A vertical survey of the last unmapped wilderness

ABYSSAL

One continuous descent — from the sunlit skin of the sea to the floor of the Challenger Deep, 10,935 metres below. No cuts. No coming up for air.

Begin descent
69°N chart datum · rendered live in WebGL
Chapter 01 — Epipelagic · 0–200 m

The ocean averages 3,688 metres deep. Sunlight surrenders at one thousand. What remains is the largest living space on Earth — and we have charted less of it than the surface of Mars.

Chapter 02 — Mesopelagic · 200–1,000 m
The twilight ledger
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of surface light survives to 1,000 metres — the edge of vision
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of the ocean's volume lies in permanent, absolute darkness
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of deep-sea animals make their own light — they are bioluminescent
Chapter 03 — Bathypelagic · 1,000–4,000 m
Down here, light is not given. It is made — flashed, pulsed and thrown by bodies that have never once seen the sun.
Field notes · Bathyal Survey V · 03:12 ship time
Chapter 05 — Abyssopelagic · 4,000–6,000 m
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pressure on the abyssal plain

The water presses with the weight of fifty jumbo jets balanced on a human body. Life answers by becoming glass, gel and light — soft enough that the pressure can find nothing to break.

Chapter 07 — Hadal · 6,000–10,935 m
Hydrothermal vent field with black smokers and tube worms on the deep ocean floor
FIG. 07 — HYDROTHERMAL VENT FIELD · 2,400 M AND BELOW
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Challenger Deep

Everest, submerged at the bottom of the trench, would still drown beneath two kilometres of water.

Fire in the dark

Vent fluid leaves the crust at 400°C — and entire ecosystems feed on its chemistry, eating the Earth instead of the sun.

The floor

The descent ends here. The water above you is eleven kilometres tall. Everything that falls, falls for years.