LOS ANGELES (KNX) – As Sebastian once told Ariel, “Life under the sea is better than anything they've got up there.”
While we know there are no mermaids or sponges that live in pineapples under the sea, plenty of other life forms abound, from dolphins to damselfish, giant squid to geriatric Greenland sharks.
The ocean is as vast as the number of creatures inside it, but let’s plunge deeper into the abyss. How deep is the ocean?
The average depth of the ocean, according to the National Ocean Service, is 2.3 miles or 3.7 kilometers. But if you want to dive to the darkest depths you’ll end up in the Challenger deep in the Mariana Trench, which is, 10,935 meters (or 6.8 miles down), according to Charlotte Seid, Museum Scientist & Collection Manager at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“So that's the deepest this point,” she said. “The one that inspires a lot of awe and enthusiasm being deeper than Mount Everest is tall.”
Seid said it’s amazing how many people have been to the Mariana Trench, including Victory Vescovo who was the first man to go to the deepest spot in the ocean not once but twice
“Victor Vescovo took many people including astronauts, people of different backgrounds, and connections to previous deep sea exploration where we're up to 27 people now,” she said.
Before Vescovo, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard were the first to go to the Challenger Deep in 1960.
Fast forward to 2012, Walsh helped film director James Cameron become the first person to make the solo trek down there with the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER.
But what lies in those trenches? What life is down there, if there is any? Will we find Jack Dawson’s body or maybe that sponge living in a pineapple?
For those answers, listen to “I’ve Got Questions” in the audio below.
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