We discover what is inside the Mariana Trench, the deepest place in the oceans of our planet. A place that has aroused the curiosity of researchers and anyone who has a predilection for the planet, the seas and/or the mysteries within it.
Therefore, today we want to talk about the Mariana Trench, what it is, What's inside and why has it attracted so much attention? since it is known.
The Mariana Trench
The disturbing and, at the same time, fascinating Mariana Trench is located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, located east of the Mariana Islands where its name comes from. It is the deepest marine trench that exists or, at least, that is known today. It consists of nothing more and nothing less than ones 11.034 meters deep in its deepest part, the Challenger Deep.
It is a place that has aroused great interest for the scientific community because it offers a Impressive potential for information about the history of the Earth and the formation of its crust Oceanic. The rocks and sediments at the bottom of the Mariana Trench have a lot to tell geologists; they can tell us about tectonic plates or seismic events, for example. To learn more about these plates, you can read about the actual shape of the earth.
This incredible place that has so much to teach us faces, as happens with a large percentage of marine life, the threat of pollution and resource exploitation by the hand of the human being. Its great interest implies that it is a place to protect and conserve, it is a natural heritage. A unique place that fascinates adventurers and scientists. A place considered a national marine monument and that on April 12, 2017 went from being been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Today they are most human activities prohibited such as mining and drilling or both commercial and sport fishing. The islands themselves that give their name to the trench are places of great importance for the Polynesian and Micronesian cultures. There are 14 islands that make up the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the territory of Guam.
The name of the islands and, therefore, that of the Fosa, is due to the Queen of Spain Mariana of Austria (1634-1696), wife of Philip IV of Spain.
How originated?
The Mariana Trench has its origin in a collision of two tectonic plates: the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Plate. The former sinks beneath the latter (something known as subduction), creating a huge trench, gully, or crack in the ocean floor. If you'd like to learn more about this phenomenon, check out our article on What is the Mariana Trench?.
What can we find inside the Mariana Trench?
We know that the Mariana Trench is the deepest place in the ocean, but It is not the closest point to the center of the Earth. Our planet is shaped like an oblate spheroid, that is, it is not a perfect sphere since its radius becomes 25km smaller at the poles with respect to the equator. This implies that some seabeds (such as parts of the Arctic Ocean) are closer to the center of the Earth than the deepest point of the Mariana Trench.
Marine life
Although it may seem difficult due to the great pressure of the place, it is not completely inhospitable, but the trench is home to a great diversity of marine life. Can be found giant clams, Mariana crabs or polychaete worms. All of these species are adapted to the conditions of the pit, which involves high pressure, low temperatures and darkness. Additionally, you can also find deposits of minerals and microorganisms that feed on them. To learn more about life in this environment, you can consult our article on animal life in the Mariana Trench.
An important part of the animals that live there are giant species, and when we talk about giants, we mean supergiants, nothing like their shallow-water cousins. If you're interested in the animal world, you can read more about the .
Pressure
The great depth of the pit makes the pressure at its bottom very extreme, reaching 1086 bar. That is, the life that surrounds us on the surface cannot survive at depth. It is the organisms adapted to these types of conditions that can survive in it.
Even with that problem, human beings have managed to reach the deepest part of the pit. In 1960, Swiss explorer Jacques Piccard and United States Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh managed to reach the deepest point, the Challenger Deep. For this feat, they went aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste and managed to reach the deepest depths humans had ever descended into the ocean. Since then, new species of fish, crustaceans, mollusks, single-celled organisms, and bacteria have been discovered there that can survive the extreme conditions of the trench. To learn more about these feats, check out our article on who has descended to the deepest point on the planet.
From then on, the various expeditions carried out such as the one in 2011, 2014 or 0, They have been finding various animal species that came to reflect a certain union between the depths and the gigantism of its inhabitants.
Extreme temperatures
The temperature at the bottom of the ocean is cold, at the bottom of the deepest trench it is freezing, between 1 and 4ºC. But the pit also has hydrothermal vents and near them the temperature is more than 500ºC due to magma. Some of these fountains are almost cylindrical chimneys formed by the minerals they emit and the contrast generated between the temperature of the fountains' emission and the icy water of the seabed. If you're interested in studying water and its temperature, we invite you to read about ocean waters.
Depth and darkness
That the pit is deep has been clear to us, but to really get an idea of how deep it is we can compare it with the highest mountain that exists on the surface. If we put Mount Everest inside the trench, its summit would still be more than two thousand meters from the surface. In a place like this, the sunlight does not reach and the darkness is absolute, which is why the animals that live there are adapted to this condition.
