The ocean is really, really deep, deeper, in fact,
than most of us realize.
If you were to shave off all of the land
from the tops of every continent and island in the world
and fill up the ocean's deepest points with that land,
then the entire earth would be covered
in an ocean 2 miles deep.
Three fourths of our planet is already
covered in water though, and it goes a lot deeper
than just two miles.
Let's start with a sense of scale.
This dot right here is the size of an average human.
This slightly larger dot is the size of an elephant.
And this is the size of the largest ship ever built,
the Knock Nevis.
With that in mind, let's start going under water
and see what we find out.
The first milestone is at 40 meters
below the surface, which is the maximum depth allowed
for recreational scuba diving.
A little further down at 93 meters
is where the wreck of the Lusitania was discovered,
which is interesting because the Lusitania
itself is 240 meters long, which means
that it sank in water shallower than it is long.
So if the ship was standing on its stern or bow,
it would be sticking out of the water.
Just slightly deeper than that at 100 meters
is where diving can become seriously fatal if you're not
careful because of decompression sickness.
But that didn't stop a man named Herbert Nitsch to accomplish
the free diving world record at a depth of 214 meters.
This guy swam down to this level with just one single breath.
But a little further down at 332 meters,
we have the scuba diving world record
which was accomplished by another man named Ahmed Gabr.
If he had swam down another 111 meters then
he would have reached the height of the Empire State Building
if it was submerged under water.
And a little further than that at 500 meters
below the surface, we arrive at the maximum dive
depth of Blue Whales, the largest creatures on the planet
and also the limit of the US Seawolf Class Nuclear
Submarine.
At 535 meters we can witness the maximum dive
depth of Emperor Penguins.
And this is one we must bring up the intensity of water
pressure.
At this level below the surface, the water pressure
exerted on a person or the penguins
would be roughly equivalent to a polar bear
standing on a quarter.
So further down the depths at 830 meters
would be the height of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest
building in the world.
Once we hit 1,000 meters below the surface,
we begin to enter the scary zone.
Light from the surface can no longer reach beyond this point,
so the rest of the ocean below is
shrouded in permanent darkness.
On top of that, the water pressure
you would experience at this point would be about the same
as if you were standing on the surface of the planet Venus,
meaning that you would die very quickly.
You would also meet the Giant Squid at this sea level
if the water pressure didn't already kill you.
At 1,280 meters we reach the maximum depth dived to
by the Leatherback Sea Turtle.
And further down at 1,828 meters we
would reach the deepest part of the Grand Canyon
were it to be underwater with us.
Down at 2,000 meters, we start to encounter some of the more
terrifying sea creatures like the ominously named
Black Dragonsih, a carnivorous beast with a stomach that
doesn't allow light to be emitted through it.
Meaning that since we are in total darkness underwater
at this point, the only way you would ever see this thing
is with a flashlight.
A little further down at 2,250 meters
we would reach the maximum depth dived to
by both Sperm Whales and the very frightening Colossal
Squid.
Sperm Whales often have sucker marks and scars
left on their bodies from battles with the Colossal Squid
that likely take place at these incredible depths.
The squids themselves can grow to be 14 meters long
and weigh up to 750 kilograms with eyes
the size of a dinner plate and razor-sharp sickles
in the middle of their tentacles.
So yeah, good luck with that down there.
Way further down at 3,800 meters we
can find the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
And a bit past that at 4,000 meters,
we start to enter the Abyssal Zone of the ocean.
Water pressure is at an astonishing 11,000 pounds
per square inch down here.
And there are numerous strange, almost
alien like creatures that inhabit these depths,
such as the Fing Tooth, Angler Fish, and Viper Fish.
Down at 4,267 meters is the average depth
of the ocean where you would normally
expect to hit the floor.
But there are parts of the ocean that go significantly deeper
than even this.
At 4,791 meters rests the wreckage of the battleship
Bismarck, sunk during World War II.
And way down at 6,000 meters is the beginning
of the Hadal Zone, named after the underworld Hades, itself.
The water pressure down at these depths
can become 1,100 times what you would experience
way back on top at the surface, which
is roughly equal to an elephant balancing on a postage stamp,
or a single person carrying the weight of 50 Boeing 747
jumbo jets.
Down at these depths, you would be crushed immediately
without any outside protection.
But life still exists down here in various strange forms.
At 6,500 meters we reach the maximum depth
that the DSV Alvin can dive to, a popular research
submarine that helped to discover the Titanic.
Way further down at 8,848 meters below the surface and we have
arrived at the height of Mt.
Everest, were it to be upside down and placed underwater.
And then way further past even that at 10,898 meters,
we arrive at the depth reached by James Cameron in 2012
during the Deep Sea Challenger Mission.
The deepest point of the ocean yet reached by humans
was back in 1960 though, when two men
named Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard reached
a depth of 10,916 meters using their [? Trieste ?] submarine.
It took them five hours to descend through the ocean
to this depth.
And they only stayed for 20 minutes
before a window cracked and they began to resurface.
Just a bit further down from there
at 10,972 meters and we've reached the average flight
altitude of a commercial airliner.
So if you've ever looked out of a window while on a flight
and looked down to the ground, that's
a very good sense of how incredibly
deep down into the abyss that we are currently at.
Finally, when we hit 10,994 meters
we have hit the bottom of the known ocean,
called the Challenger Deep, right here on this map
just about 300 kilometers southwest of Guam Island.
However, it is believed that there are almost certainly
even deeper parts of the ocean than this that just
haven't been discovered yet.
It wasn't until 1997 after all that
the Sirena Deep was discovered with a depth of 10,732 meters,
making it the second deepest known point in the ocean.
It is estimated that only about 5% of the ocean's floor
has been accurately mapped, leaving the other 95% to be
currently a mystery.
It may be only a matter of time before an even deeper part
of our ocean is found.