Within the framework of the commemoration of World Environment Day, on June 5, the Adolfo Ibáñez University, through its Leadership Department of the Viña del Mar Campus, invited the UAI community to the screening of the documentary “Atacama Hadal: A journey to the underworld.”
“It is important to think about the environment not just in a particular day, but as something that is part of us all the time,” with these words the director of the Leadership Department of the Viña del Mar UAI Campus, Cristián Salazar, welcomed the various activities that were part of this commemoration.
On the occasion, four interventions were made on different topics: the mushrooms of Chile (Alanis Oyanedel), the protection of the ocean (Gonzalo Lazo), ecofeminism (Camila Katz) and the care of the rivers in Chile (Tatiana Morales), which sought bring students closer to relevant topics around the care and protection of the environment.
Subsequently, the director of the Leadership Department of the Viña del Mar UAI Campus moderated a conversation with the Doctor in Oceanography and director of the Millennium Institute of Oceanography (IMO), Dr. Osvaldo Ulloa, who became the first human being to descend 8,062 meters deep at the bottom of the Atacama Trench. Students from the UAI and schools in the Valparaíso region had the opportunity to learn firsthand about this exploration of the marine world, whose audiovisual record was transformed into the documentary “Atacama Hadal: A trip to the underworld.”
“We had been doing science, and for me it was like having an adventure which crowned something that we had been doing for long time. The first thing we had to do is getting down to the trench, not ourselves but sending an autonomous vehicle (“Atacamex: Exploring the unknown”), and for that we had to implement and obtain technology, in this case from abroad,” he explained, the director of the Millennium Institute of Oceanography.
The historic “Atacamex” expedition was the first documentary that marked a milestone for Chilean oceanography, and it was exhibited, also at the Viña del Mar UAI Campus, in 2023. As Ulloa relates, in this first voyage “we achieved the trench for the first time "We once put an unmanned vehicle at 8,081 meters, which opened a door for us because it first demonstrated that we had the capacity as a country to be able to get down there, collect samples and do science".
This is how the team of Chilean researchers became known outside our country, subsequently participating in other international expeditions that led them to join the invitation of the American explorer Víctor Vescovo: to descend to the Atacama Trench, this time in a tripulated submersible, which was carried out on January 20, 2022 at 8:00 in the morning.
“The entire journey lasted about ten hours. For me, what impressed me most was the landscape, the geography below, which was something that I had not imagined, I thought it was going to be something much flatter, a bottom of sandy sediment. So we verified that the Atacama Trench is the most productive, the one with the most life and the most diversity in the entire world,” he explained.
The academic from the Department of Oceanography of the University of Concepción explained that this journey means recognition of what is being done in Chile in scientific matters and that it helps generate greater confidence in our country. "Despite being a small country, Chilean science is on a very good stage and there are areas where Chile is at the frontier, this puts us in a global showcase".
When asked what personal and/or professional tools were that had a positive impact when carrying out this experience, he told the students about the importance of following one's dreams, seeking the best experiences, daring and opening oneself to the world.
“The most important thing for me when descending to depth was the psychological factor. Having dived and meditation helped me a lot, along with the required medical exams. In addition to my career, having studied abroad helped me a lot professionally. Being exposed to the fact that there are no limits can open your mind. When you embark on these great challenges and don't do it as a team, you don't get anywhere. To go far you have to do it collectively”, he stated.
After the conversation with the scientist, the documentary was shown in the auditorium of the Viña del Mar UAI Campus, which lasted 95 minutes.
Finally, when evaluating the day, Cristián Salazar valued the importance of reflecting, “stopping to think not only about what consequences the current climate crisis is having today, but also thinking about how we can all become agents of change and start doing different things. This requires work that is interdisciplinary. Raising awareness is the first step and this has to do with the activities we had during the week, but after raising awareness and raising awareness, we have to take it to action”, he concluded.
Source: UAI News.
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