https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wnqe5j99do Skip to content Watch Live * Home * News * Sport * Business * Innovation * Culture * Arts * Travel * Earth * Audio * Video * Live * Home * News + Israel-Gaza War + War in Ukraine + US & Canada + UK o UK Politics o England o N. Ireland # N. 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Diving in a human-occupied submersible to ocean trenches in the northwest Pacific Ocean, a Chinese-led research team captured pictures of life at depths of more than 9km (5.6miles). The deepest marine vertebrate life filmed before this expedition was at 8,336m - a snailfish that was filmed swimming in a deep ocean trench off the coast of Japan in 2023. These new observations are published in the journal Nature. [grey-place]IDSSE/CAS The image shows a close-up of lonh, thin, reddish-brown tube worms emerging from the sea floor. IDSSE/CAS The scientists photographed what looked like fields of long, thin tube worms [grey-place]IDSSE/CAS The image is captured at depths of several kilometres in a deep ocean trench. It shows five bright white, spiky shrimp like creatures moving through what looks like reddish-brown grass. When you look more closely, each blade of grass is actually a tube worm emerging about 30cm from the sea floor. IDSSE/CAS The white, spiky creatures are called Macellicephaloides grandicirra. Here they are photographed in dense colonies of tube worms that can be up to 30cm in length Although it was accepted among marine scientists that there would be life at these depths, scientists on this mission say the abundance of animals they saw from the windows of their submersible was "amazing". The scientific expedition covered more than 2,500km - exploring trenches at depths ranging from 5,800 to 9,533m. * Oxygen discovery defies knowledge of the deep ocean * Deepest-ever sub dive finds plastic bag Researchers travelled in a submersible vehicle called Fendouzhe, which can operate at depths of more than 10km for several hours at a time. The team, led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering, discovered what they describe as "thriving communities" of creatures. [grey-place]IDSSE/CAS An artist's impression of a submersible vehicle exploring a deep ocean trench filled with reddish tube-worms that are emerging from the ocean floor. IDSSE/CAS The researchers created this composite image of their submersible in a deep ocean trench "It's exciting - especially for a deep sea scientist - to go to a place that human beings have not explored," one of the lead researchers, Dr Xiaotong Peng, told BBC News. "It's a great opportunity to discover new things. And what we saw was quite amazing." Scientists photographed and filmed what looked like fields of marine life - dominated by various different types of tube worm and mollusc. These animals live in the pitch dark and under vast pressure. With no sunlight, life at these depths is fuelled by chemicals that seep out of the ocean floor. Hydrogen sulfide and methane seep out of faults - or cracks - in the Earth's crust. The scientists say they have recorded species never seen before. In future studies, they hope to work out how the bodies of these so called "chemosynthetic" or chemical-fuelled creatures convert these chemicals into energy. "They must [also] have a trick to adapt to life in super high pressure," added Dr Megran Du, also from China's Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering. "That's another question we need to answer." [grey-place]IDSSE/CAS Pinkish-white creatures that kook like clams are protruding from brown seabed sediment. They are inerspersed by white, spiny, free-swimming animals called polychaetes. This image was captured at depths of almost 6km in a Pacific ocean trench IDSSE/ CAS Beds of molluscs appear to rely on the chemical "fuel" that seeps out of the seabed The findings challenge "long-standing assumptions" about life's potential at such extreme depths and pressures. They also suggest that these communities of animals, rather than extreme rarities, are actually widespread. Prof Andrew Sweetman, a senior scientist from the Scottish Association for marine science told BBC News that the discovery showed that whole "ecosystems driven by methane may exist in the deepest parts of the ocean". And how did it feel, for a scientist, to descend to such extreme, pitch-black depths? Dr Du told BBC News: "Some people might find it frightening, but I always encourage my students - look through the window at the bottom of the sea," she said. "You will be inspired." 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