In our article we want to talk about the mysterious Mariana Trench. This is the deepest point on the surface of the Earth. By and large, this is where our knowledge of this place ends. But the Mariana Trench, the monsters that live in it, are eternal and assumptions. Her secrets are as deep as she is.
The first mystery of the Mariana Trench
One of the mysteries of the depression is its depth. Until recently, it was believed that the Mariana Trench, as it is more correct to call this place from a scientific point of view, has a depth of more than eleven kilometers. However, the latest modern technical measurements give a value of 10994 kilometers. Although, it is worth noting that this value is also very relative, since diving to the bottom Mariana Trench is a technically very complex event, which is influenced by many factors. Scientists talk about a possible error of forty meters.
Where is the Mariana Trench located?
The Mariana Trench is located in the western part The Pacific, off the coast of Guam and Micronesia. Its deepest point is called the Challenger Abyss and is located 340 kilometers from
Answering the question, where is the Mariana Trench, you can give its exact geographical coordinates- 11 ° 21 ′ s. sh. 142 ° 12 ′ E The place got this name due to the fact that they are located nearby, which are part of a state such as Guam.
What is the Mariana Trench?
What is the Mariana Trench? The ocean carefully hides its true size. One can only guess about them. This is not just a "very deep hole". The gutter itself stretches along the seabed for one and a half thousand kilometers. The depression has a V-shape, that is, it is much wider from above, and the walls narrow from top to bottom.
The bottom of the Mariana Trench is characterized by a flat relief, and the width varies from 1 to 5 kilometers. Its upper part is eighty kilometers wide.
This place is one of the most inaccessible in our land.
Is it necessary to explore the depression?
It seems that life at such depths is simply impossible. Therefore, it makes no sense to study such an abyss. However, the secrets of the Mariana Trench have always interested and attracted researchers. Believe it or not, space is easier to explore nowadays than such depths. Many people have been outside the Earth, and only three brave men sank to the bottom of the trench.
Examining the gutter
The British were the first to explore the Mariana Trench. In 1872, the Challenger ship with scientists entered the Pacific Ocean to study the trough. It was found that this point is the deepest in the globe... Since then, people have been haunted by the secrets and creatures of the Mariana Trench.
As time went on, research was carried out, a new depth value was established - 10863 meters.
Research is carried out by lowering deep-sea vehicles. Most often these are unmanned automatic vehicles. And in 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descended to the very bottom on the Trieste bathyscaphe. In 2012, he ventured on Jace Cameron on the Deepsea Challenger.
Russian researchers also studied the Mariana Trench. In 1957, the ship "Vityaz" headed to the area of the trough. Scientists not only measured the depth of the trench (11022 meters), but also discovered the presence of life at a depth of more than seven kilometers. This event brought about a revolution in the world of science in the mid-twentieth century. At that time it was believed that at such depths there could be no living creatures. This is where the fun begins. How many stories and legends exist about this place - simply do not count. So what exactly is the Mariana Trench really? Do monsters really live here or are they just fairy tales? Let's try to figure it out.
Mariana Trench: monsters, riddles, secrets
As we mentioned earlier, the first brave daredevils to descend to the bottom of the depression were Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. They descended in a heavy bathyscaphe called Trieste. The wall thickness of the structure was thirteen centimeters. She was submerged to the bottom for five hours. Having reached the deepest point, the researchers managed to stay there for only twelve minutes. Then the ascent of the bathyscaphe immediately began, which took three hours. No matter how surprising this phenomenon may seem, living organisms were found at the bottom. The fish of the Mariana Trench are flat, flounder-like creatures, no more than thirty centimeters long.
In 1995, the Japanese sank into the abyss. And in 2009, a miracle device called the Nereus sank to the deepest point. He not only took a number of photos, but also took soil samples.
