What is the deepest point on earth called? The deepest depths of the ocean are the deepest places on the planet. Read more about exploring the deepest ocean depths
Mariana Trench
Any high school student, when asked about the deepest place in the World Ocean, will answer without hesitation that the greatest depth is in the Mariana Trench or Mariana Trench and is 11,022 meters. Meanwhile, such a seemingly simple question has a completely unobvious answer. According to the latest data from scientists, firstly, the depth of the Mariana Trench is somewhat less, and secondly, the Mariana Trench is not the greatest depth of the ocean.
The Mariana Trench or Mariana Trench, the deepest oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, was still considered the deepest geographical object known on Earth.
Mariana Trench depth data
Many Russian maps still show the value of 11,022 meters obtained by the Soviet oceanographic vessel Vityaz during the 1957 expedition.
Although, according to the latest data from 2009, when the American deep-sea vehicle Nereus sank to the bottom of the depression, instruments recorded a depth of 10,902 meters. To the surprise of scientists, in the abyss itself they discovered organisms living there - sea cucumbers, belonging to the class of invertebrate animals such as echinoderms.
The Cayman Trench turned out to be even deeper
The Mariana Trench, 10,902 meters deep, is not the deepest place in the world
And today, researchers were even more surprised when they not only discovered another deepest place on Earth, but also unprecedented animals living in it. British researchers, using a remotely controlled small submarine, discovered the deepest volcanic crater on our planet, reports Rosbalt. The top of the discovered crater is located five kilometers below the surface of the Caribbean Sea, in the Cayman Trench region. James Cameron's science-fiction thriller "The Abyss" was filmed there.
The Cayman Trench in the Caribbean is the deepest place in the world
For those who haven't seen this film, let's remember the plot. The US Navy nuclear submarine Montana with nuclear weapons on board crashes at great depths. The Ministry of the Navy is asking for help from specialists at an underwater research station operating near the site of the submarine accident. With the support of military intelligence, researchers must find out the possible cause of the tragedy and neutralize the nuclear warheads. But underwater they discover strange creatures of extraterrestrial origin. And the director of the film, James Cameron, looked into the water. This abyss, indeed, turned out to be not lifeless.
According to an official report, the water temperature in this crater can reach 400 degrees Celsius, but the high pressure (500 times the planet's atmospheric pressure) prevents the water from boiling. Despite these indicators, many species of animals are found in the volcanic crater. Scientists do not rule out that the uncharted depths of boiling waters may hide animals that humans have never seen before.
Have you ever wondered what it is and where deepest points in the ocean?
To this day, the deepest place that has been found is the Challenger Deep, an 11-kilometer-deep gap in the Pacific Ocean located in the southern Mariana Trench (midway between Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
There are 5 sea chasms that exceed 10 km. Dive into the 5 deepest points of the world's oceans.
The Kermadec Trench is one of the deepest oceanic trenches on Earth, reaching a depth of 10,047 m. Formed by the subduction of the Pacific plate under the Indo-Australian plate. It runs more than a thousand kilometers parallel to and east of the Kermadec Ridge, from the northeastern tip of New Zealand's North Island to the intersection of the Louisville Seachain pit, northeast of the Monowai Seamount.
The Tonga Trench is a continuation of subduction beyond this point. Subduction south of the Kermadec Trench is marked by the shallower Hikurangi Point.
It was named after the French captain Jean-Michel Juan de Kermadec, who was part of the Bruny de Entrecasteaux expedition that visited the area in the 1790s.
The Kuril-Kamchatka Trench is an oceanic trench, one of the deepest points in the ocean, with a maximum depth of 10,542 m. It is located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, east of the Kuril Islands, the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.
It extends approximately 2,900 km in a north-south direction in the shape of an arch. Its formation and the arch of associated islands occurred through the subduction of the Pacific plate under the Eurasian plate.
The Philippine Trench, also known as the Mindanao Trench, is an ocean pit located in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippine Islands archipelago.
It is approximately 1,320 km long and approximately 30 km wide from the center of the Philippine island of Luzon, trending southeast of Halmahera Island, north of the Maluku Islands, in Indonesia. Its deepest point, Galatea depth, is 10,540 m. Its coordinates are 39 39 20.
Immediately north of the Philippines is the Luzon Oriente tomb. They are separated from each other. Their continuity is interrupted and displaced by the Benham Plateau in the Philippine Sea Plate.
The Tonga Trench, also called the Tonga Trench, is an ocean pit located in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of New Zealand's North Island and northwest of the Kermadec Islands. Northern end of the active subduction zone of the Pacific Plate. Its maximum depth is 10,882 meters, called the "Deep Horizon".
Convergence occurs at an estimated rate of about 15 centimeters per year, but recent global positioning satellite measurements indicate convergence sites of 24 cm per year throughout the Tonga Trench. This is the fastest slab speed on the planet.
