What It's Like ... To Dive to the Deepest Spot on Earth

Deepsea Challenger

On March 25, 2012, James Cameron spent more than three hours at the bottom — 35,576 feet or nearly seven miles — of the deepest place on earth, the Mariana Trench. With Avatar and Titanic director Cameron as its pilot (yes, a film is planned!), the 12-ton lime-green sub Deepsea Challenger reached the bottom of the place known as Challenge Deep in about two hours, 36 minutes. The Mariana Trench is roughly 200 miles southwest of the Pacific island of Guam. Cameron is only the third man ever to reach the depth. In 1960, two men — Navy Lt. Don Walsh and the late Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard — piloted the Swiss-designed bathyscaphe Trieste to the bottom of Challenge Deep. Below is Don Walsh's account of the 1960 expedition. Photograph: Associated Press