Photo: VCG

China's Fendouzhe (Struggler) deep-sea manned submersible made history by completing 10 consecutive hours of operations at the deepest point of the Diamantina Trench in southeastern Indian Ocean and was successfully retrieved by the scientific research ship Tansuo (Exploration) -1 on Sunday.

This is the first time in human history a submersible has reached the deepest point of the trench, accelerating the scientific investigation of the trench system and is of great significance to the development of global abyssal science.

The abyss expedition team, organized by the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), comprised 56 members from China's top universities including Shanghai Jiaotong University and Tongji University, set sail from South China's Sanya city on October 6, 2022.

After that, the team completed two joint scientific research missions by China and Singapore at the Kermadec Trench and is now working on the third one at the Diamantina Trench, also its first expedition in southeastern Indian Ocean since it was officially put into use. 

As of January 22, China's Fendouzhe manned submersible has made a total of 159 dives, including 25 at the 10,000-meter level. In addition to discovering a large number of iron and manganese nodules at the bottom of the Diamantina Trench, the team of the abyss scientific expedition also placed markers saying "Happy Year of the Rabbit" at the depth of 5,810 meters in the trench. The submersible will return to Sanya city in early March 2023 as planned, after performing 22 dives in the area.

Global Times