In 1996, The New York Times published the materials of the next immersion of the apparatus from the research vessel Challenger. It turns out that when the equipment began to be lowered, after a while the instruments recorded the strongest metal grinding. This fact was the reason for the immediate rise of equipment to the surface. What the researchers saw stunned them. The steel structure was badly dented, and the thick, strong cable seemed to be sawed. Such an unexpected surprise came from the Mariana Trench. Whether monsters so crushed the technique or representatives of alien intelligence, or mutated octopuses ... A variety of proposals were expressed, each of which was more incredible than the previous one. However, no one found the true reason, since there was no evidence for any of the theories. All assumptions were at the level of fantastic guesses. But the secrets of the Mariana Trench have not yet been revealed.
Another mysterious story
Another incredibly mysterious incident occurred with a team of German researchers, which lowered their device, called the Highfish, to the bottom. At some point, the device stopped diving, and the cameras installed on it gave an image of the huge size of a lizard, which was actively trying to gnaw at an unknown thing. The team chased the monster away from the apparatus with an electrical discharge. The creature got scared and swam away and did not appear again. It is a pity that such events were not recorded by the apparatus so that there was irrefutable evidence.
After this incident, the Mariana Trench began to grow overgrown with new facts, legends and speculation. The crews of the ships now and then reported a huge monster in these waters, which was towing ships at high speed. It became difficult to make out where the truth is, and where is speculation. The Mariana Trench, the monsters of which haunted many people, still remains the most mysterious point on the planet.
Indisputable facts
Along with the most incredible legends about the Mariana Trench, there are very specific, but incredible facts. There is no doubt about them, since they are supported by evidence.
In 1948, lobster fishers (Australian) reported a large transparent fish that was at least thirty meters long. They saw her at sea. Judging by their description, it looks like a very ancient shark (species Carcharodon megalodon), which lived several million years ago. Scientists managed to restore the appearance of a shark from the remains. The monstrous creature was 25 meters long and weighed one hundred tons. Her mouth was two meters in size, and each tooth was at least ten centimeters. Just imagine this monster. It was the teeth of such a creature that were discovered by oceanologists at the bottom of the vast Pacific Ocean. The youngest of them is at least eleven thousand years old.
This unique find makes it possible to assume that not all such creatures became extinct a couple of million years ago. Perhaps, at the very bottom of the depression, these incredible predators are hiding from human eyes. Research into the mysterious depths continues to this day, since the abyss is fraught with many secrets, the disclosure of which people have not yet come close to.
At the bottom of the depression, living organisms experience tremendous pressure. It would seem that in such conditions nothing living can exist. However, this opinion is erroneous. Here mollusks live quietly, their shells do not suffer from pressure at all. They are not even affected by hydrothermal vents that emit methane and hydrogen. Incredible, but true!
Another mystery is a hydrothermal spring called Champagne. Bubbles of carbon dioxide bubble up in its waters. This is the only such object in the world and it is located in a depression, which gave scientists a reason to talk about the possible origin of life in water in this very place.
There is a Daikoku volcano in the Mariana Trench. In its crater there is a lake of molten sulfur, which boils at an enormous temperature of 187 degrees. Nowhere else on earth can you find such a thing. The only analogue of such a phenomenon is in space (on the satellite of Jupiter called Io).
Amazing place
In the Mariana Trench, there are giant unicellular amoebae, the size of which reaches ten centimeters. They live next to uranium, lead, and mercury that are destructive to living things. However, they not only do not die from them, but also feel great.
The Mariana Trench is the greatest wonder on earth. Everything inanimate and living is combined here. Everything that kills life under normal conditions, at the bottom of the depression, on the contrary, gives strength for the survival of living organisms. Isn't it a miracle? How many unknown things are hidden in this place!
For the first time, the English deep-sea "Challenger" submarine sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1951. In 1960, the bathyscaphe "Trieste" was submerged to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10,915 m. The device recording sounds began to transmit to the surface noises resembling the grinding of saw teeth on metal. At the same time, obscure shadows appeared on the TV monitor, similar to giant fairy dragons.
These creatures had several heads and tails. An hour later, the scientists of the research vessel were worried that the unique equipment, made of super-strong titanium-cobalt steel beams, spherical in shape with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss forever. It was decided to lift her up. The equipment was retrieved from the depths for more than eight hours. As soon as he appeared on the surface, he was immediately put on a special raft. The TV camera and echo sounder were lifted to the deck. It turned out that the strongest steel beams of the structure were deformed, and the 20-centimeter steel cable, on which it was lowered, was half-sawn. Who tried to leave the device at depth and why is an absolute mystery.
