What Would a Trip to the Mariana Trench Be Like?

Have you ever wanted to dive into the deepest parts of the ocean? Well, today you will have this opportunity! Now, how good are you at holding your breath? Not so good? Okay, do not worry. Climb aboard my submersible vessel and join me on the journey into the depths! Ready? Let's go diving! Right now, just beneath the surface, you see that life is thriving here. Fish and marine animals abound and hello! — the swimmers greet us. But we won't stay here for long. Bye bye! At 20 meters, a whole new world opens before your eyes: shallow coral reefs rise beautifully not far from the coast.

And hey, there are people here again! However, this time it's the divers. The water pressure is not good for divers without special equipment. 130 feet is the depth where we say goodbye even to recreational divers: it is the maximum allowed for them. Take care guys! 200 feet, and here is the first orca! These whales inhabit relatively shallow waters in almost all of the world's seas and oceans. By the way, did you know that they are the main predators? It means that they have no natural enemies and no one can kill them. At 230 feet we encountered whale sharks, the largest known species of fish, weighing up to 60 tons.

And they are also quite long-livered: well, yes, I guess their livers are long, but it's really about their lifespan: they can live for about 130 years. Now look outside: if you see a diver, he is a real professional, because at 330 feet they will have to be very careful not to get decompression sickness. It happens if you rise to the surface too quickly. And if you're lucky, you'll also be able to see a giant Pacific octopus – it lives in cold waters from this depth and descends to 6,600 feet. And now we are entering the dark part of the ocean: at 490 feet, only 1% of the light from the surface reaches us.

All the rest is absorbed by water. Everything that is deeper will become darker and darker. Oh look! At 660 feet, there is a giant oarfish circling our submersible. These creatures are believed to be the source of all sea serpent sightings, and many alliterations! Sometimes they swim to the surface and scare sailors and swimmers. No wonder: These fish can reach 36 feet long, enough to scare the living daylights out of me, for example. Well, now we're at 980 feet and... wait,

what

's that big, spindly thing out there? Oh, I get it, it's a Japanese spider crab! Why a spider, you ask?

Well, just look at those legs and the answer will come to you without further prompting. By the way, they have nothing but legs: the body of such a crab is usually only 1.5 feet wide. If we go deeper now, at 1,640 feet you will see the last of the blue whales; No, it's not actually the last one, I mean, it's the deepest they can swim. They don't really need to dive that deep to forage for food, which they have in abundance in shallower water, but they can still do it. I guess it's just to show how amazing they are.

After all, they are the largest creatures in Earth's history, both in the sea and on land! Shh... Did you hear this? These are the sounds that fin whales make to talk to their friends many kilometers away. They can do this thanks to the SOFAR channel, or Deep Sea Channel, which generally starts at 1,970 feet, but can vary in depth. It is a layer of water where the speed of sound is minimal and sound waves can travel thousands of kilometers before disappearing. At 850 meters deep we have reached the point where the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world,

would

not even show its tip on the surface if it were submerged underwater.

Hey, let's try that! Now we enter the really interesting part of the ocean, where sunlight does not reach us and strange creatures live. One of them is the giant squid, yes, that legendary type. It lives at a depth of 2950 feet. Imagine this creature with eyes the size of a Frisbee! Sperm whales hunt these beasts, but they can certainly defend themselves. What a spectacle it

would

be to see such a meeting! And that is where total darkness finally falls upon us. The midnight zone. The pressure here is so great that if you somehow end up here without a submersible, you will simply be crushed in a couple of seconds.

And that without seeing anything too. It is not the best of perspectives. Anyway, at 3,600 feet, lies West Mata, one of the deepest oceanic volcanoes in the world. Its last eruption was in 2009, and it was even filmed by a remotely operated vehicle! At 4,200 feet deep, we see the ferocious great white sharks: these top predators feel very good at that depth. Their eyesight is quite poor and they are guided by smell, so they don't really need sunlight to hunt their prey. "I don't see you, but I'll still eat you." Bro. Furthermore, leatherback turtles, the largest turtles in the world, dive to the same depth.

