Earlier this year, the Five Deeps Expedition (FDE) concludes the research of the top five deepest oceans on Earth. The expedition was also the first to identify the deepest points in the Southern and Indian oceans. Among the five deeps, Marianas Trench still has the most depth.
The team of FDE conducted oceanic expeditions from 2018-2019, gathering data from the five deepest trenches on Earth. Among the oceans explored are the Atlantic, Southern, Indian, Pacific, and the Arctic, reports Daily Mail.
Five Deeps Expedition (FDE)
The Five Deeps Expedition includes a crew of experts in various areas. Among the team is FDE founder Victor Vescovo, who also worked as a sub-pilot for the adventure. The expedition covered almost 50,000 nautical miles in their 10-month exploration.
Using the developed submersible, two-seater Limiting Factor, the expedition completed 39 dives around various ocean bodies. The Limiting Factor used sound pulses through the equipped new-gen multibeam sounder to map the seafloor's terrain.
The exploration considered the Bahamas as their first dive, serving as a testing site for their trial period. The Bahamas dive was the first mission to submerge humans beneath an 11,000-meter ocean depth, the deepest manned journey in history.
Aside from the five major oceans, FDE had also added Tonga Trench, located on the southwest of the Pacific Ocean, as an additional dive. It contains the Horizon Deep, measured with a whopping 35,509 feet (10,823 meters) of depth.
One of the findings from the additional dive is that the Horizon Deep is much shallower compared to Challenger's Deep. This side quest was performed solo by Vescovo, making him the first and only human to dive at the deepest point of Horizon's Deep. After the Tango Trench dive, the team explored the Arctic Ocean, the last ocean on the list.
The recent findings from FDE's expedition opened an opportunity for experts to research the mapping of other deep portions. The published Royal Meteorological Society study titled "High‐resolution multibeam sonar bathymetry of the deepest place in each ocean" suggests that the sonar system FDE used will be beneficial to the research of unknown regions of seafloors. It will gradually help researchers examine oceans more than before, as an estimate of 60% of the visited areas of oceans were never mapped.
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Beneath Marianas Trench: Challenger's Deep
According to FDE, the Pacific Ocean still prevail in having the world's deepest point. The Marianas Trench, located just west of the ocean, contains the Challengers Deep. It was first explored in 1875 when the HMS Challenger stuck just above the trench due to strong winds. Odd weather conditions prevented the Royal Navy corvette from sailing towards Yokohama.
This became an opportunity to measure for the Pearl-ship's crew to record the stunning depth of the ocean. With that, the Challenger's Deep was first declared as the world's lowest point at the time, setting the initial record of 26,850 feet (8,184 meters) in depth.
The exploration's data, records, and events of FDE in the journey to Challenger's Deep and the five major oceans are available in The Five Deeps official book, 'Expedition Deep Ocean'. The full coverage of the expedition will also be available to watch soon at Discovery Channel's upcoming five-part series 'Deep Planet.'
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