bathyscaphe

[ bath-uh-skeyf, -skaf ]
See synonyms for bathyscaphe on Thesaurus.com
nounOceanography.
  1. a navigable, submersible vessel for exploring the depths of the ocean, having a separate, overhead chamber filled with gasoline for buoyancy and iron or steel weights for ballast.

Origin of bathyscaphe

1
1947; <French, equivalent to bathy-bathy- + Greek skáphos ship; coined by Auguste Piccard
  • Also bath·y·scaph [bath-uh-skaf], /ˈbæθ əˌskæf/, bath·y·scape [bath-uh-skeyp]. /ˈbæθ əˌskeɪp/.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

Scientific definitions for bathyscaphe

bathyscaphe

[ băthĭ-skăf′, -skāf′ ]


  1. A free-diving vessel used to explore the ocean at great depths. The original bathyscaphe, constructed in 1948, was made of a cylindrical metal float and a suspended steel ball that could hold two people. The float contained gasoline used to lift the vessel, and heavy iron material used for ballast. Design improvements allowed the second bathyscaphe in 1960 to descend to a record 10,912 m (35,791 ft) in the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, almost to the deepest level ever sounded on Earth.

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