Door at the bottom of marianas trench is found

Explorer and businessman Victor Vescovo descended 35, feet 10, meters into the Pacific Ocean, breaking the record for deepest dive ever. At the very bottom, he found colorful rocky structures, weird critters and the ever-pervasive mark of humankind — plastic. Until now, only two people have successfully made it to the bottom of Challenger Deep, the planet's deepest point at the southern end of the Mariana Trench.

Back in , oceanographer Don Walsh was the first to make it down to the trench successfully, reaching about 35, feet 10, m. He took the journey with Swiss oceanographer and engineer Jacques Piccard.

Marianas trench door wiki

In the recent dive, Walsh accompanied a team up above on the ship, as Vescovo descended alone in a submersible called the DSV Limiting Factor. It took 3. From inside the submersible designed to withstand extreme pressures, he spent hours observing and documenting the quiet, dark alien world. It was chilly; it was quiet; and "it was so very peaceful," he told Live Science.

After Vescovo's record-breaking dive, other team members took four other subsequent dives to the trench. In the depths, during those five dives, they discovered red and yellow rocky outcrops that could be chemical deposits or bacterial mats, which are made by chemosynthetic microbes, meaning they can convert carbon-containing molecules into organic matter.

They also observed a variety of critters.

11.3733° n, 142.5917° e

They saw arrowtooth eels at 9, feet 3, m and a wriggly little spoon worm Echuria at 22, feet 7, m. At 26, feet 8, m , they observed Mariana snailfish and supergiant amphipods Alicella species — creatures about 20 times larger than typical amphipods. The team also found what they think are four new species of amphipods, or shell-less crustaceans.

They found one 8, feet 2, m below the surface, one 14, feet 4, m and two at the deepest point they reached.