James Cameron gives thumbs-up as he surfaces from visit to ocean's deepest point

James Cameroon emerging from the sub that took him to the deepest sea

Avatar director James Cameron gave two thumbs up as he triumphantly resurfaced from the Earth's deepest point - where only two men have ever been before.

The director used a specially-designed submarine to descend nearly seven miles to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, an area 200 miles southwest of the Pacific island of Guam. Cameron's first words to the surface upon reaching the bottom were 'all systems OK', National Geographic said on its website.

As he hit the bottom, he tweeted: 'Just arrived at the ocean's deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can't wait to share what I'm seeing w/ you.' Cameron returned to the surface of the Pacific Ocean on Monday morning local time, according to Stephanie Montgomery of the National Geographic Society, where Cameron is an explorer-in-residence.

He spent a little more than three hours under water after reaching a depth of 35,756 feet before he began his return to the surface. He had planned to spend up to six hours on the sea floor. Cameron's return aboard his 12-tonne, lime-green sub called Deepsea Challenger was a 'faster-than-expected 70-minute ascent,' according to National Geographic.

He began the dive earlier Monday at approximately 5.15am local time.  RELEASE, RELEASE, RELEASE!' were the last words Cameron uttered before beginning the dive, according to a Twitter post from the expedition.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared in Cameron's Terminator films, showed his support for the director via Twitter. 'Congrats to my great friend on the deepest solo dive ever. Always a pioneer'. Richard Branson and Jessica Alba were just a couple of the other celebrities who got behind Cameron's journey. Culled from Dailymail