If you traveled to the deepest points of Earth,
what would you find?
Lost cities,
mythical sea monsters,
rivers of gold?
Probably not.
But there is still a lot to discover.
So join me
as we travel deep underneath the surface
to explore some of the most
inhospitable places on Earth.
Not many people can claim that they’ve
been to the deepest points on Earth.
But Victor Vescovo can.
From 2018 to 2019,
Vescovo led an expedition that
visited the deepest points in all five oceans.
The Five Deeps expedition
covered 87,000 km (54,059 mi)
in just 10 months,
and completed 39 dives
using a small submarine.
For your trip,
you’re only going to visit one trench,
the Mariana Trench.
You’ll need to save about
three quarters of a million dollars for the trip,
but you’d be one of the few people
to explore this deep.
First, you’d need to travel to Japan.
From there,
you’d take a submarine about 2,000 km (1,242 mi) out into the Pacific Ocean.
Challenger Deep,
the deepest point of the Mariana Trench,
is almost 11 km (7 mi) below the surface.
And it would take about
two and a half hours to reach it.
There will be a lot to look at
in the beginning of your descent.
The first 200 m (656 ft)
below the surface is where
most ocean life thrives.
As you travel deeper,
it becomes darker,
and the less wildlife you'd see.
Though you’d still get to witness
the occasional whale diving for food.
You’d see your first deep-sea creature,
the fangtooth,
at 1 km (3,280 ft) below the surface.
This appropriately named fish is
16 cm (6 in) long with two giant teeth.
To make room for them,
the fangtooth has two sockets beside its brain.
As you travel deeper than 2,500 m (8,200 ft),
there are no more whales.
They don’t usually dive down this deep.
But when you hit 8,000 m (26,200 ft),
you’d encounter the Mariana snailfish.
At this point,
the atmospheric pressure is nearly
1,100 times what you feel at sea level.
If you weren’t inside a pressurized submarine,
it would be like having the weight
of a fully loaded truck on your head.
Those little snailfish out there
must be pretty strong to withstand
all this intense pressure.
Eventually,
you’d reach the very bottom,
the Challenger Deep.
If you look closely,
you might spot an amphipod species,
Hirondellea gigas.
These small, deep ocean creatures
are only about 3 cm (1.2 in) long.
That’s about it down in the Mariana Trench.
No secret treasures, hidden cities, or sea monsters.
Next, it’s time for you to travel to the world’s deepest sea volcano,
the West Mata volcano.
This underwater sight is located southwest of the Samoas.
You’ll need to rent another submarine
to travel down 1,200 m (4,000 ft) below the surface.
But since you just visited the Mariana Trench,
it should be no problem for you.
If you’re lucky,
the volcano would be active,
and you would enjoy seeing lava fountains
and glowing bubbles.
Just be careful of all the debris that erupts into the ocean.
Both the West Mata volcano
and the Mariana Trench
are natural deep points on Earth.
But what about something that's man-made?
The Mponeng gold mine is the deepest operating mine in the world.
Around 4,000 miners work in it every day.
And, despite safety precautions,
it's still risky.
In March 2020,
a seismic event killed three miners
who were 3.5 km (2.2 mi) below the surface.
To get to the mine,
you’d need to travel to the Gauteng province in South Africa.
You’d take the elevator,
known as a cage,
with 119 other workers,
until it reaches 2.5 km (1.6 mi) below the Earth’s surface.
As the elevator doors open,
you’ll notice the heat.
It’s about 38 °C (86 °F).
And that’s only because the mining company
has created a system to cool down the air.
Without fans blowing over a mixture of ice and salt,
the mine would be a whopping 60°C (140°F).
Why?
Because you’re so deep in the Earth
that its inner heat is warming up
the surrounding atmosphere.
You’d only be 2.5 km (1.6 mi) underneath the Earth’s surface.
To go lower,
you’d need to walk or drive the rest of the way.
You’d be at the bottom of the mine when you
reached 4 km (2.5 mi).
That’s as deep as 10 Empire State Buildings.
Luckily, there are no cave creatures
to worry about down here.
The only life down here,
other than the miners,
is monotypic bacteria.
While the Mponeng gold mine is impressive,
all of the deepest points on Earth are in oceans.
According to NASA,
over 80% of the oceans remain unmapped,
unobserved, and unexplored.
And if we want to continue
to explore these areas,
we're going to need to take
better care of our planet.
For starters,
we could clean up our trash-filled oceans.
Can you imagine
a Mariana Trench
just brimming with garbage?
Well, that’s a story for another What If.