An ocean explorer from Dallas, Texas has set the newest world record for deepest dive ever completed in the Mariana Trench.
Setting their sights on the deepest known point on Earth's seabed, Victor Vescovo and his team from the Five Deeps Expedition successfully dived into the Challenger Deep in the Mariana trench at a distance of 32,853 feet on April 28.
During the Mariana trench mission, the Five Deeps Expedition claims it has identified at least three new species of marine animals, including a long-appendages amphipod. Because of this, Vescovo said the expedition has created, validated and opened a powerful door to discover and visit any place in the ocean, which remains 90 percent unexplored.
"It's almost indescribable how excited all of us are about achieving what we just did," said Vescovo.
The Ultimate Challenge Of Diving Into The World's Deepest Trenches
The expedition team made use of incredible marine technology inside a submarine to reach an unprecedented level of diving into the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
During the expedition, Vescovo became the first human to pilot multiple solo dives to the depths of the Challenger Deep inside the DSV Limiting Factor, which has been considered as the world's deepest diving and currently operational submarine.
Vescovo has also become the first human to have dived into the bottom of the ocean and summited Mount Everest, as well as having skied to the North pole and the South pole. He is the first human to have completed one version of the "Four Corners of the Earth." Additionally, he has also climbed the Seven Summits on every continent and has been on the bottom of four of the world's oceans.
Prior to Vescovo's expedition, the last man who set the record for deepest dive in the Mariana trench is Titanic filmmaker James Cameron, at 35,787 feet or about 11 kilometers in 2012 inside the Deepsea Challenger.
Meanwhile, the first-ever dive made into the Challenger Deep was made by the US Navy deep submergence bathyscape called Trieste at 35,800 feet in 1916. This expedition had been led by Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard.
What sets apart Vescovo's expedition from the others is that both the Deepsea Challenger and the Trieste submarine have only dived once into Challenger Deep. The DSV Limiting Factor completed four dives to the bottom of the Challenger Deep between April to May 5.
The team also went to the Sirena Deep on May 7 for a final dive. Sirena Deep is found approximately 128 miles to the northeast of the Mariana Trench.
Two of the dives completed by the DSV Limiting Factor team were solo dives piloted by Vescovo.
On May 5, a scientific dive led by sub designer John Ramsay collected video surveys and biological samples of the Central Pool of the Challenger Deep for three hours.
Two days later, during the dive on Sirena Deep, explorers found the deepest piece of mantle rock ever recovered from the surface of the western slope of the Mariana Trench.
More Diving Expeditions Across The Globe
Vescovo and his team's dive into the Pacific Ocean is the fourth one in the Five Deeps Expedition's plan to reach the deepest, harshest areas of the world's oceans. The team has gone on expeditions to the Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.
Next stop on the team's mission is a diving expedition in the Tonga trench in the Southwest Pacific Ocean, the second deepest trench on Earth and the deepest in the Southern Hemisphere. The Tonga trench stretches as far as 35,700 feet deep underwater.
Lastly, the main feat of the team is to reach the bottom of the ocean at Java, Puerto Rico, which no man has ever gone to before.