This is not the only case of collision with the unexplained in the depths of the Mariana Trench. Something similar happened to the German research vehicle Highfish with a crew on board. Once at a depth of 7 km, the device suddenly refused to surface. Finding out the cause of the problem, the hydronauts turned on the infrared camera. What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, gripping its teeth into the bathyscaphe, tried to gnaw it like a nut. Having come to their senses, the crew activated a device called an "electric cannon". The monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss. At depths of 6,000 - 11,000 km, researchers found:
Barophilic bacteria (developing only at high pressure);
Of the protozoa - foraminifera (a detachment of protozoa of the subclass of rhizopods with a cytoplasmic body, dressed with a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);
From multicellular organisms - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, holothurians, bivalves and gastropods.
At the depths there is no sunlight, no algae, constant salinity, low temperatures, abundance of carbon dioxide, enormous hydrostatic pressure (increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters). What do the inhabitants of the abyss eat?
The food sources of deep-seated animals are bacteria, as well as rain of "corpses" and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals are either blind or with highly developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluoroids; in other forms, the surface of the body or parts of it glows. Therefore, the appearance of these animals is as terrible and incredible as the conditions in which they live. Among them - a frightening-looking worms 1.5 meters long without a mouth and anus, mutant octopuses, extraordinary starfish and some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified at all.
Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench or Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest geographic feature known on Earth. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is more than 1100 times more than normal. atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean. The depression is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, in the zone of movement along faults, where the Pacific Plate goes under the Philippine Plate.
The beginning of the study of the Mariana Trench was laid by the British expedition of the Challenger ship, which carried out the first systemic measurements of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. This military sailing three-masted corvette was converted into an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work in 1872.
The device recording sounds began to transmit noises to the surface, reminiscent of the grinding of saw teeth on metal. At the same time, obscure shadows appeared on the TV monitor, similar to giant fairy dragons. These creatures had several heads and tails. An hour later, scientists from the American research vessel Glomar Challenger were worried that the unique equipment made from super-strong titanium-cobalt steel beams in the NASA laboratory and having a spherical structure, the so-called hedgehog with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss forever. It was decided to pick it up immediately. The hedgehog was removed from the depths for more than eight hours. As soon as he appeared on the surface, he was immediately put on a special raft. The TV camera and echo sounder were lifted to the deck of the Glomar Challenger. It turned out that the strongest steel beams of the structure were deformed, and the 20-centimeter steel cable, on which it was lowered, was half-sawn. Who tried to leave the hedgehog in the depths and why is it an absolute mystery. The details of this interesting experiment, carried out by American oceanologists in the Mariana Trench, were published in 1996 by the New York Times (USA).
Dive into the Mariana Trench by James Cameron
There is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about distant space - the ocean floor. It is believed that world science has not really even begun to study it yet. On March 26, 2012, 50 years after the first dive, a man sank to the bottom again: the Deepsea Challenge bathyscaphe with Canadian director James Cameron sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Cameron became the third person to reach the deepest point of the ocean and the first to do it alone.
On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh dived into the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10,920 meters on the Trieste submarine. The dive took about 5 hours, and the time spent at the bottom was 12 minutes. It was an absolute depth record for manned and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Two researchers then discovered at a terrible depth only 6 species of living creatures, including flat fish up to 30 cm in size:
Let's go back to our days. This is the Deepsea Challenge, in which James Cameron sank to the bottom of the ocean. Developed in an Australian laboratory, it weighs 11 tons and is over 7 meters long.
The dive began on March 26. James Cameron's last words were: "Lower, lower, lower." When diving to the bottom of the ocean, the bathyscaphe turns over and vertically descends:
This is a real vertical torpedo that slides through a huge water column at high speed:
The compartment, in which Cameron was during the dive, is a metal sphere with a diameter of 109 cm with thick walls, capable of withstanding pressures of more than 1,000 atmospheres.
