Mariana Trench: an investigator broke the deepest diving record and found something unsettling

An American explorer has achieved an unprecedented record, but his feat reaffirms a disturbing reality.

The businessman Victor Vescovo has traveled nearly eleven kilometers to reach the deepest sea: the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean.

Vescovo, aboard a submarine, has thus achieved the record of the deepest dive made by a human being.

From inside the ship, Vescovo was able to observe the seabed for four hours.

He observed marine creatures, but he also saw a plastic bag and candy wrappers.

At the bottom of the sea

Before Vescovo, two other missions had reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The first took place in 1960, at the expense of the lieutenant of the US Naval Force. Don Walsh and the Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard.

In 2012, director James Cameron also reached the depths of the pit.

But the immersion of Vescovo, which reached a depth of 10,927 m, exceeded its predecessors.

During the expedition, Vescovo and his team made five dives and also used robots to explore the terrain.

"It is almost impossible to describe how excited we are at the idea of ​​realizing what we have just done," said the business man.

"This submarine and its mother ship, as well as its extremely talented expedition team, have propelled marine technology to an incredibly new level by exploring, quickly and repeatedly, the deepest and most hostile to the ocean. "

Among his discoveries, the team thinks they have discovered four new species of amphipod crustaceans, a bit like shrimp.

At 7000 m depth, they saw a creature called "spoonworm" and at 8000 m, a pink snail.

They also discovered brightly colored rock outcrops, probably created by microbes on the seabed, and collected rock samples.

But not everything was good news.

Millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, but we do not really know where they will stop.

The discovery of plastic, which had already been detected by artifacts previously sent, confirms the impact caused by human contamination.

Scientists are now considering badyzing the creatures they have collected to determine if they contain microplastics.

A recent study found that it was a widespread problem, even for animals living in the depths.

An extreme mission

The dive was part of the Five Deeps expedition, an attempt to explore the deepest points of each of the world's oceans.

The expedition is funded by Vescovo, a private investor who, before focusing on the depths, also climbed the highest peaks on the planet.

The entire trip will be part of a Discovery Channel documentary.

In addition to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, in the past six months they have also plunged into the Puerto Rico pit in the Atlantic Ocean; the South Sandwich Pit in the South Atlantic; and the trench of Java in the Indian Ocean.

The final challenge will be to reach the bottom of Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean, a mission scheduled for August 2019.

The submarine in which Vescovo went down is called DSV Limiting Factor. It is 4.6 meters long and 3.7 meters high.

The ship can withstand a maximum pressure of 1000 bar, which is equivalent to stacking 50 planes on one person.

In addition to working literally under pressure, the submarine must operate in the dark and at temperatures close to freezing point.

Once the Five Deeps expedition is completed by the end of the year, it is planned to divest the submarine to scientific institutions so that researchers can continue to use it. .

The challenges of exploring the depths of the ocean, even with robotic vehicles, have made ocean trenches one of the last frontiers of the planet.

Previously, it was thought that it was all about desolate areas, but in reality, the deep sea is full of life.

It is also increasingly apparent that these are carbon sinks, which play a role in regulating the chemistry and climate of the Earth.