Mount Everest vs Mariana Trench
The short answer
Mount Everest's summit is 8,849 m (29,032 ft) above sea level. The Challenger Deep, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, goes down 10,935 m (35,876 ft). Stand Everest on the bottom and its summit is still about 2,086 m (6,844 ft) under water.
The top of the world would sit in total darkness, with more than 200 atmospheres of water pressing on it.
Six Eiffel Towers, and still wet
The Eiffel Tower has been 330 m tall since it got a new antenna in 2022. Stack six of them on Everest's summit and the stack is 1,980 m tall. That's still about 100 m short of the surface. A seventh tower would reach 2,310 m and finally poke out.
All that water is heavy. Every 10 m of seawater adds about one atmosphere of pressure. So 2,086 m of water adds about 209 atmospheres. Add one more for the air above the sea and you get about 210 in all.
Dark, but not unlit
Sunlight can be detected down to about 1,000 m in the ocean, and none is left below that. Everest's summit would sit at 2,086 m, so the last sunlight fades out about 1 km above it.
The only light down there comes from living things: animals and glowing bacteria. One study of deep sea video off California counted animals from the surface down to about 3.9 km. About 76% of them could make their own light. That's roughly three out of four.
Who could reach the summit
No person gets to the bottom of the Challenger Deep without a deep diving submersible. Every crewed visit so far has used one: Trieste in 1960, Deepsea Challenger in 2012, Limiting Factor from 2019 and Fendouzhe from 2020.
Some animals could reach the drowned summit on their own. A tagged Cuvier's beaked whale dove to 2,992 m (9,816 ft) on a single breath, the deepest mammal dive on record. The same study recorded a dive that lasted 137.5 minutes. A summit 2,086 m down would be within that whale's reach.
Key numbers
| What | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Height of Mount Everest above sea level | 8,849 m (29,032 ft); measured as 8,848.86 m | Al Jazeera, 8 Dec 2020 |
| Depth of the Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench | about 10,935 m, give or take 6 m (35,876 ft) | Greenaway et al. 2021, Deep Sea Research I (NOAA repository) |
| Water above Everest's summit if it stood on the bottom | about 2,086 m (6,844 ft) | Our arithmetic from Al Jazeera, 8 Dec 2020 and Greenaway et al. 2021, Deep Sea Research I (NOAA repository) |
| Height of the Eiffel Tower since 2022 | 330 m | KTVU / Associated Press |
| Six Eiffel Towers stacked | 1,980 m, about 100 m short of the surface | Our arithmetic from KTVU / Associated Press |
| Deepest sunlight in the ocean | about 1,000 m | NOAA Ocean Service |
| Dark water between the last sunlight and the summit | about 1 km | Our arithmetic from NOAA Ocean Service |
| Pressure on the drowned summit | about 210 atmospheres | Our arithmetic from NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations |
| Deep sea animals on video that make their own light | about 76%, roughly 3 in 4 | Martini & Haddock 2017, Scientific Reports |
| Deepest Cuvier's beaked whale dive on record | 2,992 m (9,816 ft) on one breath | Schorr et al. 2014, PLoS ONE |
What the film simplifies
- The film rounds the numbers to "almost nine kilometers up" and "almost eleven down". The measured figures are 8,849 m and 10,935 m, and the "two kilometers" of water is 2,086 m.
- Pressure says its visitors need "submarines". The accurate word is submersibles, deep diving craft, and every crewed visit to the Challenger Deep has used one.
- "Three out of four animals in the deep" comes from one study of deep sea video off California, from the surface to about 3.9 km, where about 76% of the animals counted made light.
- The whale line is about one tagged whale's record dive, not something every whale does.
- Pressure is a cartoon character, and its glowing eye lights nothing. The beam that shows Everest and the snailfish in the dark is our flashlight. The snailfish never glows, and outside the beam she is drawn dark.
- Nobody can lift a mountain. In the film the climber is set on a boat before the dunk, so nobody goes under.
For teachers
Runtime 1 minute 2 seconds · Topics: Ocean depth, Mountains, Water pressure, Deep sea life · Full script below
Ask your class
Everest is 8,849 m tall and the Challenger Deep is 10,935 m deep. If Everest stood on the bottom, how much water would be above its summit?
Answer
About 2,086 m (6,844 ft), or roughly 2 km.
The Eiffel Tower is 330 m tall. Why does the film stack six towers on Everest's summit and not seven?
Answer
Six towers reach 1,980 m, still about 100 m under the surface. Seven would reach 2,310 m and stick out of the water.
No sunlight reaches below about 1,000 m. So where does the light around the drowned summit come from?
Answer
From living things: animals and glowing bacteria that make their own light. In one study of deep sea video, about 3 in 4 of the animals counted could do it.
The script
Everest: Put me down, Pressure! I'm Mount Everest!
Pressure: Relax. Let's see if your head stays dry.
Everest: My head? Climbers need oxygen tanks just to reach it!
Pressure: My visitors need submarines.
Host: Everest: almost nine kilometers up. The Mariana Trench: almost eleven down.
Pressure: In you go!
Snailfish: Oh! Hi, neighbor!
Everest: Mmmph!
Host: Everest's feet hit the bottom, and its top is still two kilometers under water.
Pressure: Six Eiffel Towers on your head, and still not dry!
Everest: Hey! Who turned off the sun?
Pressure: Sunlight quit a kilometer above you.
Everest: Then what's that?
Pressure: This deep, the only lights are alive.
Host: Three out of four animals in the deep make their own light.
Everest: But... I'm the top of the world!
Pressure: Not down here.
Everest: ...Now I need an oxygen tank.
Host: Everest's new climbers? Whales. One dove almost three kilometers on a single breath.
Everest: ...Show off.
Host: Next: the Moon picks a fight with the ocean. Follow!
Sources
- Mount Everest's summit is 8,849 m above sea level.Al Jazeera, 8 Dec 2020
- The Challenger Deep is about 10,935 m deep.Greenaway et al. 2021, Deep Sea Research I (NOAA repository)
- The Eiffel Tower has been 330 m tall since 2022.KTVU / Associated Press
- No sunlight is left below about 1,000 m.NOAA Ocean Service
- About 3 in 4 animals filmed down to 4,000 m make light.Martini & Haddock 2017, Scientific Reports
- A Cuvier's beaked whale dove to 2,992 m on one breath.Schorr et al. 2014, PLoS ONE
- Every 10 m of seawater adds about one atmosphere of pressure.NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations
- Every crewed visit to the Challenger Deep has been in a deep diving submersible (Trieste 1960, Deepsea Challenger 2012, Limiting Factor from 2019, Fendouzhe from 2020).Wikipedia, List of people who descended to Challenger Deep