The deepest depressions in the ocean are denoted. The deepest places on earth

Not far from Japan, in the depths of the sea, the deepest trench in the world's oceans, the Mariana Trench, hid. This geographical feature got its name due to the islands of the same name located nearby. Scientists call this phenomenon the "Fourth Pole", along with the South, North and the highest point on the planet - Mount Everest.

Geolocation

The coordinates of the Mariana Trench are 11°22` north latitude and 142°35` east longitude. The trench surrounds the coastal islands for a length of more than 2.5 thousand km, and a width of about 69 km. In its shape, it resembles the English letter V, widened at the top and narrowed towards the bottom. This formation was the result of the impact of the boundaries of tectonic plates. Max Depth world ocean in this place is 10994 (plus or minus 40 m).

Rice. 1. Mariana Trench on the map

Compared to Everest, the largest depression is farther from the surface of the Earth than the highest peak. The mountain has a length of 8848 m, and climbing it was much easier than overcoming the incredible pressure, plunging into the abyss of the sea.

The deepest place in the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep point, which means “Challenger Deep” in English. It was first explored by a British ship of the same name. They recorded a depth of 11521m.

First studies

The deepest point of the oceans was conquered only in 1960 by two daredevils: Don Walsh and Jacques Picard. They dived on the Trieste bathyscaphe and became the first people in the world to descend first to a depth of 3,000 meters, and then to 10,000 meters. The bottom mark was recorded as early as 30 minutes after the dive. In total, they spent about 3 hours at a depth, and froze significantly. After all, in addition to the huge pressure, there is also a low water temperature - about 2 degrees Celsius.

Rice. 2. Mariana Trench in section

In 2012, famous director James Cammeron (“Titanic”) conquered the deepest trench, becoming the third person on Earth to descend this far. It was the most important expedition, during which unique photo and video materials were obtained, as well as bottom samples were taken. Contrary to popular belief, at the bottom is not sand, but mucus - a product of processing the remains of fish bones and plankton.

Flora and fauna

The underwater world of the largest crack has been studied very poorly. It was first discovered that life in this part of the Earth is possible in 1950. Then Soviet scientists suggested that some of the simplest creatures managed to adapt in chitinous pipes. The new family was named pogonophores.

What have we learned?

We learned which part of the Earth is the deepest. This is the Mariana Trench. The deepest point is the Challenger Abyss (11,521 m). The first expedition to the bottom ended successfully in 1960. In conditions of pitch darkness, pressure and constant poisonous fumes, a special world has formed here with its unique animals and simple organisms. It is very difficult to say what the world of the Mariana Trench really is, because it has only been studied by 5%.

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Even as a child, I did not really like to go deep into the sea. It always seemed to me that someone or something would drag me to the depths. But then I still did not understand that three meters from the shore is generally difficult to call depth. There are sea depths on our planet that are not even half explored yet. This is the place I will tell you about.

Where is the Mariana Trench located

The Mariana Trench is also called the Mariana Trench. This place is called the deepest on our planet. Conducted expeditions have shown that the maximum depth of the Mariana Trench is about 11 000 metmoat. Just think about this number. As much as 11 km under water. The deepest point of this trough is called the Challenger Deep.

This underwater attraction is located in the western part Pacific Ocean off the coast of Micronesia and Guam. Anyone who wants to visit this place, of course, will not be able to. To visit, you will need an expedition prepared in accordance with all the rules.

First time heard about this place in 1875. Studies of that time showed that the depth of this trough was about 8000 m. A man went to this depth for the first time in 1960.

Mysteries of the Mariana Trench

This incredibly deep place on the planet, one might say, is practically unexplored. Its entire territory has been explored by no more than 5%. And already during this time it was noted some amazing facts associated with the Mariana Trench:

Availability of hot water at a depth of 1.6 km.
Live in the depths huge amoeba.
Mollusks live that have adapted to high pressure.
At the bottom there are sources of liquid carbon dioxide.
In 2011 there were 4 stone bridges were found.

The last person to dive into the Mariinsky Trench was James Cameron. His name, I think, many know or have heard. It was he who directed the well-known film "Titanic". The dive was completed in 2012. Probably, the Mariana Trench holds many more mysteries. Perhaps years later, or perhaps hundreds of years, humanity will be able to fully experience this depth.

There are 5 oceans on Earth, which occupy a significant part of the land. Having conquered space and made a landing of a man on the Moon, having sent autonomous spacecraft to the most distant planets of the solar system, people know negligibly little about what is hidden in the depths of the sea on their native planet.

What is the Mariana Trench?

