With apologies to Neil Armstrong, ‘the-long-dive-giant-splash’ truly sums up James Cameron’s feat of reaching the deepest point in the Earth’s Oceans.
Truth is he is not the first one to get there. It has been done 52 years ago in a bathyscaphe Trieste by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard, in the same Challenger Deep in the Marianna Trench.
What is special is that James Cameron did the dive in his Deepsea Challenger, a specially designed and built submarine, solo. While the bathyscaphe Trieste could spend only 20 minutes or so at the bottom and stirred up so much muck that they virtually couldn’t see anything, James Cameron in his submarine Deepsea Challenger spent more than 3 hours at the bottom.
The descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep was swift - seems Deepsea Challenger with James Cameron made short work of the 11,000+ meters (11 km or 35000+ feet or 7 miles) in 90 minutes and was equally swift in its ascent.
As James Cameron himself said, "It's a heck of a ride, you're just screaming down and screaming back up".
:-)
(image courtesy Deepsea Challenger.com)
My mischievous half mutters, ‘There is yet no word whether Cameron did meet the water creature from The Abyss!’
Update 27 Mar 2013: James Cameron announced on 26 Mar that the sub Deepsea Challenger will be donated/given to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for further research and "where WHOI scientists and engineers will work with Cameron and his team to incorporate the sub’s numerous engineering advancements into future research platforms and deep-sea expeditions." [ from Press Release of WHOI]
Truth is he is not the first one to get there. It has been done 52 years ago in a bathyscaphe Trieste by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard, in the same Challenger Deep in the Marianna Trench.
What is special is that James Cameron did the dive in his Deepsea Challenger, a specially designed and built submarine, solo. While the bathyscaphe Trieste could spend only 20 minutes or so at the bottom and stirred up so much muck that they virtually couldn’t see anything, James Cameron in his submarine Deepsea Challenger spent more than 3 hours at the bottom.
The descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep was swift - seems Deepsea Challenger with James Cameron made short work of the 11,000+ meters (11 km or 35000+ feet or 7 miles) in 90 minutes and was equally swift in its ascent.
As James Cameron himself said, "It's a heck of a ride, you're just screaming down and screaming back up".
:-)
(image courtesy Deepsea Challenger.com)
My mischievous half mutters, ‘There is yet no word whether Cameron did meet the water creature from The Abyss!’
Update 27 Mar 2013: James Cameron announced on 26 Mar that the sub Deepsea Challenger will be donated/given to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for further research and "where WHOI scientists and engineers will work with Cameron and his team to incorporate the sub’s numerous engineering advancements into future research platforms and deep-sea expeditions." [ from Press Release of WHOI]
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