China and Chile wrap up Atacama Trench mission as US pressure mounts

Chinese and Chilean scientists have reached the bottom of the Atacama Trench, where light does not penetrate, in what they called the “most ambitious” deep-sea expedition ever conducted in the eastern Pacific. The joint mission to one of the deepest ocean trenches – which runs parallel to the coasts of Peru and Chile – took place from January 19 to March 5. It comes as Chile’s expanding cooperation with China on science and technology has inflamed geopolitical tensions with the United...

By Emiliano Martínez Viademonte