The Seafloor at the Bottom of the World

The first video footage is surfacing from James Cameron’s record-setting dive to the deepest known point in Earth’s oceans over the weekend, and the landscape down there is about what one might expect at a point seven miles below the surface: desolate, dark, and vaguely reminiscent of the moon. “I really feel like literally in the space of one day I’ve been to another planet and come back,” Cameron says in the video.

At Challenger Deep--the deepest point in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench--Cameron’s submersible actually compressed, and lost three inches in length, under the 16,000 pounds per square inch of pressure there. Needless to say, life at such depths is very different. Cameron describes what he saw as an “alien world,” where creatures possess no pigment and many have no eyes.

On Sunday (it was Monday local time in Guam) Cameron became the first person to dive solo to the bottom of the trench, which is as deep as Mount Everest is tall. He is the first person to visit Challenger Deep since 1960, and the first to scientifically explore the area for an extended period. The filmmaker naturally toted several cameras along with him to record the scenery down there, so we should be seeing some more amazing footage from one of Earth’s most extreme environments in the coming weeks and months.

11 Comments

"One small dip for a man, one giant plunge for mankind."

Ron Bennett

There is no need for any human to dive to challenger deep; we have robots and HD video.

you guys do realize that aliens live down there right? that's where the Atlantis civilization went to hide themselves from mankind. they have neat powers and can cloak their entire race in a blink of an eye.

"religion is like a prison for the seekers of wisdom"

-Killah Priest

I am surprised that we have video footage already. I thought it would be a few months as he edited the video to make it more dramatic, added 3D and got Celine Dion to sing on the sound track.

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This is great, although its funny how press has made it a kin to a pissing contest with Richard Bransons' Virgin submersible.

@Jedimindset- your tag is just as ignorant as the most hypocritical religous fundamentalist. Religon is only a prison for those who don't question it. Sadly that accounts for most of them, but for those who DO, and still arrive at it logically, they are Gods truest and most profoundly human sons and daughters

~There's a difference between impossible and ridiculously unlikely

@BoronMoron,

yes religion has its positives(minimal) but for the most part all it produces are disagreements/problems against other religions and in turn war/disputes. the only religions worth getting into are Hinduism and Buddhism. "abrahamic" religions are the most stupid of them. they promote war and hate. most people that blindly follow religions never question them. they dont care about expanding their horizon. they dont even care about the darn history! that's the people the quote is pointed towards.

"religion is like a prison for the seekers of wisdom"

-Killah Priest

JediMindset,
The annunaki are all around us, above, below, around, here there and everywhere. You know this, sir!

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!

JediMindset,
I am Christian by nature or choice. But, I agree with you in we should question things. I think to questioning is natural and leads to a higher understand of the GODS we wish to emulate. We were given this ability to question in the first place for the purpose of growing! I am appose to violence of any kind and of those that pursue religions wars to defend their god, must have an awfully weak god to depend upon humanity to defend it. My god needs no defending. I also think of each human as an individual and individually responsible for their own journey through life and religious understanding. I respect other cultures and other religions in hopes to learn more of my own God in what other people have learned too. At the end, I take complete responsibility for my choices, religious choices too.

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!

Underwater Avatar is gonna come out now....great

@Robot,

good. keep an open mind and embrace everything around because we are living with "god". in the bible it says that "the kingdom of heaven is within us". it also says "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light". so yeah even the bible tried to give us clues.

religion is like a prison for the seekers of wisdom"

-Killah Priest


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