However, the underwater expedition was not entirely successful. Due to malfunction metal "hands"... controlled by hydraulics, James Cameron was unable to take samples from the ocean floor that scientists need to study geology.
Many were tormented by the question of animals that live at such a monstrous depth. “Probably everyone would like to hear that I saw some sea monster, but it was not there. There was nothing alive, more than 2-2.5 cm. " A few hours after the dive, the Deepsea Challenge bathyscaphe with the 57-year-old director successfully returned from the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Behind a veil of secrecy
For a person, everything unexplored has always been of great interest. And the depths of the sea keep so many secrets that more than one generation of scientists will be provided with work.
But there are points on the map that are not just covered with a veil of secrecy, but are the main theme of mystical stories.
One of these places is the Mariana Trench or Trench, which is a typical feature of the relief of the continental-ocean transition zones. In such places, the ocean floor sinks, which is a narrow long depression in shape. The deepest troughs are the Pacific ones.
The Mariana Islands gave the name to one of the deep-sea oceanic trenches with a length of two and a half thousand kilometers. It is distinguished by a flat bottom, the width of which is 1-5 kilometers, and steep V-shaped slopes. The maximum depth of the Mariana Trench is approximately 11 kilometers. This is the deepest point in the entire World Ocean. It is rather an abyss or abyss than a depression.
What else does a person know about this mysterious place? Exploration of the Mariana Trench began in the 19th century, when the Challenger ship with the members of the English expedition on board set out to measure the Pacific depths. The trough area is home to the oldest seafloor in the world. The depth of the Mariana Trench is connected with this. In 1960, a bathyscaphe of Trieste with two explorers on board plunged into the deepest part of the Challenger Abyss. This dive became a journey into the secret of the depths of the sea, since the relief of the trough was completely unexplored. The risk was great. The Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron contributed to the study of this issue, who, being the third person in the world to conquer the Mariana Trench, conducted research and obtained a lot of new invaluable information.
The inhabitants of the Mariana Trench require a separate discussion. Back in 1958, an expedition of Soviet scientists proved the existence of life at a depth of seven thousand meters. Before that, it was believed that it existed no further than six thousand. By the way, this expedition found that the maximum depth of the Mariana Trench is eleven twenty two meters. As for living organisms, their study is carried out by underwater vehicles made of materials that are distinguished by high strength, they are automatically piloted at depth. The video cameras with which these devices were equipped recorded living organisms (entire colonies) below the seven thousand meters mark. In what conditions do these one and a half meter worms, unidentified creatures two meters long with a soft body, mutated octopuses, sea stars live? In complete darkness, the absence of algae, with low temperatures and monstrous hydrostatic pressure. In such conditions, all living organisms have a really frightening appearance, and they feed mostly on bacteria.
The depth of the Mariana Trench keeps so many inexplicable things that ocean scientists will be trying to lift the veil of secrecy over this part of the Pacific Ocean for many years to come. This was once again confirmed by a Hollywood director who recently became a researcher. Having descended to a depth of eleven kilometers, he photographed a lot of interesting things.
Sources: zelenb.com, animalworld.com.ua, loveopium.ru, fb.ru
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February 16th, 2010
The Mariana Trench, or the Mariana Trench, is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest geographic feature known on Earth.
The depression stretches along the Mariana Islands for 1500 km; it has a V-shaped profile, steep (7-9 °) slopes, a flat bottom 1-5 km wide, which is divided by rapids into several closed depressions. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is more than 1100 times higher than the normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean. The depression is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, in the zone of movement along faults, where the Pacific Plate goes under the Philippine Plate.
The exploration of the Mariana Trench was initiated by the British expedition of the Challenger ship, which carried out the first systemic measurements of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. This military three-masted corvette with sailing equipment was rebuilt into an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work in 1872. Also, a significant contribution to the study of the Mariana deep-sea trench was made by Soviet researchers. In 1958, the expedition aboard the "Vityaz" established the existence of life at depths of more than 7000 m, thereby refuting the then prevailing idea of the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6000-7000 m. In 1960, the bathyscaphe "Trieste" was submerged to the bottom Mariana Trench to a depth of 10915 m.
