Oceanic trench

Deepest Part of The Ocean: 14 Amazing facts about the Mariana Trench

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• published: 04 Jul 2015
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Deepest Part of The Ocean: 15 Amazing things you’ll see as you descend into the Mariana Trench. Space isn’t the only unexplored frontier. There’s a lot we don’t know about the oceans here on Earth. Among the depths in seemingly impossible conditions, life is thriving. Come with us on a trip to the deepest part of the ocean as we explore the Mariana Trench. 14 - The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans. It is located east of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. 13 - The trench is about 2,550 kilometres (1,580 mi) long but has an average width of only 69 kilometres (43 mi). It reaches a maximum-known depth of 10,994 m or 6.831 mi (36,070 ft). Mount Everest is 8488m high. 12 - At the bottom of the trench the water column above exerts a pressure of over 1000 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. At this pressure the density of water is increased by about 5%, so 100 litres at the surface would be squeezed into 95 litres at the bottom. 11 - The temperature at the bottom is 1 to 4 °C, and there is no light. 10 - Because the Earth is not a perfect sphere; its radius is about 25 kilometres (16 mi) less at the poles than at the equator, the Mariana Trench is not the part of the seafloor closest to the center of the Earth . 9 - Life In July 2011 a research expedition, amongst many other living organisms, found gigantic single-celled amoebas with a size of more than 10 cm (4 in). Called Xenophyophores, these creatures have been found at a record depth of 10.6 km (6.6 mi) below the sea surface. 8 - Before the Beatles even released their first album, two people were the first to visit the deepest part of the ocean. It was made by Made in 1960 by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard on board the Swiss-designed, Italian-built, United States Navy-owned bathyscaphe Trieste which reached the bottom at 1:06 pm on 23 January 1960. Iron shot was used for ballast (weight) and gasoline for buoyancy (flotation). The depth was estimated from a conversion of pressure measured and calculations based on the water density from sea surface to seabed. 7 - 2 unmanned missions followed this by the unmanned ROVs Kaikō in 1996 and Nereus in 2009. The first three expeditions directly measured similar depths of 10,902 to 10,916 m. 6 - The fourth descent in to the Mariana Trench was made by Canadian film director James Cameron in 2012 - yep, the Titantic guy. On 26 March, he reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the submersible vessel Deepsea Challenger. 5 - Super-heated water. In a world where the water is one or two steps away from turning to ice, there are several vents that shoot out water close to 450 °C (700 °F). These “black smokers,” shoot out jets of water - It doesn’t boil because of the high pressure - rich in minerals which nourish surrounding life. These are necessary for life given the lack of any sunlight. 4 - Liquid Carbon dioxide. Also due to extreme pressure, carbon dioxide vents into the Mariana Trench as a liquid. These areas are thought to create an environment where life may have originated billions of years ago. 3 - Larger life forms exist In 2012, giant clams were discovered in the Mariana Trench living near hydrothermal vents. They have evolved to detoxify normally lethal chemicals and also survive high pressure. 2 - Liquid Sulfur Although it lies relatively near the surface, the underwater Daikoku Volcano contains one of the rarest sights on Earth: a lake of pure molten sulfur - the nearest similar one we know of is on Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. Called the Cauldron, it black goo bubbles at 187 °C (369 °F). 1 - Ooze and isolation According to James Cameron, the bottom of the ocean is “lunar . . . desolate . . . isolated,” and he felt “complete isolation from all of humanity” at the deepest point of his descent. On a 1960 descent, the oceanographer Piccard said of the trench floor; "The bottom appeared light and clear, a waste of firm diatomaceous ooze". While life may have started at the depths of the Mariana Trench, we can be glad that we emigrated to Earths surface.