Plural of bathyscaphe; deep-sea submarines designed to explore the ocean floor at extreme depths.
From Greek 'bathos' (depth) + 'skaphe' (boat/vessel). The term was coined in the 1950s for specialized submersibles that could withstand crushing pressure at ocean depths.
The bathyscaphe Trieste famously descended to the Mariana Trench's deepest point in 1960—nearly 7 miles down—where the pressure would crush a car like a tin can, yet the crew survived in a pressurized sphere!
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