The device recording sounds began to transmit noises to the surface, reminiscent of the grinding of saw teeth on metal. At the same time, obscure shadows appeared on the TV monitor, similar to giant fairy dragons. These creatures had several heads and tails. An hour later, the scientists of the American research vessel "Glomar Challenger" were worried that the unique apparatus made of super-strong titanium-cobalt steel beams in the NASA laboratory and having a spherical structure, the so-called "hedgehog" with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss forever. It was decided to pick it up immediately. The "hedgehog" was retrieved from the depths for more than eight hours. As soon as he appeared on the surface, he was immediately put on a special raft. The camera and the echo sounder were lifted to the deck of the Glomar Challenger. It turned out that the strongest steel beams of the structure were deformed, and the 20-centimeter steel cable, on which it was lowered, was half-sawn. Who tried to leave the "hedgehog" at depth and why is an absolute mystery. The details of this very interesting experiment, carried out by American oceanologists in the Mariana Trench, were published in 1996 by the New York Times (USA).
This is not the only case of collision with the unexplained in the depths of the Mariana Trench. Something similar happened to the German research vehicle Highfish with a crew on board. Once at a depth of 7 km, the device suddenly refused to surface. Finding out the cause of the problem, the hydronauts turned on the infrared camera. What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, gripping its teeth into the bathyscaphe, tried to gnaw it like a nut. Having come to their senses, the crew activated a device called an "electric cannon". The monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss.
The inexplicable and incomprehensible has always attracted people, therefore scientists around the world are so eager to answer the question: "What is hidden in its depths the Mariana Trench?"
Can living organisms live at such a huge depth, and how should they look, given that huge masses are pressing on them? ocean waters, the pressure of which exceeds 1100 atmospheres? The difficulties associated with the study and comprehension of creatures that live in these unimaginable depths are enough, but human ingenuity knows no boundaries. For a long time, oceanologists considered it madness to hypothesize that life could exist at depths of more than 6,000 meters in impenetrable darkness, under monstrous pressure and at temperatures close to zero. However, the results of research by scientists in the Pacific Ocean showed that even in these depths, well below the 6000-meter mark, there are huge colonies of living organisms pogonophora ((rogonophora; from the Greek pogon - beard and phoros - carrying), a type of marine invertebrates living in long chitinous tubes open at both ends). Recently, the veil of secrecy has been lifted by manned and automatic, made of heavy-duty materials, underwater vehicles equipped with video cameras. The result was the discovery of a rich animal community, made up of both well-known and less familiar marine groups.
Thus, at depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the following were found:
Barophilic bacteria (developing only at high pressure),
Of the protozoa - foraminifera (a detachment of protozoa of the subclass of rhizopods with a cytoplasmic body, dressed with a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);
From multicellular organisms - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, holothurians, bivalves and gastropods.
At the depths there is no sunlight, no algae, constant salinity, low temperatures, abundance of carbon dioxide, enormous hydrostatic pressure (increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters). What do the inhabitants of the abyss eat?
The food sources of deep-seated animals are bacteria, as well as rain of "corpses" and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals are either blind or with highly developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluoroids; in other forms, the surface of the body or parts of it glows. Therefore, the appearance of these animals is as terrible and incredible as the conditions in which they live. Among them - a frightening-looking worms 1.5 meters long, without a mouth and anus, mutant octopuses, extraordinary starfish and some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified at all.
So, a person could never resist the desire to explore the unknown, and the rapidly developing world of technical progress allows you to penetrate deeper into the secret world of the most inhospitable and rebellious environment in the world - the World Ocean. There will be enough subjects for research in the Mariana Trench for many more years, given that the most inaccessible and mysterious point of our planet, unlike Everest (altitude 8848 m above sea level), was conquered only once. So, on January 23, 1960, US naval officer Don Walsh and Swiss explorer Jacques Picard, protected by armored 12-centimeter thick walls of a bathyscaphe called "Trieste", managed to descend to a depth of 10,915 meters.
Despite the fact that scientists have taken a huge step in the study of the Mariana Trench, the questions have not diminished, new mysteries have emerged that have yet to be solved. And the ocean abyss knows how to keep its secrets. Will people be able to reveal them in the near future?
