Nereus surpasses 10,000 meter depth
By Haidee V. Eugenio
SAIPAN, CNMI (Saipan Tribune, June 3, 2009) Â Nereus, a robotic submarine, has started exploring the deepest-known part of the world's oceans called the Challenger Deep, located in the Marianas Trench near the CNMI and Guam.
On Sunday, the hybrid remotely operated vehicle Nereus passed the 10,000-meter mark.
Challenger Deep is reported to be 11,000 meters deep, more than 1.2 miles deeper than Mount Everest is high.
At that depth, pressure reaches 1,100 times the pressure at the surface.
After a six-hour journey to the bottom on Sunday, Nereus reached 10,600 meters deep, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which is conducting the May 23 to June 6, 2009 expedition.
WHOI (www.whoi.edu), the world's largest private, nonprofit ocean research, engineering and education organization, is using the free social...