Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the highest mountain peak on Earth, standing tall at 29,000 feet or approximately 5.5 miles from sea level. The Earth's oceans at some points are deeper than the highest mountain peaks. Deep under the oceans run mountain ranges, peaks, valleys and trenches as awesome in scale and variety as those above land.
The deepest known underwater point is Challenger Deep, in the 1500 mile long Mariana Trench which is one of the known deepest and longest underground trenches. Challenger Deep is 7 miles below sea level and can easily submerge Mount Everest. At this depth, the water pressure is intense and temperatures at sub-zero, beyond the reach of sunlight.
While marine life is found even at these unfathomable depths, it is very difficult for humans to descend there. Till date only two manned expeditions have been made to Challenger Deep.
The first expedition was made in 1960 and second and most recent expedition, Deep Sea Challenge, was made by Hollywood film maker and undersea explorer James Cameron in collaboration with the National Geographic in 2012.
The deepest known underwater point is Challenger Deep, in the 1500 mile long Mariana Trench which is one of the known deepest and longest underground trenches. Challenger Deep is 7 miles below sea level and can easily submerge Mount Everest. At this depth, the water pressure is intense and temperatures at sub-zero, beyond the reach of sunlight.
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| Deep Challenger in Mariana Trench Kmusser [GFDL , CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5 ], via Wikimedia Commons |
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