On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Donald Walsh reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench at a depth of 10,919 m in the bathyscaphe Trieste, the deepest part of the World Ocean. The water temperature at this depth was 2.4 ° C (minimum temperature equal to 1.4 ° C, observed at a depth of 3600 m). The bathyscaphe "Trieste" was designed and developed by Jacques' father, the famous Swiss explorer of the stratosphere Auguste Piccard.
The dimensions of the capsule, which housed the researchers inside the bathyscaphe, are small in relation to the size of the submarine as a whole. In particular, it is noticeably superior to tanks with metal ballast, one of which is visible at the top left.
Trieste, like other bathyscaphes, was a spherical sealed steel nacelle for the crew attached to a large float filled with gasoline to provide buoyancy. On the outer wall of the "Trieste" bathyscaphe a model of the Deep Sea wrist watch was fixed. A high degree of water resistance was provided not only by a sealed case, but also by a special liquid that filled the inner chamber of the watch instead of air.
The bathyscaphe floats on the principle of an iron. On the surface, it is held by a huge float filled with gasoline located above the gondola with the crew. The float also has one more important function: in the submerged position, it stabilizes the bathyscaphe vertically, preventing swinging and overturning. When gasoline is slowly released from the float, which is replaced by water, the bathyscaphe begins to dive. From this moment on, the device has only one way - down to the bottom. In this case, of course, movement in the horizontal direction is also possible with the help of propellers driven by the engine.
In order to rise to the surface, metal ballast is provided in the bathyscaphe, which can be shot, plates or blanks. Gradually getting rid of "excess weight", the apparatus rises. The metal ballast is held by electromagnets, so if something happens to the power supply system, the bathyscaphe immediately, like a balloon launched into the sky, "soars" upward.
One of the achievements of this dive, which had a beneficial effect on the ecological future of the planet, was the refusal of the nuclear powers from burying radioactive waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The fact is that Jacques Picard experimentally refuted the opinion prevailing at that time that at depths over 6000 m there was no upward movement of water masses.
Comparison with Everest
Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than distant planets Solar system, people explored only five percent of the ocean floor, which remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet. The deepest part ocean - Mariana Trench or Mariana Trenchis one of the most famous places, about which we still do not know very much.
With a water pressure that is a thousand times greater than at sea level, diving in this place is akin to suicide.
But thanks to modern technology and a few daredevils who, risking their lives, went down there, we learned a lot of interesting things about this amazing place.
Mariana Trench on the map. Where is she located?
The Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is located in the western pacific east (about 200 km) from 15 Mariana Islands near Guam. It is a crescent-shaped gutter in earth crust about 2,550 km long and 69 km wide on average.
Coordinates of the Mariana Trench: 11 ° 22 ′ north latitude and 142 ° 35 ′ east longitude.
Depth of the Mariana Trench
According to recent research 2011, the depth of the deepest point in the Mariana Trench is about 10,994 meters ± 40 meters... For comparison, the height of the high summit the world - Everest is 8,848 meters. This means that if Everest was in the Mariana Trench, then it would be covered with another 2.1 km of water.
Here are others Interesting Facts about what can be found along the way and at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench
1. Very hot water
Descending to this depth, we expect it to be very cold there. The temperature here reaches slightly above zero, varying 1 to 4 degrees Celsius.
However, at a depth of about 1.6 km from the surface of the Pacific Ocean there are hydrothermal vents called "black smokers". They shoot water that heats up to 450 degrees Celsius.
This water is rich in minerals that help keep the area alive. Despite the water temperature, which is hundreds of degrees above the boiling point, she doesn't boil here due to the incredible pressure, 155 times higher than on the surface.
Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench
2. Giant toxic amoeba
A few years ago, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, giant 10 cm amoebas called xenophyophores.
These single-celled organisms are likely to have grown so large because of the environment in which they live at a depth of 10.6 km. Cold temperatures, high pressure and lack of sunlight most likely contributed to the fact that these amoebas have become enormous.
