Where is the Mariana Trench located on the map. What is the deepest ocean on earth

The Mariana Trench, or the Mariana Trench, is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest geographic feature known on Earth.

Studies of the Mariana Trench were initiated by an expedition (December 1872 - May 1876) of the English ship Challenger (HMS Challenger), which carried out the first systematic measurements of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. This three-masted, sail-rigged military corvette was rebuilt as an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological, and meteorological work in 1872.

Also, a significant contribution to the study of the Mariana Trench was made by Soviet researchers. In 1958, an expedition on the Vityaz established the existence of life at depths of more than 7000 m, thereby refuting the then prevailing idea that life was impossible at depths of more than 6000-7000 m.

"Vityaz" in Kaliningrad in the eternal parking lot

Half a century ago, on January 23, 1960, a significant event took place in the history of the conquest of the oceans.

The Trieste bathyscaphe, piloted by French explorer Jacques Piccard (1922-2008) and US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh, reached the deepest point of the ocean floor - the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench and named after the English the vessel "Challenger", from which in 1951 the first data about it were received. The dive lasted 4 hours 48 minutes and ended at 10911 m relative to sea level. At this terrible depth, where a monstrous pressure of 108.6 MPa (which is more than 1100 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure) flattens all living things, the researchers made the most important oceanological discovery: they saw two 30-centimeter fish similar to flounder swimming past the porthole. Before that, it was believed that at depths exceeding 6000 m, no life exists.

Thus, an absolute record of diving depth was set, which cannot be surpassed even theoretically. Picard and Walsh were the only people to have been at the bottom of the Challenger abyss. All subsequent dives to the deepest point of the oceans, for research purposes, were already made by unmanned bathyscaphes-robots. But there were not so many of them either, since “visiting” the Challenger abyss is both time-consuming and expensive.

One of the achievements of this dive, which had a beneficial effect on the ecological future of the planet, was the refusal of nuclear powers to bury radioactive waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The fact is that Jacques Picard experimentally refuted the opinion that prevailed at that time that at depths of more than 6000 m there is no upward movement of water masses.

In the 90s, three dives were made by the Japanese Kaiko, controlled remotely from the “mother” vessel via a fiber-optic cable. However, in 2003, while exploring another part of the ocean, a towing steel cable broke during a storm, and the robot was lost.

Underwater catamaran Nereus became the third deep-sea vehicle to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

On May 31, 2009, mankind again reached the deepest point of the Pacific, and indeed of the entire world ocean - the American deep-sea vehicle Nereus sank into the Challenger sinkhole at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The device took soil samples and conducted underwater photo and video shooting at the maximum depth, illuminated only by its LED spotlight.

In the hands of the student Eleanor Bors is a sea cucumber that lives in the very abyss and was picked up by the Nereus apparatus.

During the current dive, Nereus' instruments recorded a depth of 10,902 meters. The Kaiko, which first landed here in 1995, measured 10,911 meters, while Picard and Walsh measured a value of 10,912 meters. On many Russian maps, the value of 11,022 meters is still given, obtained by the Soviet oceanographic vessel Vityaz during the 1957 expedition. Of course, all this testifies to the inaccuracy of measurements, and not to a real change in depth: no one carried out cross-calibration of the measuring equipment that gave the given values.

The Mariana Trench is formed by the boundaries of two tectonic plates: the colossal Pacific plate goes under the not so large Philippine plate. This is a zone of extremely high seismic activity, which is part of the so-called Pacific volcanic ring of fire, stretching for 40 thousand km, an area with the most frequent eruptions and earthquakes in the world. The deepest point of the trough is the Challenger Deep, named after the English ship.

The depression stretches along the Mariana Islands for 1500 km; it has a V-shaped profile, steep (7-9°) slopes, a flat bottom 1-5 km wide, which is divided by rapids into several closed depressions. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is more than 1100 times higher than the normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean. The depression is located at the border of the docking of two tectonic plates, in the zone of movement along faults, where the Pacific plate goes under the Philippine plate.

The inexplicable and incomprehensible has always attracted people, so scientists around the world are so eager to answer the question: “What is the Mariana Trench hiding in its depths?”

