The Molloy Deep (also known as the Molloy Hole) is a

bathymetric Bathymetry (; ) is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors (''seabed topography''), lake floors, or river floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography. The first recorded evidence of water d ...

feature in the

Fram Strait The Fram Strait is the passage between Greenland and Svalbard, located roughly between 77°N and 81°N latitudes and centered on the prime meridian. The Greenland and Norwegian Seas lie south of Fram Strait, while the Nansen Basin of the Arcti ...

, within the Greenland Sea east of Greenland and about 160 km west of Svalbard. It is the location of the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean. The Molloy Deep, Molloy Hole, Molloy Fracture Zone, and Molloy Ridge were named after Arthur E. Molloy, a U.S. Navy research scientist who worked in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic Oceans in the 1950s-1970s. The outer rim of the trench is at a depth of and contains about 600 km² inside the rim, descending to approximately at its greatest depth. The basin floor measures about 220 km², and is the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean. The first and only person to have reached the bottom of the Molloy Deep is American explorer

Victor Vescovo Victor Lance Vescovo (born 1966) is an American private equity investor, retired naval officer, space tourist and undersea explorer. He is a co-founder and managing partner of private equity company Insight Equity Holdings. Vescovo achieved the ...

, as part of his

Five Deeps Expedition Victor Lance Vescovo (born 1966) is an American private equity investor, retired naval officer, space tourist and undersea explorer. He is a co-founder and managing partner of private equity company Insight Equity Holdings. Vescovo achieved the ...

Topography

The Molloy Deep is a roughly rectangular, seismically active, extensional, sea-floor basin, that lies between the northwestern tip of the Molloy Fracture Zone, (a right-lateral, strike-slip fault), and the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone (also a right-lateral, strike-slip fault). These two fracture zones connect the Knipovich Ridge (the actively spreading northern segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean ridge system), with the Lena Trough, an actively spreading mid-ocean ridge region north of the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone. The Lena Trough joins the southwestern end of the Arctic Ocean's Gakkel Ridge which is the slowest spreading mid-ocean ridge on Earth, and which stretches across the entire Arctic Oceans’ Eurasian Basin.

Surveys

Limiting Factor to be prepared for a dive into the Atlantic Ocean

The Molloy Deep was discovered in September 1972 by the USNS Hayes (T-AGOR-16), the first of a new class of catamaran-hulled oceanographic research vessels. The Molloy Deep, Molloy Hole, Molloy Fracture Zone, and Molloy Ridge were named after Arthur E. Molloy, a U.S. Navy research scientist who worked in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic Oceans in the 1950s-1970s.

Descents

The first, and so far only, person to reach the bottom of the Molloy Deep is

on 24 August 2019. The

leader and chief submersible pilot, Vescovo, descended into the Molloy Deep in the Deep-Submergence Vehicle '' DSV Limiting Factor'' (a Triton 36000/2 model submersible) from the support ship, the Deep Submersible Support Vessel '' DSSV Pressure Drop''. The Five Deeps Expedition established the depth of the Molloy Deep as ± by direct CTD pressure measurements. This is shallower than previous estimations using earlier technology with less precise bathymetric methods.

References

{{Reflist Lowest points of the World Ocean Oceanic trenches of the Arctic Ocean Oceanic basins of the Arctic Ocean Geography of the Arctic