What's the deepest a submarine has gone? All the way to the bottom!
The deepest part of the ocean is the Mariana Trench, the narrow pinch point where the Pacific tectonic plate churns its way back into the mantle beneath. And the deepest point along that line is the Challenger Deep – over 10,900m (35,700ft) deep.
If you turned Mt Everest upside down, so that it extended down from sea level, its peak would still be over 2km (6,500ft) from the Challenger Deep’s bottom.
The first submarine to reach the bottom was the Trieste in 1960, piloted by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard.
Their depth record has since been pipped by a few metres, by explorer Victor Vescovo. His submarine Limiting Factor (right) made numerous trips to the bottom and recorded a depth of 10,928m in 2019.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Frances Browning, via email) 'What's the deepest a submarine has gone?'
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