On 20 May, ocean explorer and world-renowned filmmaker James Cameron will host a special edition of Ocean Encounters, a popular virtual event series from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Viewers of this special event, titled Extreme Ocean Machines: Exploring Impossible Places, will have opportunities to submit questions to Cameron and a panel of leading experts in submersible technologies, ocean exploration, and storytelling.
Cameron was the first person to reach the
bottom of the Mariana Trench—the deepest known point on Earth at 11 km
(6.8 miles) below the ocean surface—as a solo pilot in a one-man
submersible, on 25 March 2012. Aptly named after the deepest part of the
trench called Challenger Deep, the innovative, vertical DEEPSEA CHALLENGER submersible
and science platform is a “cross between a torpedo and a hot rod
painted Kawasaki racing green,” as Cameron has described it. He donated
the submersible to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2013.
Cameron
will lead a conversation on the revolutionary technologies that are
empowering new generations of explorers, scientists, and storytellers on
the high seas. The discussion will focus on how extraordinary
machines—from ships and subs to autonomous robots and always-on
sensors—are taking humans to never-before-seen places and teaching us
about the amazing world beneath the waves.
Guests include:
- Mark Dalio, Founder and Creative Director, OceanX
- Orla Doherty, Producer of the BBC’s groundbreaking Blue Planet II television series
- Andrew Bowen, Principal Engineer and Director of the National Deep Submergence Facility at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Vincent Pieribone, Vice Chairman of OceanX and Director of the John B. Pierce Laboratory at Yale University
Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 at 7:30 – 8:30pm EDT (Thursday, 21 May at 01:30 – 2:30am SAST)
Title: Extreme Ocean Machines: Exploring Impossible Places
Free registration is required and space is limited.
Register now at go.whoi.edu/extreme.