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Challenger Deep
Deepest known point in the ocean
The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep was measured at 10,935 m during crewed dives in June 2020. Everest could sit on its floor with more than two kilometres of water above it.
Challenger Deep lies at the southern end of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, where the Pacific plate sinks beneath the Philippine Sea plate. The trench is named after HMS Challenger, whose 1875 survey first recorded unusually great depths in the area. Modern depth readings come from ship-mounted sonar, and from pressure sensors on crewed submersibles and landers.
Different methods disagree by several tens of metres. Sound travels at varying speeds through water of differing temperature and salinity, so sonar results must be corrected, and the trench floor is uneven. A 2010 mapping survey gave about 10,984 m, while crewed descents using pressure gauges returned figures nearer 10,900 m, which is why this entry gives a range in its note.
Only a handful of crewed dives have reached the bottom. Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh went first in 1960 in the bathyscaphe Trieste, and film director James Cameron followed alone in 2012. Several more people have visited since 2019, including dives by Victor Vescovo. The extreme pressure there is more than 1,000 times that at the surface.