earth science

Milwaukee Deep

Milwaukee Deep is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Milwaukee Deep rather than just read about it. In short: Milwaukee Deep, also known as the Milwaukee Depth, is the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench, constituting the deepest points in the Atlantic Ocean. Together with the surrounding seabed area, known as Brownson Deep, the Milwaukee Deep forms an elongated depression that constitutes the floor of the trench.

Key takeaways

Milwaukee Deep belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Milwaukee Deep to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Milwaukee Deep from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Milwaukee Deep, also known as the Milwaukee Depth, is the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench, constituting the deepest points in the Atlantic Ocean. Together with the surrounding seabed area, known as Brownson Deep, the Milwaukee Deep forms an elongated depression that constitutes the floor of the trench. As there is no geomorphological distinction between the two, it has been proposed that the use of both names to refer to distinct areas should be reviewed.

During the Five Deeps Expedition, explorer Victor Vescovo achieved the first crewed descent to the location on 21 December 2018. Media outlets overwhelmingly referred to the area as the Brownson Deep, while the name Milwaukee Deep was used by others. However, likely due to the factors mentioned above, the expedition has not used any particular name to refer to the site of their Atlantic dive. It is named for the USS Milwaukee, which recorded the first echo soundings of the Puerto Rico Trench in 1939, and was itself named for the city of Milwaukee.Located roughly 76.0 miles (122.3 km; 66.0 nmi) north of the coast of the main island of Puerto Rico at Punto Palmas Altas in Manatí, the maximum depth of the Milwaukee Deep is 8,376 metres (27,480 ft; 4,580 fathoms), as directly measured by Vescovo during his 2018 descent to the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean. The maximum depth of the Milwaukee Deep has also been reported at 8,750 m (28,710 ft; 4,780 fathoms) in 1940 by geologist and oceanographer Thomas Wayland Vaughan, 8,705 m (28,560 ft; 4,760 fathoms) in 1954 by John Lyman, professor of oceanography at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and 8,740 m (28,670 ft; 4,780 fathoms) in 2014 by the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), and 8,526 m (27,972 ft; 4,662 fathoms) in 2018 by marine geologist Heather Stewart and marine biologist Alan Jamieson. Stewart and Jamieson also reported a maximum depth of 8,408 m (27,585 ft; 4,598 fathoms) in 2019 and 8,378 m (27,487 ft; 4,581 fathoms) in 2021.

History

The ocean floor feature is named for the USS Milwaukee (CL-5), a U.S. Navy Omaha class cruiser, which discovered the Milwaukee Deep on February 14, 1939 with a reading of 28,680 feet (8,740 m; 4,780 fathoms). On August 19, 1952, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife vessel Theodore N. Gill obtained a reading of 28,560 feet (8,710 m; 4,760 fathoms) at (19°36′N 68°19′W), virtually identical with the Milwaukee's reading. By then, the existence of deep water to the Atlantic Ocean side of the Caribbean had been known for more than a century. One of the area's earliest soundings was obtained June 12, 1852 by Lt. S. P. Lee, U.S. Navy brig Dolphin, with a reading of 22,950 feet (7,000 m; 3,825 fathoms) at (26°32′N 60°06′W).

Crewed descents

In 1964, the French submersible Archimède explored the Puerto Rico Trench to a depth of approximately 8,300 m (27,200 ft; 4,500 fathoms) but did not reach its deepest point. On 21 December 2018 Victor Vescovo made the first crewed descent to the deepest point of the trench in the Deep-Submergence Vehicle DSV Limiting Factor (a Triton 36000/2 model submersible) and measured a depth of 8,376 m (27,480 ft; 4,580 fathoms) by direct CTD pressure measurements. This made the Limiting Factor the deepest-diving operational submersible at the time.

See also List of submarine topographical features Oceanic trench Challenger Deep

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Milwaukee Deep

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Milwaukee Deep claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Milwaukee Deep before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Milwaukee Deep ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Milwaukee Deep

In research: Milwaukee Deep appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Milwaukee Deep in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Milwaukee Deep is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lowest points of the World Ocean, Oceanic trenches of the Atlantic Ocean, Physical oceanography, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Milwaukee Deep outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Milwaukee Deep in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Milwaukee Deep means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Milwaukee Deep out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Milwaukee Deep in simple terms?

Why does Milwaukee Deep matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Milwaukee Deep?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Milwaukee Deep.