James Cameron becomes first solo diver to visit Earth’s deepest point

The dive, in a specially designed submarine called the Deepsea Challenger,
began at around 5.50am Monday local time, after being delayed for several
days due to bad weather.

He gave his team the instruction to begin the dive and send the 12 tonne,
lime-green vessel into the ocean by shouting: “Release, release, release.”

Once on the surface, Cameron, who also directed Avatar and The Abyss, plans to
spend six hours collecting samples for biologists and geologists to study,
before making the 70 minute journey back to the surface.

The Mariana Trench is 120 times larger than the Grand Canyon, and more than a
mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

The only other people to reach the bottom are Jacques Piccard, a Swiss
Engineer, and Don Walsh, a US Navy captain, who ventured down in 1960.

However, their sub kicked up so much silt from the sea floor that they were
unable to observe anything, and returned to the surface after 20 minutes.

Before the dive, Cameron said reaching the sea floor would be “the
fulfilment of a dream”.

He added: “I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction at a time when
people where living a science fiction reality.

“People were going to the Moon, and Cousteau was exploring the ocean.

And that’s what I grew up with, what I valued from my childhood.”

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes