![]() The collection of these huge quantities of mapping data began during the Five Deeps Expedition, when locating the deepest point in each ocean basin. Vescovo comments on the scientific value the Five Deeps and Ring of Fire expeditions have produced: “Over the past two years, we have been able to not only personally explore the absolute deepest points in all five oceans – for the first time, but also map over one million square kilometers of new area with a level of precision never achieved before.” He says that as a result, Caladan Oceanic is working with the International Hydrographic Organization to name over 130 seafloor features they discovered. With three RBR solo³ D|deep pressure loggers mounted alternately to the sub or one of three landers (automated underwater vehicles that carry instruments to the deep and support sub operations), the 2020 Ring of Fire Expedition made several dozen lander deployments and a handful of sub dives to collect data, including depth measurements, at the Challenger Deep.Ĭaladan Oceanic’s objectives began in the tradition of record-setting exploration, and evolved quickly into science-driven expeditions, producing fundamental information about our planet. They would also increase the number of instruments they deployed to the deepest point of the Challenger Deep, which improves the overall magnitude of the measurement error. They would use the highest precision instruments they could get. In order to reduce that error, the team decided when they returned to the Mariana Trench in 2020 to do two things. Macdonald explains that the uncertainty in their measurement is proportional to the depth, so at nearly 11 km depth, the team’s measurement could be off by as much as about 11 m. To measure their dive depths in situ, the team mounted a CTD to the sub. The Limiting Factor and accompanying subsea equipment, designed, built and tested by Triton Submarines, enabled Vescovo to dive to the bottom of the Challenger Deep three times during that expedition. ![]() The record-setting exploration and scientific expeditions began in 2018, when the Caladan Oceanic team of researchers, engineers, sub specialists and explorers set out on the Five Deeps Expedition, successfully making Victor Vescovo, Expedition Creator, Sponsor and Sub Pilot at Caladan Oceanic, the first person to reach the deepest point in all five ocean basins. The autonomous, titanium-built, AA battery-powered loggers remained accurate and stable, and Tim Macdonald, Submersible and Operations Engineer at Caladan Oceanic, reports they delivered an uncertainty of “+/- 5 m at an astonishing 10,900 m range.” In 2020, the Caladan team used three of RBR’s 10,000 m-rated RBR solo³ D|deep pressure loggers to help them accurately measure Full Ocean Depth. Despite these and other unmanned efforts, the Challenger Deep’s precise depth has remained uncertain until recently. Only on two previous occasions had this depth been observed by the human eye: the first in 1960, from the bathyscaphe Trieste, the second in 2012, from the submersible Deepsea Challenger. The pilot turns on the sub’s lights and 10 thrusters, and travels along the bottom, making about two knots – exploring, taking scientific measurements and sampling for several hours before dropping its steel ballast and starting the three-hour ascent.ĭeeper than Mount Everest is high by about two kilometers, the Challenger Deep, which is the bottommost point of the Mariana Trench, has been nearly unvisitable by people until 2019. Neutrally buoyant when it reaches full ocean depth, the sub hovers just above the seafloor. By the tenth minute of the 11 km journey the sub is in the blackest possible darkness, where sunlight cannot reach. To reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep, Caladan Oceanic’s Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV) Limiting Factor, descends through the water column for four hours. There is only one submersible in the world that on any given day can dive, taking its pilot and one other person, to the deepest parts of the ocean.
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