Located in the northwest
Pacific Ocean, within the
oceanic depression known as
the Mariana Trench, it is the
deepest known point in the
world: the Challenger Deep. It
is one of the most mysterious
and inaccessible places of the
planet, being situated at
10,902 meters below sea level
and about 2000 meters above
the height of Mount Everest.
On 23 January 1960, the
oceanographer Jacques Piccard
and the lieutenant Don Walsh,
on board the bathyscaphe
Trieste, achieved to reach
this unknown darkness. The
descent took 4 hours and 48
minutes while the ascent to
the surface took 3 hours and
17 minutes, a period of time
that was well defined, but
they perceived it as an
eternity. The two men remained
on the ocean floor for about
twenty minutes during which
the bathyscaphe was subjected
to a pressure of a thousand
times higher than that
recorded on the sea surface.
They thought life there in
total darkness couldn't be
possible. Turning on the
lights of Trieste bathyscaphe,
however, they were very
surprised to see through the
porthole a shrimp and a
particular species of sole,
wandering in a desert of white
sand. The piece describes this
legendary expedition through
four sections that follow each
other seamlessly: "The Ocean"
depicts the vast expanse of
the sea, "The Mariana Trench"
the descent into the ocean
trench, "Abysses" the dark
depths of the sea, "Towards
the Sky" the ascent to the
surface in the sunlight. A
fearless and extraordinary
feat which has never been
repeated. Man climbed
thousands of times on the
summit of Everest, six times
he has set foot on the moon.
Piccard and Walsh, however,
remain the only human beings
who have reached the farthest
point of the earth, the
Challenger Deep.
