Imagining the depth of the ocean is often, well, overwhelming. Considering that only 5 percent of the ocean floor has ever even been explored, there's much left up to the imagination as to what's actually going on in those deep, dark depths. But how deep is the ocean really?
Think about it this way, if you took Mt. Everest and submerged it below the sea settled on the deepest part of the sea floor, there would still be over a mile between that point and the surface of the ocean. Given that the oceans occupy 99% of living space on Earth, the volume of water in the oceans is gargantuan. And we've only just started to explore the things that live down in the depths past the deep ocean trenches.
One of the deepest crewed missions was in 2012 when James Cameron descended down to 35,756 feet for the Deep Sea Challenger Mission. Though Cameron came close to breaking the record for the lowest point reached in the ocean, Jacques Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh set that record in 1960, reaching 35,797 feet. Want to learn more what's beneath the sea? Watch the video!