Can living organisms live at such a great depth, and how should they look, given that they are pressed by huge masses of ocean water, the pressure of which exceeds 1100 atmospheres? The difficulties associated with the study and comprehension of the creatures that live at these unimaginable depths are enough, but human ingenuity knows no bounds. For a long time, oceanologists considered the hypothesis that at depths of more than 6000 m in impenetrable darkness, under monstrous pressure and at temperatures close to zero, life could exist to be insane. However, the results of research by scientists in the Pacific Ocean have shown that even at these depths, far below the 6000-meter mark, there are huge colonies of living organisms pogonophora ((pogonophora; from the Greek pogon - beard and phoros - bearing), a type of marine invertebrate animals that live in long chitinous tubes open at both ends). Recently, the veil of secrecy has been opened by manned and automatic, made of heavy-duty materials, underwater vehicles equipped with video cameras. As a result, a rich animal community was discovered, consisting of both well-known and less familiar marine groups.

Thus, at depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the following were found:

Barophilic bacteria (developing only at high pressure);

Of the protozoa, foraminifera (a detachment of the protozoan subclass of rhizopods with a cytoplasmic body dressed in a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);

Of the multicellular - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, holothurians, bivalves and gastropods.

At depths there is no sunlight, no algae, salinity is constant, temperatures are low, an abundance of carbon dioxide, enormous hydrostatic pressure (increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters). What do the inhabitants of the abyss eat?

The food sources of deep animals are bacteria, as well as the rain of "corpses" and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals or blind, or with very developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluores; in other forms, the surface of the body or parts of it glow. Therefore, the appearance of these animals is as terrible and incredible as the conditions in which they live. Among them are frightening-looking worms 1.5 meters long, without a mouth and anus, mutant octopuses, unusual starfish and some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified at all.

Despite the fact that scientists have made a huge step in the research of the Mariana Trench, the questions have not decreased, new mysteries have appeared that have yet to be solved. And the ocean abyss knows how to keep its secrets. Will people be able to open them in the near future?

—> Satellite view of the valley <—

There are many amazing places in this world that are still not explored by man. It turns out that only 5% of the ocean area is subject to science, the rest remains a mystery for her, covered in darkness. One of these mysterious places is the Mariana Trench, the depth of which is of the greatest importance among all the explored areas of the seabed. The Mariana Trench is another name for the place.

Under the thickness of sea water, the pressure is a thousand times higher than the pressure that is recorded in the normal sea. But high-tech devices and caring risky people helped to learn at least a little about the deep cleft. The Pacific Ocean is a true nature reserve, which is not only home to exotic unique animals, but also has remarkable topographical features.

Everyone knows about the existence of this amazing object. Information about it is given to us from a young age, but over time we forget both the numbers and curious facts about this strange and enchanting place. We decided to remind you where the Mariana Trench is located and what it is. You can learn a lot about the object of the ocean surface.

The heroine of our article is called by the name of the islands, which are located near the "bottom of the earth". It is located along the islands. In the Mariana Trench, the depth of which, it would seem, is capable of destroying all life, there are some microorganisms that have mutated due to high pressure. This tectonic fault has steep slopes - about 8⁰. Below - a wide platform about 5 km, which is divided by stone rapids. The pressure at the very bottom is 108.6 MPa - more than anywhere else on planet Earth.

The history of the study of the phenomenon

1872 is considered the date of discovery of the Mariana Trench, photos of the object appear a little later. The tectonic fault was explored as well as possible by the British on a military corvette in 1951. The depth of the Mariana Trench becomes known - 10863 meters. Since it was the Challenger ship that sank to the very bottom, to the deepest point, it became known as the Challenger Abyss.

Soviet scientists join the study. Since 1957, the scientific vessel "Vityaz" begins to surf the ocean and discovers that the depth of the Mariana Trench is even greater than previously stated - more than 11 kilometers. Our marine researchers established the fact of life at great depths, destroying the scientific stereotypes of that time. Subsequently, the ship was decommissioned into a museum value. Experiments continue to this day. Five years ago, the “bottom of the world” was visited by the automatic device Nereus, which descended 11 km below ocean level, took new photos and videos.

Diving to the "bottom of the Earth" is at least five hours. The ascent is somewhat faster. It is impossible to stay at the very bottom for more than 12 minutes, taking into account the technology that was at the disposal of the then researchers. Cosmic sums have to be allocated for the study of such terrestrial objects, so the work is going slowly.

Where is it

The Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean, two hundred meters from the islands of the same name. It looks like a crescent-shaped crevice, its length is more than 2550 km, and its width reaches almost 70 km.

The results of the study showed that the depth in the Mariana Trench is about 11 thousand meters. Everest reaches only 8840 m. If you need a comparison, then the highest mountain on Earth can be turned over and placed entirely on the bottom of the Mariana Trench, but there will still be more than 2 km of water column above the top. We are talking only about the height, the width of the depression and the mountain do not match.