These oceanic pits are important sites for the formation of what will become continental crust and for the recycling of materials in the mantle.
The Mariana Trench is the only one that exceeds 11 km. This is the deepest point of the oceans. 11,034m deep in the Challenger Abyss, named after the British Navy frigate that explored the site in the 1870s. 11 km of salt water exert a pressure of almost 1100 atmospheres. Located in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, southeast of the Mariana Islands, near the island of GUAM.
What about the Atlantic Ocean? Its deepest hole is in the Caribbean Sea, at 8800 m.
On the Internet you can often come across the question: “What is the deepest place in the world?” Fans in general, and fans of fascinating facts in the “” style, will be interested in this post.
The deepest sea
It is reliably 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 Pride. Its depth is 1642 meters. This site has a whole article dedicated to this unique body of water.
Be sure to find and read - you won’t regret it. Let’s just say briefly that Baikal is the largest natural reservoir of fresh water on Earth.
The 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.
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 more on this.
An attentive reader will probably have noticed that both the Philippine Sea and the Mariana Trench have the same maximum depth.
The fact is that all three of these objects converge at one point, which is the deepest in the world. See how it looks on the map.
Incredible facts
The earth is still full of secrets even though many of them have been revealed scientists and researchersfor many years.
You can learn about several unusual places created by people, but mostly by nature, here.
Plunge into the depths of our planet and imagine how many undiscovered secrets our planet holds.
The world's deepest well (the deepest well in the USSR)
In the Murmansk region, in 1970, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny, the Kola superdeep well SG-Z was located, the depth of which is 12,262 meters, which makes it the deepest well in the world. The cost of drilling work is equal to the cost of the project to fly to the Moon. In 1989, the Guinness Book of Records registered the well as the deepest on Earth. It was drilled to study the boundaries of the lithosphere of our planet.
The deepest metro
The Kyiv metro station "Arsenalnaya" ("Arsenalna") is the deepest in the world. It is located on the Svyatoshinsko-Brovarskaya line and was opened on November 6, 1960. The "English type" station has a short middle hall and its depth is 105.5 meters.
The deepest ocean
The Pacific Ocean is not only the largest ocean on our planet by area, but also the deepest.
The deepest trench (the deepest place in the ocean, the deepest depression)
The Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) is an oceanic deep-sea trench. Its name comes from the nearby Mariana Islands. The deepest part of the depression is called “Challenger Deep” and it goes down to 11,035 meters.
The deepest lake in the world
Lake Baikal, which many Russians call the sea, is a lake of tectonic origin and is located in the southern part of Eastern Siberia. In addition to being the world's deepest lake at 1,642 meters, Baikal is also the largest natural reservoir of fresh water. There is a unique diversity of flora and fauna here - more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, 2/3 of which cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. In addition, the lake is considered the oldest on Earth - its age is about 25 million years.
The deepest sea
The Philippine Sea, located near the Philippine archipelago, has an average depth of 4,108 meters, and is considered the deepest thanks to the Philippine Trench, the deepest point of which is 10,540 meters.
The deepest river
The length of the Congo River is 4344-4700 kilometers, the basin area is 3,680,000 square kilometers, and the maximum depth is more than 230 meters, making it the deepest in the world. It is also worth noting that this is the second most water-rich river on Earth after the Amazon and the only large river that crosses the equator 2 times. As the lower Congo begins to break through the South Guinean Highlands in a deep gorge, it forms the Livingston Falls, and it is here that the river reaches its greatest depths.
Deepest mine
At the moment, the deepest mine in the world can be called the Tau-Tona mine, which is located 70 kilometers from Johannesburg (South Africa). The name of the mine can be translated from one African language as “great lion”. Gold is mined here, and so far this deposit has a depth of about 4 km, but mining is carried out at a depth of 2.3 to 3.595 kilometers.
Deepest cave
The Krubera-Voronya cave, located in Abkhazia, can be called the deepest in the world (at least among the caves studied). The entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of approximately 2,256 meters in the Orto-Balagan tract. It is worth noting that the Krubera-Voronya cave was discovered by Georgian speleologists in 1960. At the moment it has been explored to a depth of 95 meters.
Today we will talk about the deepest oceanic place on the planet - the Mariana Trench and its deepest point - the Challenger Deep.
“The Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) is an oceanic deep-sea trench in the western Pacific Ocean, the deepest known on Earth. Named after the nearby Mariana Islands.
The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep. It is located in the southwestern part of the depression, 340 km southwest of the island of Guam (point coordinates: 11°22′N 142°35′E (G) (O)). According to measurements in 2011, its depth is 10,994 ± 40 m below sea level.
The deepest point of the depression, called the Challenger Deep, is further from sea level than Mount Everest is above it.”
