the dive 7 Dawn is heartened, though, by the number of women who have made, and continue to make, enormous contributions to Caladan’s efforts and to her dive in particular. But she notes that only seven of the 43 people aboard the Pressure Drop during this expedition are women. So, she says, there’s still plenty of work to do, to ensure equitable access to science and technology education—and to encourage women and people of color, like her, to enter the field. +0 HOURS, 20 MINUTES → +4 HOURS, 4 MINUTES −1165 METERS → −10400 METERS If not for its running lights, the Limiting Factor would be engulfed in total darkness for the remaining four-hour descent to the seafloor. The sub traverses three more vertical zones, each with an increasingly foreboding name: the midnight zone (down to 4,000 meters/13,123 feet), the abyssal zone (to 6,000 meters/19,685 feet), and finally, beneath that, the hadal zone, named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. This is the most tedious part of the adventure, but fortunately, Dawn (third from left) poses with three other women who were part of Caladan’s 2022 expedition: (from left) Nicole Yamase, the first Pacific Islander to make the descent to Challenger Deep; Kate Wawatai, a Maori New Zealander who is the first female pilot of the Limiting Factor; and Tamara Greenstone Alefaio, program coordinator for the Micronesia Conservation Trust.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA2NTE0Mw==