The World Ocean is fraught with many interesting and sometimes even mysterious objects.
The Mariinsky Trench, also known as the "Marian Trench", is a huge gorge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. This is the deepest place on earth. Its total length is 1.5 km.
In its geometric profile, it resembles the Latin letter V. The width of the bottom is from one and a half to five kilometers. The entire bottom area is divided by small ridges into several isolated locations. Depth - almost 11 kilometers!
Near the very bottom, the pressure is 108.6 MPa, which is more than a thousand times higher than the average pressure in the Pacific Ocean. The Mariinsky depression itself was formed due to the movement of two huge tectonic plates, on the border of which it is located.
The first attempts to explore this amazing place were made by the team of the English corvette "Challenger", which carried out systematic measurements of the bottom. A huge contribution to the study of the area under consideration was made by Soviet scientists, and later by their Russian colleagues.
Despite a huge number of experiments, the Mariinsky Trench to this day remains one of the least studied mysteries of the World Ocean: many objects in near space have been studied better.
In 1958, Soviet scientists found that life exists at a depth of more than 7 km. In 1960, the French sent their newest bathyscaphe Trieste into the hollow. The legendary Picard and Jacques-Yves Cousteau participated in the research.
But the first oddities were recorded by the American expedition. A research hedgehog was launched from the Glomar Challenger. Already an hour after the dive, the recording microphones began to transmit noise to the surface, suspiciously reminiscent of the work of a saw.
Camera recorded some vague shadows in the depths. Scientists did not like the idea that unique equipment could be lost in the Mariana Trench, and therefore an urgent recovery was initiated.
Gently and gradually, the "hedgehog" was raised in eight hours. It turned out that the strongest cob alt-titanium beams of the structure were mangled, and the cable made of a special steel alloy was completely sawn through. Who and how could do this remains a mystery. The dumbfounded scientists published a report on this incident in 1996. It can be found in The New York Times.
Can the Mariinsky Trench, the depth of which is amazing, hide in its abyss some such large and strong living creatures? It is extremely difficult to explore such depths, becauseincredible pressure is capable of crushing any more or less large structure into a cake. Until 1958, the scientific community believed that at depths greater than 6 km, life was basically impossible.
And it turned out that pogonophores live in the incredible abyss of water. This is a type of marine invertebrate that is characterized by living in remarkable tubes of chitin, feeding on sediment. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that these creatures do not need sunlight for life and development. But why did invertebrates need to "cut" the cables? Or was it not them?
Thus, the Mariinsky Trench, the photos of which are presented in the article, is one of the most amazing places on Earth.