Many people know from school that the depth of the Mariana Trench is 11 km, and this is the deepest place on the planet. However, with a slight amendment, it is the deepest known. That is, theoretically there could be even deeper depressions... but they are still unknown. Even the tallest mountain in the world - Everest - could easily fit into the trench and still have room left.
The Mariana Trench is rich in records and titles: and it became famous not only for its depth, but also for its mystery, the terrible inhabitants of the underwater depths, the “monsters” guarding the bottom of the earth, mysteries, the unknown, primordiality, darkness, etc. In general, Space Inside Out is the bottom of the Mariana Trench. There are versions that life began in the Mariana Trench.
MARIANA TRENCH. PuzzlesMarianadepressions:
In the video they show and tell that at such a great depth the pressure is higher than from powder gases when fired from a hunting rifle, about 1100 times more than atmospheric pressure: 108.6 MPa (Mariana Trench - bottom) by 104 MPa (powder gases). Glass and wood turn into powder under such conditions.
Still, it is not clear then how there is life there and the ominous underwater monsters about which there are legends?
The length of the trench along the Mariana Islands is 1.5 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.
The depression is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, in the zone of movement along faults, where the Pacific plate goes under the Philippine plate.”
The Mariana Trench was discovered in 1875:
“The first measurements (and discovery) of the Mariana Trench were taken in 1875 from the British three-masted corvette Challenger. Then, with the help of a deep-sea lot, the depth was established at 8367 meters (with repeated sounding - 8184 m).
In 1951, an English expedition on the research vessel Challenger recorded a maximum depth of 10,863 meters using an echo sounder.”
Back in 1951, this point was given the name Challenger Deep.
Later, during several expeditions, the depth of the Mariana Trench was established to be more than 11 km; the last measurement (late 2011) recorded a depth of 10,994 m (+/- 40 m):
“According to the results of measurements carried out in 1957 during the 25th voyage of the Soviet research vessel “Vityaz” (headed by Alexey Dmitrievich Dobrovolsky), the maximum depth of the trench is 11,023 m (updated data, initially the depth was reported as 11,034 m).
On January 23, 1960, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard dived in the bathyscaphe Trieste. They recorded a depth of 10,916 m, which also became known as the "Trieste depth".
The unmanned Japanese submarine Kaiko collected soil samples from this location in March 1995 and recorded a depth of 10,911 m.
On May 31, 2009, the unmanned submarine Nereus took soil samples at this location. The collected mud mostly consists of foraminifera. This dive recorded a depth of 10,902 m.
More than two years later, on December 7, 2011, researchers at the University of New Hampshire published the results of an underwater robot dive that recorded a depth of 10,994 m (+/- 40 m) using sound waves.
And yet, despite many obstacles, difficulties, and dangers, three people in the entire history of the Mariana Trench managed to reach the bottom, naturally, while in special devices. On March 26, 2012, director James Cameron single-handedly reached the bottom of the Abyss on the Deepsea Challenger.
Channel One's story "James Cameron - diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench":
And here is Jace Cameron's film "Challenging the Abyss 3D|Journey to the Bottom of the Mariana Trench":
The film was created in collaboration with National Geographic, created in a documentary format. Before some of his box-office creations (like Titanic), the director also sank to the bottom of the depths to the place of events, so before his “visit” of the Mariana Trench in 2012, many were waiting for either a grandiose masterpiece, or a video with monsters living in the darkness of the ocean .
The film is a documentary, but the main thing is that Cameron did not see giant octopuses, monsters, “leviathans”, multi-headed creatures there, although for the first time he spent more than three hours at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. There were small marine derivatives no more than 2.5 cm... but those same outlandish flat fish, huge creatures that bite the steel cable were not there... although he was not there for 12 minutes.
To questions about whether the director saw any terrible creature at the bottom of the depression, he answered: “Probably everyone would like to hear that I saw some kind of sea monster, but it wasn’t there... There was nothing living, more than 2- 2.5 cm".
Public reaction to Cameron's film The Abyss was mixed. Some people thought the film was boring and could not be compared with his works like “Titanic”, “Avatar”, someone said that the film was real and in its “boringness” it showed the way of interaction between one of the seven billion people on the planet and the deepest abyss.
From reviews of the film:
“Of course, the content of the film can hardly be called exciting. The viewer spends most of the time in endless tedious meetings and tests in the laboratory. But I believe that this difficult and long path from a dream to its realization had to be shown. It is he who most inspires us to work for our idea.”
I mentioned the film precisely because the path that led the director to the creation of the creation is the basis for the interaction of the secrets of nature and mortal man.
People are frightened and attracted by the unknown, rebellion, depth, danger, mortality, mystery, eternity, loneliness, independence of the depths, distances, heights of nature. And the title of the film - “Challenge to the Abyss...” - is naturally not without reason: at a certain stage of potential development, a person either wants to touch the unknown, or completely forget about its existence, to live in everyday life.