In addition, xenophyophores have incredible abilities. They are resistant to many elements and chemical substances, including uranium, mercury and lead,that would kill other animals and people.
3. Molluscs
The strong pressure of the water in the Mariana Trench does not give any animal with shell or bones a chance of survival. However, in 2012, shellfish were found in a trench near serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which allows living organisms to form.
TO How did the molluscs keep their shells under this pressure? remains unknown.
In addition, hydrothermal vents release another gas, hydrogen sulfide, which is fatal to shellfish. However, they learned to bind the sulfur compound into a safe protein, which allowed the population of these molluscs to survive.
At the bottom of the Mariana Trench
4. Pure liquid carbon dioxide
Hydrothermal Champagne spring The Mariana Trench, which lies outside the Okinawa Trench near Taiwan, is the only known underwater area where liquid carbon dioxide can be found... The source, discovered in 2005, gets its name from the bubbles, which turned out to be carbon dioxide.
Many believe that these springs, called "white smokers" due to the lower temperature, may be the source of life. It was in the depths of the oceans with low temperatures and an abundance of chemicals and energy that life could originate.
5. Slime
If we had the opportunity to swim to the very depths of the Mariana Trench, then we would feel that she covered with a layer of viscous mucus... Sand, in the form we are used to, does not exist there.
The bottom of the depression is mainly composed of crushed shells and plankton debris that have accumulated at the bottom of the depression for many years. Due to the incredible pressure of the water, almost everything there turns into fine grayish-yellow thick mud.
Mariana Trench
6. Liquid sulfur
Daikoku volcano, which lies at a depth of about 414 meters on the way to the Mariana Trench, is the source of one of the most rare occurrences on our planet. Here is lake of pure molten sulfur... The only place where liquid sulfur can be found is Jupiter's moon Io.
In this pit called the "cauldron", a seething black emulsion boils at 187 degrees Celsius... Although scientists have not been able to investigate the site in detail, there may be even more liquid sulfur contained deeper. It may reveal the secret of the origin of life on Earth.
According to Gaia's hypothesis, our planet is one self-governing organism, in which all living and non-living things are combined to support its life. If this hypothesis is correct, then a number of signals can be observed in the natural cycles and systems of the Earth. So the sulfur compounds created by organisms in the ocean must be stable enough in the water to allow them to pass into the air, and then return to land.
7. Bridges
At the end of 2011, in the Mariana Trench, it was discovered four stone bridges, which stretched from one end to the other for 69 km. They appear to have formed at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates.
One of the bridges Dutton Ridge, which was discovered back in the 1980s, turned out to be incredibly high, like a small mountain. In the most high point, the ridge reaches 2.5 km over the Challenger Abyss.
Like many aspects of the Mariana Trench, the purpose of these bridges remains unclear. However, the very fact that these formations were found in one of the most mysterious and unexplored places is amazing.
8. The immersion of James Cameron in the Mariana Trench
Since opening the deepest place of the Mariana Trench - "Challenger Abyss" in 1875, only three people visited it. The first were an American lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Piccard who dived on 23 January 1960 on the ship "Trieste".
52 years later, another person dared to dive here - a famous film director James Cameron... So March 26, 2012 Cameron went down and took some photos.
The Mariana Trench is the most deep place on our planet. I think almost everyone has heard about it or studied at school, but I myself, for example, have long forgotten both its depth and the facts about how it was measured and studied. So I decided to “refresh” my and your memory
This absolute depth got its name thanks to the nearby Mariana Islands... The entire depression stretches along the islands for one and a half thousand kilometers and has a characteristic V-shaped profile. In fact, this is an ordinary tectonic fault, the place where the Pacific plate goes under the Philippine plate, just Mariana Trench- this is the deepest place of this kind) Its slopes are steep, on average about 7-9 °, and the bottom is flat, 1 to 5 kilometers wide, and divided by rapids into several closed sections. The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench reaches 108.6 MPa - more than 1,100 times the normal atmospheric pressure!
