers" - geysers spewing liquid carbon dioxide at a temperature of 70-80 ° C. Scientists suggest that it is in such geothermal "boilers" that one should look for the origins of life on Earth. Hot springs "warm up" the icy waters, supporting life in the abyss - the temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is in the range of 1-3 ° C.

Life beyond life

It would seem that in an atmosphere of complete darkness, silence, icy cold and unbearable pressure, life in the hollow is simply unthinkable. But studies of the depression prove the opposite: there are living creatures almost 11 kilometers under water!

The bottom of the sinkhole is covered with a thick layer of mucus from organic sediments that have been descending from the upper layers of the ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. Mucus is an excellent nutrient medium for barrophilic bacteria, which form the basis of the nutrition of protozoa and multicellular organisms. Bacteria, in turn, become food for more complex organisms.

The ecosystem of the underwater canyon is truly unique. Living beings have managed to adapt to an aggressive, destructive environment under normal conditions, with high pressure, lack of light, a small amount of oxygen and a high concentration of toxic substances. Life in such unbearable conditions gave many inhabitants of the abyss a frightening and unattractive look.

Deep-sea fish have incredible mouths, seated with sharp long teeth. High pressure made their bodies small (from 2 to 30 cm). However, there are also large specimens, such as the xenophyophora amoeba, reaching 10 cm in diameter. The frilled shark and goblin shark, living at a depth of 2000 meters, generally reach 5-6 meters in length.

Representatives live at different depths different types living organisms. The deeper the inhabitants of the abyss, the better their organs of vision are, allowing them to catch the slightest glimmer of light on the body of their prey in complete darkness. Some individuals themselves are able to produce directional light. Other creatures are completely devoid of organs of vision, they are replaced by organs of touch and radar. With increasing depth, underwater inhabitants lose their color more and more, the bodies of many of them are almost transparent.

On the slopes where the “black smokers” live, mollusks live, having learned to neutralize the sulfides and hydrogen sulfide that are fatal to them. And, which remains a mystery to scientists so far, under conditions of enormous pressure at the bottom, they somehow miraculously manage to keep their mineral shell intact. Similar abilities are shown by other inhabitants of the Mariana Trench. The study of fauna samples showed a multiple excess of the level of radiation and toxic substances.

Unfortunately, deep sea creatures die due to the change in pressure with any attempt to bring them to the surface. Only thanks to modern deep-sea vehicles it became possible to study the inhabitants of the depression in their natural environment. Representatives of the fauna unknown to science have already been identified.

Secrets and mysteries of the "womb of Gaia"

The mysterious abyss, like any unknown phenomenon, is shrouded in a mass of secrets and mysteries. What does she hide in her depths? Japanese scientists claimed that while feeding goblin sharks, they saw a shark 25 meters long devouring goblins. A monster of this size could only be a megalodon shark, which became extinct almost 2 million years ago! Confirmation is the findings of megalodon teeth in the vicinity of the Mariana Trench, whose age dates back to only 11 thousand years. It can be assumed that specimens of these monsters are still preserved in the depths of the failure.

There are many stories about the corpses of giant monsters thrown ashore. When descending into the abyss of the German bathyscaphe "Highfish", the dive stopped 7 km from the surface. To understand the reason, the passengers of the capsule turned on the lights and were horrified: their bathyscaphe, like a nut, was trying to crack open some prehistoric lizard! Only by impulse electric current on the outer skin managed to scare away the monster.

On another occasion, when an American submersible was submerging, a scraping of metal began to be heard from under the water. The descent was stopped. When inspecting the lifted equipment, it turned out that the titanium alloy metal cable was half sawn (or gnawed), and the beams of the underwater vehicle were bent.

In 2012, the video camera of the unmanned vehicle "Titan" from a depth of 10 kilometers transmitted a picture of metal objects, presumably UFOs. Soon the connection with the device was interrupted.

