How Deep Can We Go?

Ocean · Depth Scale · ~45 seconds

Humans, animals and machines drop down a single slice of ocean in order of depth — until only a handful of craft remain at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

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The story

How deep can we actually go? This chart drops humans, animals and machines down a single vertical slice of ocean, in order of depth, each one parking at the deepest point it can reach. A scuba diver barely dents the surface; a free-diver and a dolphin go a little further; nuclear submarines and the first bathysphere reach into the dark.

Then the scale becomes brutal: a sperm whale hunts at 2,250 m, the deepest fish ever filmed lives near 8,300 m — and only a tiny "full-depth club" of craft (Trieste, Kaikō, Deepsea Challenger and Limiting Factor) has ever touched the floor of the Mariana Trench at about 10,935 m, deeper than Everest is tall. The water darkens through the real ocean zones as you descend.

Sources: Published dive records and rated depths for each submersible; biological depth records from marine-science literature; Challenger Deep depth ≈ 10,935 m.