This is the name of the deepest known place in the Pacific Ocean today. It is a trough formed by the convergence of tectonic plates. The maximum depth of the Mariana Trench is approximately 10,994 meters (2011 data). There are other trenches in all the other oceans, but not as deep. Only the Java Trench (7729 meters) can be compared with the Mariana Trench.

Location

The deepest place on Earth is in the western Pacific Ocean Mariana Islands. The gutter stretches along them for one and a half thousand kilometers. The bottom of the depression is flat, its width is from 1 to 5 kilometers. The gutter got its name in honor of the islands next to which it is located.

"Challenger Abyss"

This name has the deepest place (10,994 meters) of the Mariana Trench. Here it must be clarified that it is not yet possible to obtain the exact dimensions of this gigantic trough of the ocean floor. The speed of sound at different depths is very different, and the Mariana Trench has a very complex structure, so the data obtained using the echo sounder is always slightly different.

Discovery history

People have long known that deep seas exist in the seas and oceans. In 1875, the English corvette Challenger opened one of these points. What depth of the Mariana Trench was recorded then? It was 8367 meters. The measurement instruments at that time were far from ideal, but even this result made a stunning impression - it became clear that the deepest point of the ocean floor on the planet had been found.

Gutter studies

In the 19th century, it was simply impossible to explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench. At that time, there was no technology to descend to such a depth. Without modern means of immersion, this was tantamount to suicide.

A re-examination of the trench took place many years later, in the next century. Measurements made in 1951 showed a depth of 10,863 meters. Then, in 1957, members of the Soviet scientific vessel "Vityaz" were engaged in the study of the depression. According to their measurements, the depth of the Mariana Trench was 11,023 meters.

The last study of the gutter was carried out in 2011.

Cameron's Great Journey

The Canadian director became the third person in the history of research into the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom. He was the first in the world to do it alone. Prior to its sinking, the trough was explored by Don Walsh and Jacques Picard in 1960 using the Trieste submersible. In addition, Japanese scientists tried to find out what the depth of the Mariana Trench is using the Kaiko probe for this. And in 2009, the Nereus apparatus descended to the bottom of the gutter.

Descent to such an incredible depth is associated with huge amount risks. First of all, a man is threatened by a monstrous pressure of 1100 atmospheres. It can damage the body of the device, which will lead to the death of the pilot. Another serious danger that awaits when descending to a depth is the cold that reigns there. It can not only lead to equipment failure, but also kill a person. The bathyscaphe can collide with rocks and get damaged.

James Cameron dreamed for many years of visiting the deep point Mariana Trench - "Challenger Abyss". In order to carry out his plan, he equipped his own expedition. Especially for this, an underwater vehicle was designed and built in Sydney - a single-seat bathyscaphe Deepsea Challenger, equipped with scientific equipment, as well as photo and video cameras. In it, Cameron sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This event took place on March 26, 2012.

In addition to photographs and video filming, the Deepsea Challenger bathyscaphe had to take new measurements of the chute and try to give accurate data on its dimensions. Everyone was worried about one question: "How much?" The depth of the Mariana Trench, according to the readings of the apparatus, was 10,908 meters.

The director was impressed by what he saw below. Most of all, the bottom of the depression reminded him of a lifeless lunar landscape. He did not meet the terrible inhabitants of the abyss. The only creature he saw through the porthole of the bathyscaphe was a small shrimp.

After a successful voyage, James Cameron decided to donate his bathyscaphe to the Oceanographic Institute so that it could continue to be used to explore the depths of the sea.

Creepy Dwellers of the Deep

The lower the bottom of the ocean, the less sunlight penetrates through the water column. The depth of the Mariana Trench is the reason that impenetrable darkness always reigns in it. But even the absence of light cannot become an obstacle to the origin of life. Darkness gives birth to beings who have never seen the sun. And they, in turn, have only recently been able to see marine biologists.

The sight is not for the faint of heart. Almost all the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench seem to be born from the imagination of an artist who creates monsters for horror films. Seeing them for the first time, you might think that they do not live next to a person on the same planet, but are alien creatures, they look so alien.

To some extent, this is true - very little is known about the oceans and their inhabitants. The bottom of the Mariana Trench has been explored to date less than the surface of Mars. Therefore, for a long time it was believed that at such a depth, without sunlight, life is impossible. It turned out that this was not the case. The depth of the Mariana Trench, gigantic pressure and cold are not an obstacle to the birth of amazing creatures living in complete darkness.

Most of them have an ugly appearance due to terrible living conditions. The pitch darkness reigning in the depths made the marine inhabitants of these places completely blind. Many fish have huge teeth, such as howliods, which swallow their prey whole.

What can living beings eat so far from the surface of the ocean? At the bottom of the depression, the remains of living organisms accumulate, forming a multi-meter layer of bottom silt. The inhabitants of the depths feed on these deposits. Predatory fish have luminous parts of the body with which they attract small fish.