Unfortunately, there is no documentary evidence of these interesting facts not available, they are all based only on eyewitness accounts. Every story has its fans and skeptics, its pros and cons.

Before a risky dive into the trench, James Cameron said that he wanted to see with his own eyes at least some of those secrets of the Mariana Trench, about which there are so many rumors and legends. But he did not see anything that would go beyond the cognizable.

So what do we know about her?

To understand how the Mariana Underwater Gap was formed, it should be remembered that such gaps (troughs) are usually formed along the edges of the oceans under the action of moving lithospheric plates. The oceanic plates, being older and heavier, "creep" under the continental ones, forming deep dips at the junctions. The deepest is the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates near the Mariana Islands (Marian Trench). The Pacific Plate is moving at a speed of 3-4 centimeters per year, resulting in increased volcanic activity along both of its edges.

Throughout the length of this deepest failure, four so-called bridges were found - transverse mountain ranges. The ridges were presumably formed due to the movement of the lithosphere and volcanic activity.

The gutter is V-shaped in cross-section, strongly widening upwards and narrowing downwards. The average width of the canyon in the upper part is 69 kilometers, in the widest part - up to 80 kilometers. The average width of the bottom between the walls is 5 kilometers. The slope of the walls is almost sheer and is only 7-8°. The depression stretches from north to south for 2500 kilometers. The trough has an average depth of about 10,000 meters.

Only three people have been to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench to date. In 2018, another manned dive to the “bottom of the world” is planned at its deepest section. This time, the well-known Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov and polar explorer Artur Chilingarov will try to conquer the depression and find out what it hides in its depths. At present, a deep-sea bathyscaphe is being manufactured and a research program is being drawn up.

For the first time, people descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (depth - 11.5 km), the deepest ocean trench known on Earth, using the Trieste bathyscaphe on January 23, 1960. They were US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh (Don Walsh) and engineer Jacques Piccard (Jacques Piccard). Since then and until recently, man has not descended to this depth.

Hollywood director James Cameron in a bathyscaphedeepseaChallenger

After 52 years, the director of "Avatar" and "Titanic" James Cameron repeated this path to the deepest point of the ocean, who successfully sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench on March 25 and returned to the surface. On a special vertical bathyscaphe Deepsea Challenger, two hours after the start of the dive, he reached the bottom by 7:52 am local time. He stayed there for three hours, surveying and collecting samples, after which he successfully returned to the surface.

BathyscaphedeepseaChallenge with James Cameron descends into the depths of the Pacific Ocean

The first people who plunged to the bottom of the Mariana Trench stayed there for only 20 minutes, doing the minimum amount of work and seeing almost nothing but the mud and silt that had risen from the sinking. The past decades have not been in vain. Mr. Cameron's bathyscaphe was well equipped, as one would expect from a man who has made one of the most impressive stereoscopic feature films and many documentaries about the underwater world.

The Deepsea Challenger was equipped with multiple stereoscopic cameras, an LED tower, a sampling bathometer, a robotic arm, and a special device capable of capturing small underwater organisms by suction. The deep-sea vehicle itself was created in Australia and has a length of 7 meters and a weight of 11 tons. The compartment in which James Cameron huddled is a sphere with an inner diameter of just over a meter and assumes only a sitting position.

ApparatusdeepseaChallenge sank to the bottom at a speed3-4 nodes

The director told the BBC before the dive that it was his dream: “I grew up with sci-fi at a time when people lived in sci-fi reality. People went to the moon, Cousteau studied the ocean. This is the environment in which I grew up, this is what I appreciate since childhood.

James Cameron greets ocean explorer US Navy Captain Don Walsh immediately after diving

James Cameron in the sunroofdeepseaChallenge prepares to dive

Another shot of filmmaker and ocean explorer Don Walsh (far right), who, along with Jacques Picart, was the first person to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench 52 years ago

The journey of James Cameron as a one-minute animation