A crew in Japan has set the record for the deepest sea drilling and the deepest sub-sea level sample after recovering a 37-meter-long (121 feet) sediment core from a site on the seabed just over 8 kilometers (5 miles) below sea level. The research vessel KAIMEI set the record on the morning of May 14, 2021, at a site in the Japan Trench in the Western Pacific, according to an announcement on the project’s blog. The previous record was set in 1978 when the drilling vessel Glomar Challenger recovered a sediment core from the seabed at 7-kilometers (4.3 miles) water depth in the Mariana Trench. For the new feat, drilling equipment was sent into the water a 9:20 am local time and it took 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach the seafloor. It wasn’t until 3:00 pm local time it was successfully recovered and brought back to the ship deck.