The few...
What would you think is the exclusive club in the world in terms of exploration? Those that have best Mt Everest? Sadly no longer you can virtually book that on a package deal these days.
Easy then you think, the men who went to the Moon - there were 12 in total of them... interestingly there is the same number in the club of "men who flew to the Moon but didn't land". (Source Wiki).
No the one that I think probably beats them all, and interestingly beat the first walk on the Moon by about 9 years is the Men Who Have Been To The Bottom Of The Ocean. Truly only 2 men have done it, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in the research bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960.
This story reported by the BBC is interesting as there has been a whole plethora of new survey's being done in the Pacific at the moment, the devastating tsunamis of recent past have allowed for an influx of research money.
The estimate now is that the deepest point is actually about 10,944m give or take about 40m based on the accuracy of the kit. 11km to you or me. That is 6.83miles in old money or a couple of furlongs short of 7miles - that is a heck of a long way. You could drop Everest in there from the very very base up, i.e. from sea level and it would still disappear under the surface.
There is a new race on to go back to the bottom - and now these guys can do it with a much more accurate understanding of the sea floor due to this recent mapping. But still seems amazing that there is a place on the earth that man has visited substantially less than we have visited the Moon.
Easy then you think, the men who went to the Moon - there were 12 in total of them... interestingly there is the same number in the club of "men who flew to the Moon but didn't land". (Source Wiki).
No the one that I think probably beats them all, and interestingly beat the first walk on the Moon by about 9 years is the Men Who Have Been To The Bottom Of The Ocean. Truly only 2 men have done it, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in the research bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960.
This story reported by the BBC is interesting as there has been a whole plethora of new survey's being done in the Pacific at the moment, the devastating tsunamis of recent past have allowed for an influx of research money.
The estimate now is that the deepest point is actually about 10,944m give or take about 40m based on the accuracy of the kit. 11km to you or me. That is 6.83miles in old money or a couple of furlongs short of 7miles - that is a heck of a long way. You could drop Everest in there from the very very base up, i.e. from sea level and it would still disappear under the surface.
There is a new race on to go back to the bottom - and now these guys can do it with a much more accurate understanding of the sea floor due to this recent mapping. But still seems amazing that there is a place on the earth that man has visited substantially less than we have visited the Moon.
It is fascinating - but you'll never catch me doing it! I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI saw that thing on the news of the volcanoes dropping into the chasm. Amazing our world.
ReplyDeleteAlways said the world was ruled by evil fish...ever since that Ark nonsense..;-)
ReplyDelete