The Mariana Trench, or as it is also called, the Mariana Trench is rightfully considered the most mysterious and inaccessible point on our planet. This is the deepest object known to geographers in the Pacific Ocean. Its depth is about eleven kilometers, to be precise, it is 10994 ± 40 m. The Mariana Trench is located southeast of the Mariana Islands (11°21'0" N and 142°12'0" E).), the length of this depression is 2926 km, and the width of the bottom is from 1 to 5 km. In the south direction from the island of Guam of the Mariana Archipelago, at a distance of 320 km, the deepest point of this trench, the Challenger Abyss, was recorded. The depression is located at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates, in the region of the fault line.
Dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench
It is human nature to defy nature and the Mariana Trench is no exception. January 23, 1960 people for the first time dared to go down to the bottom of this gigantic hollow. A couple of brave men were the American Navy lieutenant Don Walsh and the scientist Jacques Picard. With the help of the Trieste bathyscaphe, they managed todescend to a depth of 10918 meters. As it turned out, even at such a depth there is life - the researchers, to their surprise, found flat fish, up to 30 cm long, resembling a flounder in their appearance.
At the end of March 1995, a Kaiko-Japanese probe was lowered into the Mariana Trench. He reached a new depth of 10911.4 meters and took samples in which scientists found foraminifera - the simplest living organisms.
Four years later, the Nereus underwater vehicle sank to the bottom of the trough, to a depth of 10,902 meters. This time, in addition to collecting samples of bottom sediments, we managed to shoot a video and take some pictures.
James Cameron, the same Canadian producer who shot such masterpieces as "Titanic", "Avatar", "Terminator", "Aliens", on March 26, 2012 on a bathyscaphe with the proud name Deepsea Challenger, reached the "Challenger Abyss"”, becoming the third person who dared to descend to such a monstrous depth. There, he filmed in 3D, which served as the basis for a scientific documentary shown on the National Geographic Channel.
There is life there too
Scientists believe that the Mariana Trench may be the key to unraveling the origin of life on our planet, and possibly beyond. Thanks to the deep-sea mission of James Cameron, it became known about new bizarre life forms.
It turned out that in addition to bacteria and microorganisms, crayfish, rhizopods, gastropods, invertebrates with a shell onbased on chitin, and even fish that can hit with huge teeth, eyes that rotate in different directions and sharp spikes instead of fins. The teeth of the megalodon, a giant prehistoric shark, were also found at the bottom. It is believed that the mouth of this monster was up to 2 meters wide, its length was 24 meters, and its weight was about a hundred tons…
The bottom of the depression, the pressure on which is 1100 times greater than the usual atmospheric pressure, is literally teeming with various types of living organisms. According to researchers, it is here that the roots of metabolism are hidden - those that could start the chemical processes that resulted in the emergence of terrestrial, and, quite possibly, alien life, and within the boundaries of the solar system.
A year ago, oceanologists created a three-dimensional map of the bottom and now have a more accurate idea of what the Mariana Trench looks like. Photos and videos taken from dives and from satellites, hopefully, will finally allow scientists to fill in the gaps in the history of the Earth.
