Laura Trethewey · 2023 · global

The story of the modern race to map the ocean floor, told through the Five Deeps Expedition, which in 2018 and 2019 sent a crewed submersible to the deepest point of every ocean, gathering the data a still-unfinished global chart of the seabed depends on.

1. 1
   Puerto Rico Trench

   In the Milwaukee Deep, eight kilometres down, the expedition makes the first crewed dive to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

2. 2
   South Sandwich Trench

   Off Antarctica the team descends into the only sub-zero hadal trench on Earth, the deepest point of the Southern Ocean.

3. 3
   Java Trench

   In the Indian Ocean they reach the bottom of the little-explored Java Trench, mapping seafloor no human has ever seen.

4. 4
   Challenger Deep

   In the Mariana Trench they touch the deepest place on the planet, nearly eleven kilometres beneath the Pacific.

5. 5
   Molloy Deep

   West of Svalbard the final dive reaches the bottom of the Arctic, completing the first crewed visit to the deepest point of all five oceans.