Jan. 23, 1960: Journey to the Deepest Place on Earth: “Its dive into the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the trench, was made, according to a Navy press release, ‘to demonstrate that the United States possesses the capability for manned exploration of the sea down to the deepest part of its floor.’”
(Via Wired.com)
For me that’s a very cool thing to have had happen on your birthday. Unfortunately even today, 48 years later, much of the world ocean remains largely unexplored. It’s expensive and potentially very dangerous, but unlike space exploration there is little attention paid to it beyond the community of scientists and explorers that are directly involved. Almost half a century ago today we reached the very bottom of the seas, the deepest spot (relative to sea level), ironically as we remember the first man to reach the highest spot on earth (again relative to sea level), a feat achieved only 7 years prior to the Challenger Deep dive. I love the fact that if everest were somehow dumped into the Mariana Trench at the Challenger Deep, it would still have over two kilometers of blue ocean above it.
While not much of an exploration, as a bit of a birthday present to myself, I will get an orientation class on a rebreather our DSO got ahold of for tomorrow. How awesome would it be to do long term mangrove and reef behavior studies and transects with no bubbles influencing the animals.
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