Nuno Gomes (South Africa) dived to a depth of 318.25 m (1,044 ft) in the Red Sea off Dahab, Egypt, on 10 June 2005. Although the descent was accomplished in minutes, the ascent took over 12 hours, to allow for decompression.
Vrtoglavica (meaning vertigo) is an unbroken vertical shaft 603 m (1,978 ft 4 in) deep in Monte Kanin, Slovenia. It could comfortably accommodate two Eiffel Towers.
The Y-40 diving pool in Montegrotto Terme, Italy, has a depth of 42 m (137 ft 9.54 in) at its deepest point and contains around 4.3 million litres (945,867 gal; 1,135,939 US gallons) of thermal water. The facility, designed by Emanuele Boaretto and supported by the “Boaretto Group Hotel and Resort”, was officially inaugurated on 5 June 2014 and is used for dive training, leisure diving and scientific research. The pool is 21 m (68 ft 10.77 in) long and 18 m (59 ft 0.66
Continue reading →
On 28 November 1996 Blue Water Recoveries Ltd (UK) discovered the wreck of the SS Rio Grande, using side-scanning sonar, at the bottom of the South Atlantic Ocean. On 30 November 1996 the find was confirmed by the company using a remotely-operated vehicle. The wreck, a World War II German blocade runner, lies at a depth of 5,762 m (18,904 ft).
The deepest diving watch can function at 6,000 m (20,000 ft). Montres Charmex SA of Switzerland achieved this with their mechanical divers CX Swiss Military Watch™ 20,000 feet model, on 5 January 2009. Development started in 2006. It is the first mechanical divers watch water resistant to 20,000 ft (6,000 m).
The deepest concert was performed by Katie Melua (UK) and her band at 303 m (994 ft) below sea level, on Statoil’s Troll A gas rig, off the coast of Bergen, Norway, on 1 October 2006. Ms Melua performed two, 30-minute concerts to an audience of 20 oilrig workers, each of whom had won the ticket to see the performance.
The world’s deepest marine test basin is 35 m (114.8 ft) deep, and can be found at the National Maritime Research Institute in Tokyo, Japan. The facility is designed to simulate a deep-ocean environment for the testing of scale models of oil drilling platforms and other facilities which are connected to the ocean floor. The basin has the ability to simulate waves and undersea currents.
Earth is the densest planet, with an average density of 5.517 times that of water.
Black holes are the remnants of stars that ended their lives as supernovae. They are characterised by a region of space in which gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. The boundary of this region is known as the event horizon and, at the centre of the black hole, is the singularity, where the mass of the dead star is compressed to a single point of zero size and infinite density. It is this singularity that generates the powerful gravitational field of
Continue reading →
The world’s most efficient wavepiercing powerboat is Earthrace, a 24-m (78-ft) long wavepiercing trimaran, which can submarine through waves at depths of 7 m (23 ft) – deeper than any other boat. Running entirely on biodiesel, and using hemp for the first time in any boat construction, Earthrace is also one of the most environmentally-friendly vessels in the world. Skippered by Pete Bethune (New Zealand), Earthrace set out to break the 75-day world record for circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat (and doing so using
Continue reading →