DeepFlight Challenger point of each of the world's five oceans, the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean (36,201 ft), the Puerto Rico Trench of the Atlantic Ocean (28,232 ft), the Diamantina Trench of the Indian Ocean (26,401 ft), South Sandwich Trench of the Southern Ocean (23,737 ft), and Molloy Deep of the Arctic Ocean (18,399 ft). The Cheyenne yacht will be used as the mothership for the dive efforts. It was planned that Branson would pilot the sub to the Puerto Rico Trench, while Chris Welsh would pilot it for the Mariana Trench dive. Virgin Oceanic had hoped to be the first
Mariana Trench within the sediment of the trench. Like other oceanic trenches, the Mariana Trench has been proposed as a site for nuclear waste disposal, in the hope that tectonic plate subduction occurring at the site might eventually push the nuclear waste deep into the Earth's mantle, the second layer of the Earth. However, ocean dumping of nuclear waste is prohibited by international law. Furthermore, plate subduction zones are associated with very large megathrust earthquakes, the effects of which are unpredictable for the safety of long-term disposal of nuclear wastes within the hadopelagic ecosystem. Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench