A dive to the bottom of the sea

Descent

Eleven Thousand Metres Down

From the sunlit surface to the floor of the Mariana Trench, about 10,935 metres below. Scroll to sink. In the dark, your pointer becomes a faint torch; click any creature to read about it.

Scroll to descend

The Sunlight Zone

Epipelagic · 0 – 200 m

Light enough for photosynthesis. It is only a thin skin on the ocean, yet it holds most of the sea life people ever see.

The Twilight Zone

Mesopelagic · 200 – 1,000 m

Sunlight fades to a faint blue, then to nothing. Many animals here make their own light, and many rise toward the surface each night to feed.

The Midnight Zone

Bathypelagic · 1,000 – 4,000 m

No sunlight reaches this deep. The water hovers around 4 °C, and the only light is made by living things.

The Abyssal Zone

Abyssopelagic · 4,000 – 6,000 m

Near-freezing, pitch-black water above vast plains of soft sediment. The pressure is hundreds of times greater than at the surface.

The Hadal Zone

Hadalpelagic · 6,000 – 10,935 m

Named for Hades, the Greek underworld. Depths like these exist only in ocean trenches, most of them around the rim of the Pacific.