The gutter is inhabited by bacteria that can develop only at high pressure, unicellular organisms, jellyfish, worms, molluscs, sea cucumbers. The depth of the Mariana Trench gives them the opportunity to reach very large sizes. For example, the amphipods found at the bottom of the gutter are 17 centimeters long.

Amoeba

Xenophyophores (amoebae) are single-celled organisms that can only be seen with a microscope. But at a depth, these inhabitants of the Mariana Trench reach gigantic sizes - up to 10 centimeters. Previously, they were found at a depth of 7500 meters. An interesting feature of these organisms, in addition to their size, is the ability to accumulate uranium, lead and mercury. Outwardly, deep-sea amoebas look different. Some are disk or tetrahedral shaped. Xenophyophores feed on bottom sediments.

Hirondellea gigas

Large amphipods (amphipods) have been found in Mariana Trench. These deep-sea crayfish feed on dead organic matter that accumulates at the bottom of the depression and have a keen sense of smell. The largest specimen found was 17 centimeters long.

Holothurians

Sea cucumbers are another representatives of organisms that live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This class of invertebrates feeds on plankton and bottom sediments.

Conclusion

The Mariana Trench has not yet been properly explored. No one knows what creatures inhabit it and how many secrets it keeps.

The deepest trench in the World Ocean is the Mariana Trench (or the Mariana Trench). Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea, the trench was first measured in 1875 and got its name from the Mariana Islands.

Numerous studies and measurements have established that the deepest point of the World Ocean is at a level of 10,994 m and has the name "Challenger abyss" (after the name of the corvette of the same name, which first explored the trench). The length of the trench is about 1500 km. Despite such a significant depth and extent, there are no signs of the presence of the Mariana Trench under the ocean water on the surface. Every year, hundreds of ships make commercial voyages from Japan to Australia, as well as from North America to the Philippines, pass over it unhindered.

The whole history of mankind is an ongoing research. Considering that 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by the little-studied World Ocean with an average depth of 3.7 km, there are still a lot of secrets and mysteries that mankind has not yet unraveled.

On this moment The most studied and deepest underwater plain is the Abyssal Plain. Its depth varies from 2 to 6 km. Only when using modern equipment it became possible to study the landscape of the plain. In addition, hundreds of volcanoes and mountain ranges, formed as a result of the movement of ancient tectonic plates, remain unexplored under the thickness of oceanic waters. Landscape depressions at the bottom of the oceans, having a depth of more than 6 kilometers, are commonly called trenches. Similar trenches are found in all the oceans of the Earth, but their maximum accumulation is in the Pacific.

The main difficulty associated with the study of the flora and fauna of such extreme depths is associated with an insufficient level of development of technology. To take samples from the bottom of depressions, plains and trenches, the "capture" method is used. This method is quite economical, but the pressure at such colossal depths reaches 108.6 MPa (1072 times higher than atmospheric pressure), which necessitates the use of the most durable materials.

So, one of the latest studies of the Mariana Trench was made in March 2012 by the American film director James Cameron. A single-seat bathyscaphe was used to take samples of living organisms and rocks, as well as to take photos and videos. "Deepsea Challenger"(see photo above), which reached a depth of 10,908 meters.

In areas with more active thermal springs coral polyps that live at sufficient depths grow up to 1.5 meters with meter-long tentacles, while their relatives from shallower depths are about 10 centimeters tall. Currently, the study of the Mariana Trench continues. Scientists claim that about 2-5% of the filling of the bottom of the deepest place on the planet has been investigated.

Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the outer planets of the solar system, people have explored only five percent of the ocean floor, which remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet. The deepest part of the ocean - the Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is one of the most famous places about which we don't know much. With water pressure that is a thousand times greater than at sea level, diving into this place is akin to suicide. But thanks to modern technology and a few brave souls who, risking their lives, went down there, we learned a lot of interesting things about this amazing place.

The Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is located in the Western Pacific Ocean to the east (about 200 km) of the 15 Mariana Islands near Guam. It is a crescent-shaped trench in the earth's crust, about 2550 km long and 69 km wide on average.

The coordinates of the Mariana Trench are 11°22′ north latitude and 142°35′ east longitude.

According to the latest research in 2011, the depth of the deepest point of the Mariana Trench is about 10,994 meters ± 40 meters. For comparison, the height of high peak world - Everest is 8,848 meters. This means that if Everest were in the Mariana Trench, it would be covered by another 2.1 km of water.

Here are others Interesting Facts about what you can meet along the way and at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench.