I wonder if they do it to make fun of white sharks. See those huge networks? This is because we are now at a depth of 4900 feet where the "catch-all" fishing method is used. Nets are here to be dragged along the ocean floor, trapping anything unlucky enough to be caught. I'll let you decide how detrimental this is to the marine life here. At 6,000 feet, if we were in the Grand Canyon, we would be sitting at its lowest and deepest point. Imagine that all its cracks have been completely filled with water and you will get the perfect image.

Now, if we are very careful, at a depth of 6,600 feet we can see the black dragon fish, a nightmarish creature that lives in the deep, dark parts of the ocean. And believe me, it's better to stay there! He looks like something out of a horror movie and I'd rather he never crossed my path. At 7,400 feet we will say goodbye to the sperm whales: this is the deepest point they can dive and, frankly, they have nothing to do at that depth. Maybe they hunt the black dragonfish, of course, or... does it hunt them? No, the size difference is too great: Sperm whales can reach 62 feet in length, making them the largest toothed whales in the world.

Not many creatures can counter that. It's good that our submersible has a powerful reflector; Without it, we would not have been able to see the amazing beauty of the deep-sea coral reefs located at a depth of 9,900 feet. They can be found in all oceans, and it is a shame that they cannot be seen without special equipment for deep-sea diving. Well, going even deeper, at 12,100 feet we reach the average depth of the World Ocean. From now on the journey to the real depths begins: the ocean floor has already been crossed, so now is the time to delve into the Abyss.

I won't tell you not to be afraid because the scariest creatures of the deep live here, beneath the Midnight Zone. And it doesn't end there: the pressure at the top of the Abyss, at 4,100 feet, is like being trampled by an entire regiment of elephants. Not that you have time to feel it, though. At 15,000 feet, monsters straight out of your worst nightmares appear. The anglerfish, for example, will scare the hell out of anyone: its long, crooked teeth along with a growth on its head that attracts prey are enough to instill fear in even the bravest of the brave.

But perhaps even more terrifying is the creature called the black swallower. It is an eel-like beast that has a very elastic stomach and can swallow prey twice its size. I don't know about you, but I prefer to turn off the lights so I don't see anything so deep in the ocean. That? Want to see everything? ….Very well, if you insist… Look down and you will see the deepest shipwreck ever found: the SS Rio Grande in the South Atlantic sunk in 1941 and descended to 18,900 feet. No wonder it was only found 55 years later. ! And now begins the deepest and darkest part of the ocean: we dive into the Mariana Trench.

Officially, it starts at about 19,700 feet deep. It is both the least explored area and the most fascinating for both scientists and adventurers. What's in the background? Well, we're about to see, but since we're not there yet, I'll show you something else. For example, here is the deepest fish ever found: it's called a snailfish and it lives at 26,000 feet. Its body is translucent, so you can see through its skin. Well, I must say, I'm glad I didn't turn off the lights after all; This little guy is surprisingly cute for a creature that can withstand such pressure. As you go down and deep, you won't see any other type of fish or vertebrate animals: the pressure is too much for these creatures.

But there are shrimp and other invertebrates (not to mention microbes) that can inhabit even the deepest part of the ocean. And that part is the Challenger Deep. It is the bottom of the Mariana Trench and its depth is 35,853 feet. Yes, we have reached the bottom of the Earth. Few people have been here and very little is still known about it. But scientists will not stop and there is hope that we will soon discover

what

secrets the depths of the ocean hold. And you? Would you dare to explore the ocean on your own if you had the chance?

Let me know in the comments! Hey, if you learned something new today, like this video and share it with a friend. But don't go deep yet! We have more than 2000 interesting videos for you to watch. Just click this video left or right and enjoy! Stay on the good side of life!