Curious facts and stories

• It's hot there. At this crazy depth, it turns out that it is not cold. The thermometer shows a positive value - up to 4⁰С. There are hot springs in the gorge, they make the water a hundred points hotter. Boiling the water column does not give high pressure.

• Population. Ignoring the unsuitable conditions for life, the inhabitants of the "bottom of the world" got along well. Huge xenophyophore amoebas live there - up to 10 cm. These are the simplest, but they mutated due to hot water and pressure. Amoeba are able to survive in an environment filled with dangerous chemical elements.

• The inhabitants of the Mariana Trench also became mollusks, although the form from the cover should have simply cracked under great pressure. But hot springs contain serpentine rich in hydrogen and methane. It is these substances that allow mollusks to survive. They managed to adapt even to hydrogen sulfide secretions, converting them into protein compounds.

• The birthplace of life on the planet. The Champagne Key at the bottom of the ocean is a unique area underwater that contains liquid CO2. It forms specific bubbles, similar to those in a glass of sparkling wine. Scientists have suggested that a primary form of life could have appeared around this key in due time. This is due to the presence of all the necessary substances.

• The depression is slippery. There is no sand or anything like that. At the very bottom there is a thickness of small shells and dead plankton accumulated over thousands of years. The pressure makes this mass look like slime.

• Sulfur in a liquid aggregate state. The Mariana Trench, which is not so easy to take a photo of, is rich in various geoformations. At a depth of more than 400 meters, on the way to it, there is a whole volcano. Near Daikoku there is a large lake filled with liquid sulfur, which is not found anywhere else on Earth. The substance boils at a temperature of 187⁰С, and under it, it is believed, there is an even larger layer of liquid sulfur, which could also contribute to the formation of life on our planet.

• There are bridges there. In 2011, a group of research scientists discovered stone bridges in the Mariana Trench. Four structures stretched between the abyss for almost 70 km. They are located between two tectonic plates - the Pacific and the Philippine. One of them was discovered even earlier, in the 80s of the XX century. It is very high, over 2.5 km.

• The first person at this depth. Since the beginning of its discovery in 1875, only three people have plucked up the courage to dive into the Mariana Trench. The first was an American, Lieutenant Don Walsh, and with him the scientist Jacques Piccard in 1960. The dive was made on board the Challenger. In 2012, film director James Cameron visited the Mariana Trench on a bathyscaphe, and took a photo of it as a keepsake. The man had a painful impression of complete loneliness from this place

.

• The riddle of sawn cables. Incredible depths are terrifying. And the first explorers were afraid of unprecedented monsters inside the Mariana Trench. The first fact of a collision with the unknown happened at the time of the Glomar Challenger dive. The registrar began to record a metallic sound, like a screech, and shadows that appeared around the ship. The teachings became concerned about the expensive equipment made of titanium in the shape of a hedgehog, and a decision was made to take the research vessel onto the ship. The “Hedgehog” was damaged after extraction, the titanium 20-centimeter cables were crumpled, or rather, half sawn. There was a complete impression that someone wanted to stop the ship at a depth.

• Prehistoric lizard. There was a hitch during the dive of the Highfish ship with scientists on board. The device reached a depth of 7 km and stopped. The researchers turned on the infrared camera. She suddenly grabbed a huge dinosaur from the ocean darkness, which was biting into the bathyscaphe. With the help of an electric gun, he was driven away.

• The inhabitants of the Mariana Trench are protected by law. This is a national American monument, rightfully the largest nature reserve in the world. There are several restrictions on staying in this area. Mining is prohibited here, you can not fish, but you can swim.

The Mayan Trench is inhabited by:

1. Terrible and not so fish

2. Various octopuses

3. And other strange creatures

We are close to the fact that the Mariana Trench will soon become closer to modern man. Perhaps in the near future there will even be tourism. But for now, this option remains on a par with the possibility of affordable space tourism. It is amazing how similar an earthly object is to distant stars in this respect. It is just as unexplored as the celestial bodies. But we at least know for sure that life exists in the Mariana Trench. According to a common hypothesis, it could have come from there. In this case, the study of the deepest place of the World Ocean acquires global significance.

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On the Internet, you can often find the question: “What is the deepest place in the world?”. Fans in general, and fans of fascinating facts in the style of "" will be interested in this post.

deepest sea

It is authentically known that the deepest sea in the world is the Philippine Sea. Its depth reaches 10,994 ± 40 meters. The average depth is 4108 km.

deepest lake

The deepest lake in the world is Baikal, pride. Its depth is 1642 meters. This site has a whole article dedicated to this unique reservoir.

