Did you know ? Only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored to date

If explorations on the surface of the oceans have been practiced for many years, those of the seabed were only possible recently. However, while we have walked on the Moon and touched the planet Mars, did you know that we have only explored 5% of our planet’s oceans so far?

The ocean floor is so vast that we have only explored a tiny part of it so far. Indeed, while the oceans represent 70% of our planet, we have only explored only 5%. 65% of the globe has therefore not yet been explored. The ocean floor is therefore today almost unexplored and unmapped. This therefore means that the topographic maps of Mars, the Moon and Venus are much more extensive than those of Earth.

The deepest point in the world’s oceans is the Challenger Abyss of the Mariana Trench. This one is located in the Pacific Ocean near the Northern Mariana Islands. It was fully explored in 1951 by a British ship called Challenger II. In 2009, a multibeam bathymetric sounder, in other words a device used to measure depth, recorded a depth of 10,971 m for the Challenger Abyss.

But why have we so little explored the oceans of our planet so far? Indeed, it is extremely complex for explorers to reach the ocean floor. It is also difficult to survive there without specialized equipment due to the high pressures and excessive temperatures. Thus, almost everything remains to be discovered about our oceans. In addition, specialists estimate that there are still around 2 million marine species to be discovered, almost as many as those known today.