Little did Dr. Jim Gardner know that when he presented a poster at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting, it would spark international interest. Dr. Gardner and Capt. Andy Armstrong's survey efforts were part of the Center's mission to map the ocean floor in support of the U.S.'s Law of the Sea claim but the survey is also timely as four teams are now in a race to send manned submersibles into the trench to explore its depths.

See the results of CCOM/JHC's Mariana Trench survey here>>

View Dr. Gardner and Capt. Armstrong's poster (150MB) here>>

The BBC, in particular, has used the Center's Mariana research in their coverage, including:

• Oceans' Deepest Depth Re-measured, Dec. 7, 2011
• Race to the Bottom of the Ocean: Why go down?, Feb. 23, 2012
• Race to the Bottom of the Ocean: Ocean Trench, Feb. 23, 2012

Other media outlets have picked up the story:

• Earth's Final Frontier, Seacoastonline.com, April 1, 2012
• Scientists Find Sea Floor 'Bridges' Across the Mariana Trench - The Deepest Place on Earth, The Daily Mail, Dec. 30, 2011
• Volcanic Bridges Across the Abyss, AGU Blogsphere, Dec. 7, 2011
• Scientists Map Mariana Trench, Deepest Known Section of Ocean in the World, The Daily Telegraph, Dec. 7, 2011