LEV

OCEAN · DESCEND HERE

Descend Here — Fall to the Real Seafloor

Tap any point in the ocean and drop straight down from the surface to the seafloor beneath it. The depth is real — GEBCO’s bathymetry for that exact spot. The temperature and saltiness are real too, measured by the nearest live Argo float on its last dive. Watch the light fade, the pressure climb, and the animals change as you sink through the five zones of the sea. And where the measurements stop, this stops — no invented numbers below the floor or below the float’s reach.

TAP ANY OCEAN POINT TO DESCEND
SIGNATURE DESCENTS
● Argo core float● BGC float● deep float (below 2,000 m)positions: Argo / Argovis · depth: GEBCO

Pick a spot above and we’ll drop straight down from the surface to the seafloor — reading the real depth, the nearest float’s measured temperature, and the animals that live at each layer.

How to read the descent

THE FLOORThe depth where the column ends is the real seafloor at that point, from GEBCO — dated to when it was read.
THE MEASURED LINETemperature & salinity come from the nearest live Argo float — the same measured profiles as the Argo layer, to about 2,000 m.
THE GAUGESPressure and light are exact at every depth — they follow from depth alone, so they read true all the way to the floor.

Three things are known for certain at any point you tap: the depth of the floor, the pressure at every level (about one atmosphere more for each 10 m down), and the light (gone by roughly 1,000 m, everywhere). The temperature and saltinessare only known as deep as a real float reached — so that line fades out partway down, and nothing is drawn into water no instrument has read. The deep ocean is the least-measured place on Earth; this view is honest about exactly where the knowledge ends.

Understand the deep

FIELD GUIDEThe ocean in five zones — from the sunlit surface to the hadal deep

Related layers

OCEANArgo Floats — the measured column, float by floatOCEANOceans & Seas — which sea you just dropped intoOCEANOcean Currents — what moves the water you fell throughOCEANMarine Life — where the animals have actually been seen

SEE IT ON THE MAP

Back to the full-screen living ocean, dropped to the seafloor.

Back to the Ocean hub →