Ex-US navy commander Victor Vescovo has become the first person to reach the bottom of all four of the world's deepest ocean trenches.
Vescovo reached the bottom of the Kermadec Trench in the South Pacific Ocean at the weekend in the submersible DSV Limiting Factor – a two-person submersible built by Florida-based company Triton Submarines.
In doing so, the 55-year-old explorer completed a personal goal of diving to the four deepest known areas on Earth.
Following the nine-hour expedition, Vescovo and a small team reached a maximum depth of 32,818 feet (10,003 metres) at the bottom of Kermadec Trench.
Limiting Factor's cameras captured footage of 'one of the deepest jellyfish ever seen on film' and a 'brilliant gold' bacterial mat living off the minerals and gases in the rocks, he said.
Vescovo (left) and a small team reached a maximum depth of 32,818 feet (10,003 metres) at the bottom of Kermadec Trench aboard Limiting Factor – a two-person submersible built by Triton Submarines
The Kermadec Trench just off the coast of New Zealand is the world's fourth-deepest trench and also one of the coldest due to inflow from Antarctica
The jellyfish appears to be a 'comb jelly' (Ctenophora) and is somehow surviving over 7 tons per square inch of pressure.
On Twitter, when asked how the jellyfish can possibly live under such pressure, Vescovo said: 'They would probably say the same about us: "How can humans live in an environment with so little pressure?" Every creature adapts to their environment. Evolution is a power thing.'
Footage also shows a jagged seafloor lit up by Limiting Factor's lights. The environment is characterised by perpetual darkness, intense pressures and freezing temperatures.
'Until this expedition no one knew what the Kermadec Trench looked like and how deep it was,' Vescovo has told The Times, speaking from the LF's mothership, DSSV Pressure Drop.
'If you consider the conditions – more than seven tons of pressure per square inch and just about freezing temperatures and salt water – it's remarkable that there is life in these deep trenches.'
Vescovo has now reached the four deepest known points on Earth. He's visited Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench – the deepest point on Earth at 35,843 feet (10,925 metres) – a dozen times.
In June 2019, he reached the bottom of the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench in the Pacific Ocean, at 35,488 feet (10,817 metres).
Vescovo and Filipino oceanographer Deo Florence Onda performed the first descent to Emden Deep in the Philippine Trench (the third deepest point on Earth, 32,956 feet or 10,045 metres) in March this year.
Victor Vescovo (pictured) is an American former intelligence officer turned millionaire financier of exploration missions
Scholl Deep in the Kermadec Trench, Pacific Ocean is known to by 32,818 feet (10,003 metres)
Some sources put Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in the northwest Pacific as the fourth-deepest point on Earth and Kermadec Trench as the fifth-deepest.
However, Dr Heather Stewart, a marine geoscientist at the British Geological Survey, told MailOnline that a German team of surveyors failed to find any depths at Kuril-Kamchatka over 31167 feet (9,500 metres).
'The Germans went there, surveyed using their deep-water multibeam and published in 2016 that they failed to find any depths over 9,500 metres, so, the Kermadec Trench is the fourth deepest place on Earth,' she said.
Vescovo has now reached the four deepest known points on Earth. He's visited Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench – the deepest point on Earth at 35,843 feet (10,925 metres) – a dozen times
The bottom of Kermadec Trench (pictured) has a 'rather chaotic geology and marine life', Vescovo said
