meters

1 atm

EARTH'S FINAL FRONTIER

The Deep
Ocean

We have better maps of Mars than the ocean floor. More humans have walked on the Moon than have visited the deepest trenches. Scroll down to descend into the abyss.

71%

of Earth's Surface

<0.001%

Visually Explored

10,935m

Deepest Point

Descend

Epipelagic Zone0-200m

The Sunlight Zone

Sunlight penetrates here, enabling photosynthesis. This thin layer—just 2.4% of the ocean's volume—contains 90% of all marine life. Whales, dolphins, tuna, and most fish we eat live in this zone. Below 200 meters, sunlight cannot reach.

Mesopelagic Zone200-1,000m

The Twilight Zone

Too dark for photosynthesis, but faint light still filters down. This is the realm of bioluminescence—90% of creatures here produce their own light. Giant squid hunt in the darkness. Pressure reaches 100 atmospheres.

Creatures of the Abyss

Life finds a way in the crushing darkness. These organisms have evolved extraordinary adaptations: enormous eyes, bioluminescent lures, transparent bodies, and metabolism slowed to survive years without food.

🐙

Giant Squid

300-1,000m

With eyes the size of dinner plates—the largest in the animal kingdom—giant squid hunt in the twilight zone. They remained mythical until 2004, when one was finally photographed alive.

🐟

Anglerfish

200-2,000m

The female anglerfish uses a bioluminescent lure to attract prey in total darkness. Males are tiny parasites that permanently fuse to females, sharing their bloodstream.

🦐

Giant Isopod

170-2,140m

These deep-sea crustaceans can grow to 76cm—20x larger than their shallow-water relatives. They can survive years without food, feasting on whale carcasses that sink from above.

🐚

Dumbo Octopus

3,000-4,000m

Named for their ear-like fins, these octopuses live deeper than any other. They swallow prey whole, as their soft bodies cannot crush shells in the crushing pressure.

🐠

Barreleye Fish

600-800m

With a transparent head and tubular eyes that can rotate upward, the barreleye fish detects the silhouettes of prey against the faint light filtering from above.

🦑

Vampire Squid

600-900m

Despite its name, it doesn't drink blood. Living in oxygen-minimum zones, it has the lowest metabolic rate of any cephalopod and feeds on marine snow—falling organic debris.

Bathypelagic Zone1,000-4,000m

The Midnight Zone

Total darkness. No sunlight has ever reached these depths. Temperature hovers just above freezing at 4°C. The pressure is 400 times greater than at the surface— enough to crush a submarine. Yet life thrives here, feeding on “marine snow”: the constant rain of organic matter falling from above.

The History of Exploration

Humanity's quest to reach the ocean's depths spans five centuries—from Magellan's weighted lines to modern submersibles capable of withstanding 1,000 atmospheres of pressure.

1521

Magellan's Attempt

Ferdinand Magellan attempted to measure the Pacific Ocean depth using a weighted line. The bottom remained elusive—the ocean was far deeper than anyone imagined.

1872-1876

HMS Challenger Expedition

The first comprehensive deep-sea exploration circumnavigated the globe, discovering over 4,000 new species and mapping ocean basins. It established oceanography as a science.

Depth: 8,184m recorded

1960

Trieste: The First Descent

Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descended to Challenger Deep in the bathyscaphe Trieste—the first humans to reach the ocean's deepest point. They spent 20 minutes on the bottom.

Depth: 10,916m

1977

Hydrothermal Vents Discovered

Scientists aboard DSV Alvin discovered hydrothermal vents near the Galápagos Islands—ecosystems thriving in complete darkness, fueled by chemical energy, not sunlight.

Depth: 2,500m

2012

Cameron's Solo Descent

Filmmaker James Cameron piloted the Deepsea Challenger to Challenger Deep solo, capturing high-resolution footage of the abyss for the first time.

Depth: 10,908m

2019

Vescovo's Discovery

Victor Vescovo reached 10,928m—the deepest manned dive ever. At the bottom of Challenger Deep, he found something no one expected: a plastic bag and candy wrappers.

Depth: 10,928m

Abyssopelagic Zone4,000-6,000m

The Abyssal Zone

Near-freezing temperatures. Complete darkness. Pressure exceeding 600 atmospheres. The abyssal plains are the largest habitat on Earth—covering more than 50% of the planet's surface. Yet we have explored less of it than the surface of the Moon.

By The Numbers

90%

Heat Absorbed

The deep ocean absorbs 90% of excess heat from climate change

30%

CO₂ Absorbed

Oceans absorb roughly 30% of human-produced carbon dioxide

1,086atm

Challenger Deep Pressure

Pressure at 10,935m—equivalent to 50 jumbo jets stacked on a person

24°C/km

Geothermal Gradient

Temperature increases 24°C per kilometer beneath the seafloor

Hadalpelagic Zone6,000-11,000m

The Hadal Zone

Named after Hades, god of the underworld. Only 27 trenches in the world reach these depths. The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep is the deepest— 10,935 meters below the surface. Pressure here exceeds 1,000 atmospheres. Only three humans have ever visited.

“We know more about the surface of Mars and the Moon than we do about the deep sea floor, despite the fact that we have yet to extract a single gram of food, a single breath of oxygen, or a single drop of water from those bodies.”

— Dr. Robert Ballard, Deep-Sea Explorer

The Footprint We Leave

In 2019, Victor Vescovo reached the deepest point in the ocean. At 10,928 meters—further from sunlight than Mount Everest is tall— he discovered plastic bags and candy wrappers on the seafloor. No corner of Earth remains untouched.