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On Feb. 17, 1977, Tjeerd van Andel of Stanford University and Jack Corliss of Oregon State took a few last breaths of the South Pacific air before closing the basketball-hoop-size hatch of the research submersible, Alvin.

Their pilot, Jack Donnelly, then guided the 23-foot-long (7 meters) craft down 9,000 feet (2,740 m) toward the seafloor, away from the team’s research vessel Knorrand mother ship, Lulu. Ninety minutes later, the trio reached the bottom.