3-hour diary under the deepest Mariana region of film director Titanic

James Cameron's journey of exploratory adventure Mariana will reveal the mystery of life in the deepest planet - a strange world beyond the boundaries of human knowledge.

7:46 am, depth: 10.898m, speed: 0 knots. A strange world

Ten thousand eight hundred and ninety eight meters. What the hell, I will round it up to 11,000m at cocktail parties .

The next voice I heard was completely unexpected."Divine speed, love," Suzy said, sending her love to the most remote place on Earth through the radar. Hearing her voice, my two worlds collided in a strange but beautiful way.

Suzy was by my side during the expedition, hiding her fear, and supporting me 100%. I knew she was under a lot of stress.

Picture 1 of 3-hour diary under the deepest Mariana region of film director Titanic Picture 2 of 3-hour diary under the deepest Mariana region of film director Titanic
Inside the cockpit, Cameron controlled the system via a touch screen.

It's time to start work. We have planned to stay down here for five hours, and there is a lot of work to do. I spun the submarine, using the camera to observe the world around me. The seabed is flat and nothing special in every direction. An alien world.

I strengthened the hydraulic system, opened the door outside the scientific compartment, and then controlled the robotic arm to sample the first sediment core. If everything goes bad in 10 minutes, at least I will come back with some mud for the scientists.

It is not enough to build a submarine that can set a deep diving record. What is important to me is that it must serve scientific purposes. There is no meaning when you explore the least known place on our planet without being able to record data and take samples.

The core of the sediment was safe on the ship, I took a moment to take a close-up shot of the Rolex Deepsea watch for the Swiss company that cooperated with us on the expedition. The watch, which is attached to the control arm, is still ticking, despite the pressure of 7.4 tons / inch2.

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An LED panel is illuminating the seabed during a test dive at Ulithi Atoll.Sediment samples were collected in the Mariana trench and then revealed previously unknown microorganisms.

In 1960, in a US Navy project, Lieutenant Colonel Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard dived to this depth with the submarine Trieste, and were the first to do so. They also brought a specially built Rolex, and it was also under pressure.

However, not everything works well. The moment after taking a photo of the clock, I saw yellow oil particles floating above my eyes. The hydraulic system has leaked. In a few minutes, I lost all the functions in the control arm and the scientific chamber door. Without the ability to sample but my camera still works, I continue to explore.

09h10, Depth: 10.897m, Speed: 0.5 knots

I was driving the submarine north through a sediment plain, as the geologists called it. The scene now looks like snow is falling on an endless wide parking lot. I didn't see any life at the bottom, and only occasionally encountered tiny, floating crustaceans like snowflakes.

Soon, I will encounter the "wall" of the groove, which I knew in advance from the sound wave map. However, it is not really a wall, but rather a comfortable slope. I hope to find rising cliffs that can contain life.

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Twenty thousand bacteria were found in Challenger Deep.Among the collected species include cotyledons (in the picture) and 6 species of shrimp-like crustaceans, at least some of which are new species, never before known.

All I have observed now is through high-definition cameras. Remembering a word that I promised myself before diving, I decided to land the submarine. There is no way I come down here - the deepest part of the planet, but I cannot observe it with my own eyes. It took me a few minutes to move the devices, and put myself in a position where I could look out the window.

I spent a few minutes in the stillness of this strange world, surpassing all human knowledge. New human eyes only fall below this depth once before.

However, the location where Walsh and Piccard dived 37 km to the west, in another part of Challenger Deep, is now called Vitiaz Deep. Therefore, no one has ever seen this place before.

All other deep seabeds I have ever visited, even as deep as 8,299m in the New Britain Trench, are interwoven with worms, sea cucumbers and other animals. Here, literally, there is absolutely no sign of life. The surface is not disturbed.

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The Deepsea Challenger is lifted onto the deck by a crane after a test dive at a depth of 8.221m.The orange bag helps the ship float on the water;Gray bags hold the submarine in a horizontal position.

I know it is not really sterile - we will almost certainly discover new species of bacteria that live in the sediment sample that I had previously obtained. However, I could not avoid the feeling that I had surpassed the limits of life. Amazingly, I felt a great privilege to be here, a witness of a pristine world.

Some scientists in our group think that life really originates from these deep dark places, about 4 billion years ago. This dark plain has been formed here for a long time.

I am humbled by the vastness of all we do not know, both here and in the darkness of the universe. I felt a small candle that I brought here in these brief moments, and how big our task is still to explore this vast world.

10h25, Depth: 10,877m, Speed: 0.5 knots

I found the slope in the north, and was tracing along its gently undulating slopes. I am currently about 1.6 km north of the initial landing position. However, I did not find the rising cliffs.

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Divers are equipped with a 3D camera while filming a test dive in New Britain off Papua New Guinea.The submarine is equipped with lights, cameras, and other scientific equipment.

On this flat groove journey, I found and captured two signs of life: a gelatin blob smaller than a child's fist, at the bottom and a long, black scar 1.5 m, may be the home of some species deep underground.

Both are mysterious and unlike anything I've seen for many years diving. I took HD-quality photos, and will let scientists decipher them.

A pair of my batteries are running out of energy, my compass is malfunctioning, and the ultrasound system is completely dead. In addition, I lost 2 of the starboard triggers, so the submarine became slow and difficult to control. The terrible pressure here is the cause.

I pressed the button, knowing that time was running out but the hope of finding the steep cliffs I saw in the New Britain Trench, which contained an entirely different animal community from the trenches.

Suddenly, I felt a pause on the starboard side, and I checked the propulsion. The remaining thrusters on the starboard side could no longer work. Now I can only spin the circle. I couldn't take samples, and couldn't continue to explore, so there was no reason to stay.

I was in the bottom for less than three hours, much less than the five-hour plan. Reluctantly, I called up the water and told them that I was getting ready.

10:30, Depth: 10,877m, Speed: 6 knots. Return

The moment when you press the weight loss switch to go up always gives you a sense of hesitation. If the weight does not decrease, you will not be able to go home. I spent many years designing a weight-releasing mechanism, and engineers built and tested it thoroughly to make it the most reliable system on the submarine.

However, when you approach that switch, you always feel anxious. I don't want to think about it anymore. I just need to press the switch.

Press the button. I heard a familiar noise when two 243-kilogram objects slid off the tracks and plunged to the bottom of the sea. The submarine swayed, and the sea floor immediately fell into its eternal darkness.

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Deepsea Challenger is floating on the sea surface with Cameron inside after successfully implementing the challenge of diving to the bottom of the Mariana basin on March 26, 2012.A diver needs some time to stabilize the submarine: Sitting on top of the submarine, he must attach a hook of the crane to the body of the ship.

I'm going up at more than 6 knots, the fastest the submarine has ever achieved, and I'll be on the water in less than an hour and a half.

I imagined the pressure to escape the submarine like a giant python that could not crush the ship, so it was forced to release it. A sense of relief in me as the numbers gradually descended. I'm on my way back to the world of sunlight and air, and Suzy's sweet kiss.