Mariana Trench

"Marianas Trench" redirects here. For the Canadian band, see Marianas Trench (band).

Location of the Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about 2,550 km (1,580 mi) in length and 69 km (43 mi) in width. The maximum known depth is 10,984 ± 25 metres (36,037 ± 82 ft; 6,006 ± 14 fathoms; 6.825 ± 0.016 mi) at the southern end of a small slot-shaped valley in its floor known as the Challenger Deep.[1] The deepest point of the trench is more than 2 km (1.2 mi) farther from sea level than the peak of Mount Everest.[a]

At the bottom of the trench, the water column above exerts a pressure of 1,086 bar (15,750 psi), more than 1,071 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. At this pressure, the density of water is increased by 4.96%.[citation needed] The temperature at the bottom is 1 to 4 °C (34 to 39 °F).[4]

In 2009, the Mariana Trench was established as a US National Monument, Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.[5]

One-celled organisms called monothalamea have been found in the trench at a record depth of 10.6 km (35,000 ft; 6.6 mi) below the sea surface by researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.[6] Data has also suggested that microbial life forms thrive within the trench.[7][8]

  1. ^ Gardner, James V.; Armstrong, Andrew A.; Calder, Brian R.; Beaudoin, Jonathan (2 January 2014). "So, How Deep Is the Mariana Trench?" (PDF). Marine Geodesy. 37 (1). Informa UK Limited: 1–13. Bibcode:2014MarGe..37....1G. doi:10.1080/01490419.2013.837849. ISSN 0149-0419. S2CID 128668687.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference smmt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Official height for Everest set". BBC News. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  4. ^ "The Temperature in the Mariana Trench". Infoplease. 28 February 2017.
  5. ^ "About the Monument – Mariana Trench". U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
  6. ^ "Giant amoeba found in Mariana Trench – 6.6 miles beneath the sea". Los Angeles Times. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  7. ^ Choi, Charles Q. (17 March 2013). "Microbes Thrive in Deepest Spot on Earth". LiveScience. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  8. ^ Glud, Ronnie; Wenzhöfer, Frank; Middleboe, Mathias; Oguri, Kazumasa; Turnewitsch, Robert; Canfield, Donald E.; Kitazato, Hiroshi (17 March 2013). "High rates of microbial carbon turnover in sediments in the deepest oceanic trench on Earth". Nature Geoscience. 6 (4): 284–288. Bibcode:2013NatGe...6..284G. doi:10.1038/ngeo1773.


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