Which ocean's deepest point is Milwaukee Deep?

Milwaukee Deep is the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean.

It forms part of the Puerto Rico Trench, which lies roughly 120 kilometres north of Puerto Rico. The trench marks a complicated tectonic boundary where the Caribbean and North American plates interact, creating one of the planet’s deepest underwater depressions outside the Pacific.

The feature was named after USS Milwaukee, the U.S. Navy cruiser that recorded an exceptionally deep sounding there on February 14, 1939. That early measurement was approximately 8,742 metres, or 28,680 feet. Later surveys have reported somewhat different figures because sonar coverage, positioning, and the definition of the deepest spot have improved over time.

Victor Vescovo made the first crewed descent to the trench’s deepest point on December 21, 2018. The name Brownson Deep is also used in connection with the surrounding seabed, and some sources use Milwaukee Deep and Brownson Deep interchangeably. That naming overlap does not change the ocean classification: the site is the Atlantic’s deepest point.