Be sure to find and read - you will not regret it. Briefly, let us just say that Baikal is the largest natural reservoir of fresh water on Earth.

deepest ocean

If we talk about the deepest ocean, then this is the Pacific Ocean. Its greatest depth is the same as in the Philippine Sea, that is, 10,994 m. The average depth is 3,984 m.

The uniqueness of the Pacific Ocean lies in the fact that it is the largest in area. It is 178,684 million square kilometers.

The deepest depression

But what is the deepest place in the world? We have already talked about this in detail, and provided interesting photographs.

So, the deepest place in the world is this (or the Mariana Trench). Its depth is 10,994 m ± 40 m. And the deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep. But for more on this, see the article itself.

An attentive reader must have noticed that the Philippine Sea, the Pacific Ocean, and the Mariana Trench have the same maximum depth.

Where is the deepest place on Earth? How far is it from the center of the earth? If you put Everest there, will it rise above the surface of the Earth?
Today we will deal with the deepest places, holes, wells, caves, wells in the world, natural and man-made.

Here are the famous Parisian catacombs - a network of winding underground tunnels and artificial caves under Paris. The total length, according to various sources, is from 187 to 300 kilometers. Since the end of the 18th century, the remains of almost six million people have been buried in the catacombs.


40 meters

The Hotel Terme Millepini in Italy has adopted this bold strategy by digging a 40-metre-deep tunnel for divers and scuba divers. This is the Y-40 pool. The most interesting point of the deepest pool Y-40 is that it is filled with thermal water and has a wonderful temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.


105.5 meters

This is the depth of the Arsenalnaya Kyiv metro station, which is located on the Svyatoshynsko-Brovarskaya line between the Khreshchatyk and Dnepr stations. This is the deepest metro station in the world.


122 meters

The roots of the tree can penetrate to such a depth. The tree with the deepest roots is a wild ficus growing in Echo Caves near Ohrigstad, South Africa. This tree is native to South Africa. Its roots go to a depth of almost 122 meters.


230 meters

The deepest river This is the Congo, a river in Central Africa. In the lower reaches, the Congo breaks through the South Guinea Upland in a deep narrow (in some places no more than 300 meters) gorge, forming the Livingston waterfalls (total fall of 270 meters), the depths in this section are 230 meters or more, which makes the Congo the deepest river in the world .


240 meters

This is a railway tunnel Seikan Tunnel in Japan with a length of 53.85 km. The tunnel descends to a depth of about 240 meters, 100 meters below the seabed. It is the deepest under the seabed and the second longest (after the Gotthard Base Tunnel) railway tunnel in the world.


287 meters

Even deeper is the Eiksund Road Tunnel, laid along the bottom of the Sturfjord in the Norwegian province of Møre og Romsdal, connecting the cities of Eiksund and Rjanes. Construction began in 2003, the opening ceremony took place on February 17, 2008, and full-fledged traffic was opened on February 23, 2008. With a length of 7765 m, the tunnel goes to a depth of 287 m below sea level - this is the deepest tunnel in the world. The slope of the roadway reaches 9.6%


382 meters

Woodingdean is an eastern suburb of Brighton and Hove located in East Sussex, England. It is notable for the fact that on its territory there is the deepest well in the world, dug by hand between 1858-1862. The depth of the well is 392 meters.

Of course, it does not look so picturesque, this is just an illustration.


603 meters

Vertigo Cave Vrtoglavica in the Julian Alps. It is located on the territory of Slovenia, near the border with Italy). The cave was discovered by a joint Slovenian-Italian group of speleologists in 1996. The deepest karst well in the world is located in the cave, its depth is 603 meters.

The North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York can easily fit here (its height is 417 m, and taking into account the antenna installed on the roof - 526.3 m).

If you accidentally fall into this hole, you can reach the bottom in 11 seconds.


700 meters

33 miners found themselves under the rubble as a result of the collapse of the San Jose mine on August 5, 2010. They spent more than 2 months in captivity at a depth of 700 meters and were considered dead for almost 3 weeks. As a result of 40 days of work, a well was drilled to save the Chilean miners.


970 meters

This is the largest dug hole in the Earth, from the bottom of which you can still see the sky. The Bingham Canyon Quarry in Utah is one of the world's largest man-made formations. After more than 100 years of mining, a large crater 970 meters deep and 4 km wide was formed. This unique canyon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

This quarry will fit the entire Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world ever created, whose height is 828 meters. And it will not just fit, but more than 140 meters will remain from its “crown” to the surface.

