James Cameron dives to the deepest part of the world. MUST READ!

Big congratulations to James Cameron. The Titanic director has completed the worlds deepest solo dive in history, into the Mariana Trench. Cameron hit the bottom of the Trench, a whopping 35,756 feet deep, at 2:52pm PST and tweeted "Just arrived at the ocean's deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can't wait to share what I'm seeing w/ you@DeepChallenge.".
Nearly 5 hours later the director surfaced from the ground breaking dive at 7pm PST after a rapid 70 minute ascent. In contrast, the dive to the bottom took over 2 hours.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gave a brilliant commentary of the dive and ascent, and his tweets almost played out like a huge intense movie. His tweets included

• Less than 40 minutes to the bottom by estimate 26700 ft now. 2.5 knots speed going down.
• for the curious, using underwater audio coms UT2000/3000 at 8K freq to hear/talk to Jim five miles of water...30K ft now
• sub now deeper than everest at 32160 speed 2.0 knots not long to seabead now
• Now on the bottom 35755 ft!! Plan is for #Deepseachallenge to spend 4-6 hours on the seabed- take samples....Huge Congrats what a relief!!!
• hit bottom at 0752 local time "All systems ok"
• Pressure at bottom is 16,285 Pounds per square inch at that depth. Design pressure was 16,500 ...Yikes/Amazing!
• sub started return to the surface after a successfull dive welcome back to sea level soon!
• #deepseachallenge sub now at 700M rising.

Allen also tweeted some pics, including the sub breaking the surface and being crane lifted back onto the Mermaid Saphire.

Cameron spent his time on the bottom studying his surroundings and any life that may be present as well as collecting samples. Besides the scientific collection, the director also filmed the adventure with a bunch of HD 3D cameras. The director is expected in the UK for a screening of Titanic 3D later in the week! Again, a huge congrats to James Cameron and his amazing team, and more importantly, he made it back in one piece!!

Images via @PaulGAllen and Nat Geo