After 156 days at sea and a voyage covering more than 40,000 kilometres, China’s research vessel Tansuo-1 has returned to Guangzhou with major deep-sea discoveries from the Pacific Ocean. Carrying the manned submersible Fendouzhe, or Striver, the mission completed 63 dives, including 50 at depths exceeding 6,000 metres, and carried out the first China-Chile joint crewed exploration of the Atacama Trench.

Scientists from China, Chile, Germany, Denmark, Canada and Spain collected rare biological and geological samples while capturing high-definition footage from some of the deepest parts of the ocean. Among the expedition’s most significant findings was the discovery of a deep-sea ecosystem in the southern hemisphere sustained by geological fluids, offering fresh evidence for the “global chemosynthetic life corridor” hypothesis.

Researchers also documented diverse hadal organisms, including several types of snailfish and other benthic species believed to be previously unknown, alongside seabed fault structures linked to historic major earthquakes.