On April 10, 2013, a giant block of earth broke off and rushed into a huge pit in the artificial Bingham Canyon in Utah. Approximately 65 to 70 million cubic meters of earth rattled against the walls of the mine, reaching speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour. The event was so powerful that it shook the earth - seismic sensors worked, recording an earthquake. The intensity was measured as 2.5 points on the Richter scale.


1642 meters

Baikal is the deepest lake on Earth. The current value of the maximum depth of the lake is 1642 m.


1857 meters

The Grand Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA. Depth - more than 1800 m.


2199 meters

So we got to the deepest cave in the world. This is the Krubera (Voronya) cave - the only known cave in the world deeper than 2 kilometers. The main entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of about 2250 m above sea level.


3132 meters

To date, the deepest is the Moab Khotsong mine in South Africa, located southwest of Johannesburg. Its depth is 3 kilometers. The elevator takes 4.5 minutes to the very bottom, but you can speed up the process: if a person accidentally falls here, then the flight to the bottom will take him 25 seconds.


3600 meters

A living organism was found at such a depth. About a hundred years ago, the English scientist Edward Forbes claimed that there were no living creatures deeper than 500 meters. But in 2011, nematode worms Halicephalobus mephisto were found in a gold mine in South Africa. The second name for these 0.5 mm creatures is "the worm from hell."


4500 meters

The deepest mines in the world are located in South Africa: Tau Tona, Witwatersrand - a depth of more than 4500 m, Western Deep Levels Mine (Western deep mine) - 3900 m (De Beers company), Mponeng - 3800 m. have to work in extreme conditions. The heat reaches up to 60 ° C, and at such a depth there is a constant danger of water breakthrough and explosions. These mines produce gold. The journey here takes the miners about 1 hour.

By the way, the Witwatersrand mine produces from 25 to 50% of the gold mined in the world. Mining is carried out, among other things, from the deepest mine in the world, Tau-Tona - its depth is more than 4.5 km, the temperature in the workings reaches 52 degrees.

A piece of gold-bearing ore mined at the deposit:


We move on. The next one will be very deep.

10994 meters

The Mariana Trench (or the Mariana Trench) is an oceanic deep-sea trench in the western Pacific Ocean, the deepest known on Earth. It is named after the nearby Mariana Islands. The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep. According to measurements in 2011, its depth is 10,994 m below sea level.

It's very deep. If Everest 8848 meters high could be placed here, then more than 2 km would still be left from its top to the surface.

Yes, there is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about distant space - the mysterious bottom of the ocean. It is believed that world science has not even really begun to study it...

At a depth of 11 kilometers. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is approximately 1072 times higher than the normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean.


12262 meters

We have reached the deepest well in the world. This is the Kola superdeep well. It is located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. Unlike other ultra-deep wells that were drilled for oil production or exploration, SG-3 was drilled exclusively for research purposes at the point where the Mohorovichic boundary comes close to the Earth's surface.

At a depth of five kilometers, the ambient temperature exceeded 70 ° C, at seven - 120 ° C, and at a depth of 12 kilometers, the sensors recorded 220 ° C.

Kola superdeep well, 2007:

The Kola Superdeep was the source of the urban legend about the “well to hell”. This urban legend has been circulating the internet since at least 1997. For the first time in English, the legend was announced in 1989 on the air of the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which took the story from a Finnish newspaper report published on April Fool's Day. According to this legend, in the very thickness of the earth, at a depth of 12,000 meters, the microphones of scientists recorded cries and groans. The tabloid newspapers write that it is "a voice from the underworld." The Kola super-deep well began to be called the "road to hell" - each new kilometer drilled brought misfortune to the country.

If something is dropped into this hole, 50 seconds will pass before this “something” falls to the bottom.

This is it, the well itself (welded), August 2012:


12376 meters

Well Z-44 Chayvo, which was drilled in Russia on the shelf of Sakhalin Island, is considered the deepest oil well in the world. It goes to a depth of about 13 kilometers - this depth is comparable to the height of 14.5 skyscrapers Burj Khalifa, which so far remains the tallest in the world. This is the deepest hole mankind has been able to drill.


At the moment, this is the deepest place in the world. And it is only at a depth of about 12.4 km. Is it a lot? Recall that the average distance to the center of the Earth will be 6371.3 kilometers ...