Cameron, having the opportunity and zeal, decided to take this leap into depth. This is the desire to rise to a level close to God, and pride, and to perpetuate this abyss in oneself and to perpetuate oneself in the abyss, understanding the frailty of matter and much more.
Many people look in and are interested, some out of curiosity, some out of nothing to do. But only a few will dare to come close.
Let us recall the famous saying of F. Nietzsche: “If you gaze into an abyss for a long time, the abyss will begin to peer into you,” or another translation: “For a person who gazes into an abyss for a long time, the abyss begins to live in his eyes,” or the full text of the quote: “Who fights with monsters, he should be careful not to become a monster himself. And if you look into the abyss for a long time, then the abyss also looks into you.” Here we are talking about the dark sides of the soul and the world, if you attract evil, evil will attract you, although there are many interpretation options.
But the very words “abyss” and “abyss” imply something dangerous, dark, akin to the source of dark forces. There are a lot of legends around the Mariana Trench, legends that are far from good, whoever came up with anything: monsters live there, and monsters of unknown etiology can swallow alive deep-sea research vehicles with or without people, gnaw through 20-centimeter cables, and creepy devilish creatures seem to in hell they scurry between the black waves of the deep, terrify extremely rare human guests, and in circles discussing the deepest trench, versions are expressed that people who knew how to breathe under water used to live here, and almost life originated here, etc. People want to see darkness in this abyss. And, in general, they see her...
Before the conquest of the Mariana Abyss by Cameron, a similar attempt was made in 1960:
“On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh dived into the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10,920 meters on the bathyscaphe Trieste. The dive took about 5 hours, and the time spent at the bottom was 12 minutes. This was an absolute depth record for manned and unmanned vehicles.
Two researchers then discovered at a terrible depth only 6 species of living creatures, including flat fish up to 30 cm in size.”
Whether the monsters were afraid of James Cameron, or they were not in the mood to pose for the camera that day, or whether there really was no one there, will remain a mystery, however, during previous underwater expeditions, including those without the participation of people, various forms of life, fish, hitherto never seen, strange creatures, creatures similar to monsters, giant octopuses. But let's not forget that “monsters” are just unexplored creatures.
Several times, vehicles without people descended into the depths of the Mariana Trench (with people only twice), for example, on May 31, 2009, the automatic underwater vehicle Nereus sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to measurements, it fell 10,902 meters below sea level. At the bottom, Nereus filmed a video, took some photographs, and even collected sediment samples at the bottom.
Here are some photos of those whom the expedition cameras met at the depths of the Mariana Trench:
The photo shows the bottom of the Mariana Trench:
“The mystery of the Mariana Trench. Great mysteries of the ocean." Ren-TV program.
Still, it remains a big mystery what is there, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench... They scare us in absentia with monsters, but in reality no one, in particular Cameron, who spent 3 hours at the bottom of the trench, discovered strange objects there... silence... depth... eternity.
And the most important questions are “how can monsters live there if there is enormous pressure at the bottom, no light, no oxygen??” Answer from scientific experts:
“The inexplicable and incomprehensible have always attracted people, which is why scientists all over the world want to answer the question: “What does the Mariana Trench hide in its depths?”
Can living organisms live at such great depths, and what should they look like, given the fact that they are pressed by huge masses of ocean waters, the pressure of which exceeds 1100 atmospheres?
The challenges associated with exploring and understanding the creatures that live at these unimaginable depths are numerous, but human ingenuity knows no bounds. For a long time, oceanographers considered the hypothesis that life could exist at depths of more than 6,000 m in impenetrable darkness, under enormous pressure and at temperatures close to zero, to be crazy.
However, the results of research by scientists in the Pacific Ocean have shown that even in these depths, much 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 living in long chitinous tubes open at both ends).
Recently, the veil of secrecy has been lifted by manned and automatic underwater vehicles made of heavy-duty materials, equipped with video cameras. The result was the discovery of a rich animal community consisting of both familiar and less familiar marine groups.
Thus, at depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the following were discovered:
- barophilic bacteria (developing only at high pressure);
- from protozoa - foraminifera (an order of protozoa of the subclass of rhizomes with a cytoplasmic body covered with a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);
- from multicellular organisms - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, sea cucumbers, bivalves and gastropods.
At the depths there is no sunlight, no algae, constant salinity, low temperatures, 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 are either blind, or with very developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluoride; 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 or 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 researching the Mariana Trench, the questions have not decreased, and 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 uncover them soon?”
The Mariana Trench, considering that it is the most famous deep point on the planet, has been studied too little; people have flown into space tens of times more, and we know more about space than about the bottom of the 11-kilometer trench. Probably everything is ahead...