Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Cameron: Earth's deepest spot desolate, foreboding

Filmmaker James Cameron has come up with some truly other world like ideas in the past but that wasn’t enough for him. Cameron, best known for his fantasy movie Avatar, has recently gone where not many other human beings have gone before. He has traveled 7 miles down under water into the deepest part of the world that we know of, the Mariana Trench. Cameron traveled to such great depths using a deep-sea submarine which he helped design called the Deepsea Challenger. The descent took around 2 and half hours and the ascent took a little over an hour. He has recorded some footage of the journey but plans to go back numerous times and film lots more 3D footage which will eventually air on National Geographic. Cameron described the setting as surreal and other worldly, and compared it to that of being on the moon. He couldn’t believe how alone he was and how truly desolate the area was. Being down that deep was kind of scary and the only other organisms he saw were small shrimp like creatures no longer than an inch in length. The submarine that he traveled in was somewhat cramped and uncomfortable, with the heat of the machinery making it over 100 degrees Fahrenheit inside the sub. As he got further and further down however, the temperature sharply fell as the surrounding waters were 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Being down so deep, the surrounding pressure of the water actually shrunk the submarine by 3 inches.


This is a great adventure for science. As technology progresses it is fantastic how we can now reach places that before we could only dream of reaching. I can’t wait to see the footage of this truly unique part of the world. The discoveries that await Cameron and his team are now endless. People have been incredibly eager to see what its like down in the deep ocean depths and this journey will finally give people some insight into the area.


Posted by Nicco Ciccolini (A)

5 comments:

  1. Source for post:
    http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-earths-deepest-spot-desolate-foreboding-121936545.html

    Posted by Nicco Ciccolini

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  2. My first argument with this post is the claim that Cameron's piece de resistance was Avatar when I know him better for films like Aliens and Terminator which I believe both greatly outshine the former. Hah.
    More seriously, deep sea diving really is fascinating. As cramped and uncomforable as it sounds, I'd love the get the experience to dive in a sub like that. It's crazy that the pressure could shrink a metal submarine by that much. Maybe that's why all the organisms he saw down there were so small?

    Rhys Ursuliak

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  3. This is really interesting. The oceans are a region of earth that we know very little about, and we know virtually nothing about what lies at the bottom of the deepest parts. I would love to take a ride in one of these subs and see what lies beneath, but I think claustrophobia might take me over! I think exploration of our planet is an area always deserving research and funding and I'm glad Cameron is doing just that. Do you know what the show will be called when it airs?

    Posted by Laura Moro (2)

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  4. I find the deep sea completely fascinating, yet completely terrifying. The idea that no one really has any idea what lurks or goes on down there is so unsettling to me, that I don't think you could pay me to travel to the Marina Trench. Hearing that the submarine shrunk 3 inches due to pressure is so unnerving- I would be scared of the whole thing caving in on me. But regardless I am more than interested to see the documentary and I hope this provides future study of the deep sea.

    Taylor Pirog (2)

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  5. I don't think they have released a date for when this documentary will come out or that they are even close to producing the movie. This was just the first time that Cameron made this descent. He is going to need several more years of exploration and footage consisting of hundreds more dives before they will have enough to put a documentary together.

    Posted by Nicco Ciccolini

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