China's manned submersible Jiaolong set a new national dive record on Wednesday after reaching 7,062 meters below sea level during its fifth dive into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

Chinese manned submersible starts 5th dive.[ Photo / Xinhua ]

The Jiaolong got three water samples, two sediment samples and one organism sample, placed a marker, and made several experiments on the sea floor 7,062 meters deep from the sea surface.

The oceanauts in the submersible attracted lots of living things with baits and took many photos and videos of them.

China has invested 470 million yuan (73.79 million US dollars) into the Jiaolong project over the past 10 years for submersible research and modification and on-sea experiment, said on-scene commander Liu Feng.

The Jiaolong set a national dive record on Sunday after reaching 7,020 meters below sea level during its fourth dive into the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world's oceans.

After arriving at the area earlier this month, the Jiaolong had succeeded in reaching depths of 6,671, 6,965 and 6,963 meters in its first three dives from June 15 to 22, easily surpassing the previous national record of 5,188 meters it set last July.

The Jiaolong enabled China to join the ranks of deep-sea faring countries. The United States, Japan, France and Russia currently lead the world in the development of deep-sea exploration technology, each possessing their own submersibles and support bases.

Related

• Manned submersible starts 5th dive
• Jiaolong reaches 7,020m beneath sea
• China's deep-sea submersible makes its 4th dive
• Submersible breaks 7,000-meter mark
• China's submersible plans dive to 7,000 meters
• Jiaolong reaches 6,965 meters under sea
• China's submersible postpones 2nd deep sea dive
• Chinese submersible begins record dive attempt

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