Oceans’ deepest trenches are home to ‘incredible’ diversity
It was evening when the scientists began their journey into the abyss. As the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe plunged ever deeper, Weishu Zhao—an extremophile microbiologist at Shanghai Jiao Tong University—glimpsed bioluminescent creatures glowing green, yellow, and orange against the fathomless dark. Upon reaching the sea floor, more than 10,000 meters down, the team switched on the submersible lights to reveal “a profound and mysterious blue” filled with drifting plankton. “At that moment,” Zhao says, “I knew immediately that the [deep ocean] must be a much more thriving habitat than we had imagined.” The Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, the deepest of the world’s trenches, has long fascinated scientists and adventurers alike. One of the latest to explore it was movie director James Cameron, who in 2012 ...