The first to dare to challenge the abyss were the British - the military three-masted corvette "Challenger" with sailing equipment was rebuilt into an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work in 1872. But the first data on the depth of the Mariana Trench was obtained only in 1951 - according to the measurements, the depth of the depression was declared equal to 10 863 m. After that, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench was called the “Challenger Deep”. It is hard to imagine that in the depths of the Mariana Trench the most high mountain of our planet - Everest, and above it there will still be more than a kilometer of water to the surface ... Of course, it will not fit in area, but exclusively in height, but the numbers are still amazing ...
The next researchers of the Mariana Trench were already Soviet scientists - in 1957, during the 25th voyage of the Soviet research vessel "Vityaz", they not only announced maximum depth troughs equal to 11,022 meters, but they also established the presence of life at depths of more than 7,000 meters, thereby refuting the notion of the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6,000-7,000 meters prevailing at that time. In 1992 "Knight" was transferred to the newly formed Museum of the World Ocean. The ship was repaired at the shipyard for two years, and on July 12, 1994, it moored forever at the museum pier in the very center of Kaliningrad.
On January 23, 1960, the first and only human dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was carried out. Thus, the only people who have been “at the bottom of the Earth” were the US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and the researcher Jacques Picard
During the dive, they were protected by armored, 127 mm thick, walls of the bathyscaphe called "Trieste"
The Bathyscaphe was named after the Italian city of Trieste, in which the main work on its creation was carried out. According to the instruments on board the Trieste, Walsh and Picard plunged to a depth of 11,521 meters, but later this figure was slightly corrected - 10,918 meters
The dive took about five hours, and the ascent took about three hours, the researchers stayed at the bottom for only 12 minutes. But even this time was enough for them to make a sensational discovery - at the bottom they found flat fish up to 30 cm in size, similar to a flounder !
Studies in 1995 showed that the depth of the Mariana Trench is about 10,920 m, and the Japanese Kaik? Probe, launched into the Challenger Abyss on March 24, 1997, recorded a depth of 10,911.4 meters. Below is a diagram of the depression - when clicked, it will open in a new window in normal size
The Mariana Trench has repeatedly frightened researchers with monsters lurking in its depths. For the first time the expedition of the American research vessel "Glomar Challenger" collided with the unknown. Some time after the start of the descent of the apparatus, the device recording sounds began to transmit to the surface some kind of metallic rattle, reminiscent of the sound of metal being cut. At this time, some obscure shadows appeared on the monitor, similar to giant fairy dragons with several heads and tails. An hour later, scientists were worried that the unique equipment, made in the NASA laboratory from beams of ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel, having a spherical structure, the so-called “hedgehog” with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss of the Mariana Trench forever - so it was decided to immediately raise apparatus on board the ship. The “hedgehog” was taken from the depths for more than eight hours, and as soon as it appeared on the surface, they immediately put it on a special raft. The TV camera and echo sounder were lifted to the deck of the Glomar Challenger. The researchers were horrified when they saw how deformed the strongest steel beams of the structure were, as for the 20-centimeter steel cable on which the hedgehog was lowered, the scientists were not mistaken in the nature of the sounds transmitted from the abyss of water - the cable was half sawn. Who tried to leave the device at depth and why - will forever remain a mystery. The details of this incident were published in 1996 by the New York Times
Another encounter with the unexplained in the depths of the Mariana Trench happened with the German research vehicle "Highfish" with a crew on board. At a depth of 7 km, the vehicle suddenly stopped moving. To find out the cause of the malfunction, the hydronauts turned on the infrared camera ... What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, gnawing its teeth into the bathyscaphe, tried to gnaw it like a nut. Recovering from the shock, the crew activated a device called an "electric cannon", and the monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss ...
On May 31, 2009, the automatic submarine Nereus sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to measurements, it sank 10,902 meters below sea level
At the bottom, Nereus filmed a video, took some photos and even collected sediment samples at the bottom
Thanks to modern technology, researchers were able to capture a few representatives Mariana Trench, I suggest you get to know them too :)
So, now we know that different octopuses live in the Mariana Depths.
Scary and not so scary fish)
And various other incomprehensible creatures :)
Perhaps not much time is left until the moment when technology will allow you to get to know the inhabitants in all its diversity. Mariana Trench and other ocean depths, but so far we have what we have
