Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:A manned submersible dove over 31,000 feet below sea level to explore the ocean’s deepest region—the hadal zone. Recently, a manned submersible (not a robot, but one with actual people inside) brought this truth into sharp focus by diving over 31,000 feet into the world’s deepest ocean trenches. “Given geological similarities with other hadal trenches, such chemosynthesis-based communities might be more widespread than previously anticipated,” the authors wrote. “These findings challenge current models of life at extreme limits and carbon cycling in the deep ocean.”But evidently, even at these extremes, life will win out. The first humans to descend to some of the deepest points in a variety of trenches were in awe of the experience.