1. Very hot water

Going down to such a depth, we expect that it will be very cold there. The temperature here reaches just above zero, varying from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius. However, at a depth of about 1.6 km from the surface of the Pacific Ocean, there are hydrothermal vents called "black smokers". They shoot water that heats up to 450 degrees Celsius.

This water is rich in minerals that help support life in the area. Despite the temperature of the water, which is hundreds of degrees above the boiling point, the water does not boil here due to the incredible water pressure, 155 times higher than on the surface.

2 Giant Toxic Amoebas

A few years ago, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, giant 10-centimeter amoebas called xenophyophores were discovered. These single-celled organisms probably got so big because of the environment they live in at a depth of 10.6 km. The cold temperature, high pressure and lack of sunlight most likely contributed to the fact that these amoeba acquired huge sizes.

In addition, xenophyophores have incredible abilities. They are resistant to many elements and chemicals, including uranium, mercury and lead, which would kill other animals and people.

3. Clams

The strong water pressure in the Mariana Trench does not give any animal with a shell or bones a chance to survive. However, in 2012, shellfish were discovered in a trough near serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which allows living organisms to form. How the molluscs retained their shell under such pressure remains unknown.

In addition, hydrothermal vents release another gas, hydrogen sulfide, which is deadly to shellfish. However, they learned to bind the sulfur compound into a safe protein, which allowed the population of these mollusks to survive.

4. Pure liquid carbon dioxide

The Champagne Hydrothermal Spring of the Mariana Trench, which lies outside the Okinawa Trench near Taiwan, is the only known underwater area where liquid carbon dioxide can be found. The spring, discovered in 2005, got its name from the bubbles that turned out to be carbon dioxide.

Many believe that these springs, called "white smokers" because of the lower temperature, may be the source of life. It was in the depths of the oceans with low temperatures and an abundance of chemicals and energy that life could originate.

5. Slime

If we had the opportunity to swim to the very depths of the Mariana Trench, we would feel that it is covered with a layer of viscous mucus. Sand, in its usual form, does not exist there. The bottom of the depression is mainly composed of crushed shells and plankton remains that have sunk to the bottom for many years. Due to the incredible pressure of the water, almost everything there turns into fine greyish-yellow thick mud.

6. Liquid sulfur

The Daikoku Volcano, which is located at a depth of about 414 meters on the way to the Mariana Trench, is the source of one of the rarest phenomena on our planet. There is a lake of pure molten sulfur. The only place where liquid sulfur can be found is Jupiter's moon Io.

In this pit, called the "cauldron," the bubbling black emulsion boils at 187 degrees Celsius. Although scientists have not been able to explore this place in detail, it is possible that even more liquid sulfur is contained deeper. This may reveal the secret of the origin of life on Earth.

According to the Gaia hypothesis, our planet is one self-governing organism in which all living and non-living things are connected to support its life. If this hypothesis is correct, then a number of signals can be observed in the natural cycles and systems of the Earth. So the sulfur compounds created by organisms in the ocean must be stable enough in the water to allow them to pass into the air and back to land again.

7. Bridges

At the end of 2011, four stone bridges were discovered in the Mariana Trench, which stretched from one end to the other for 69 km. They appear to have formed at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates.

One of the Dutton Ridge bridges, which was opened back in the 1980s, turned out to be incredibly high, like a small mountain. In the high point, the ridge reaches 2.5 km above the "Challenger Deep". Like many aspects of the Mariana Trench, the purpose of these bridges remains unclear. However, the very fact that these formations were discovered in one of the most mysterious and unexplored places is amazing.

8James Cameron's dive into the Mariana Trench

Since the discovery of the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, the Challenger Deep in 1875, only three people have been here. The first were American lieutenant Don Walsh and explorer Jacques Picard, who dived on January 23, 1960 on the Challenger.

After 52 years, another person ventured here - the famous film director James Cameron. So on March 26, 2012, Cameron went down to the bottom and took some photos. During James Cameron's 2012 dive to the Challenger Abyss in the DeepSea Challenge submersible, he tried to observe everything that was going on in the place until mechanical problems forced him to rise to the surface.

While he was at the deepest point in the world's oceans, he came to the shocking conclusion that he was completely alone. There were no scary sea monsters or any miracles in the Mariana Trench. According to Cameron, the very bottom of the ocean was "lunar...empty...lonely" and he felt "completely isolated from all mankind".

9. Mariana Trench

10. The Mariana Trench in the ocean is the largest reserve

The Mariana Trench is a US National Monument and the largest marine reserve in the world. Since it is a monument, there are a number of rules for those who want to visit this place. Within its borders, fishing and mining are strictly prohibited here. However, swimming is allowed here, so you might be the next one to venture into the deepest place in the ocean.