There is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about deep space - mysterious ocean floor. It is believed that world science has not really even begun to study it.

On March 26, 2012, 50 years after the first dive, a man again sank to the bottom of the deepest trench on Earth: 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 in the ocean and the first to do it alone.

Mariana Trench - the deepest trench on earth in the west Pacific Ocean. It stretches along the Mariana Islands for 2,500 km. The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is called "Challenger Abyss". According to the latest research in 2011, its depth is 10,994 meters (±40 m) below sea level. By the way, speaking highest peak world - Everest rises to a height of "only" 8,848 meters.

At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the water pressure reaches 1,072 atmospheres, i.e. 1072 times the normal atmospheric pressure. (Infographics ria.ru):

Half a century ago. Bathyscaphe "Trieste", designed by the Swiss scientist Auguste Picard, on which a record dive into the Mariana Trench was made in 1960:

On January 23, 1960, Jacques Picard and US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh made a dive into the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10,920 meters on the Trieste bathyscaphe. 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 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 Deep Sea Bathyscaphe, on which James Cameron sank to the bottom of the ocean. It was developed in an Australian laboratory, weighs 11 tons and has a length of more than 7 meters:

The dive began on March 26 at 05:15 am local time. James Cameron's last words were: "Lower, lower, lower."

When diving to the bottom of the ocean, the bathyscaphe turns over and falls vertically down:

This is a real vertical torpedo that glides through a huge column of water 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 that can withstand pressures of more than 1,000 atmospheres:

In the photo, to the left of the director, you can see a hatch covering the sphere:

HD video. Dive:

James Cameron spent more than 3 hours at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, during which he took photos and videos of the underwater world. The result of this underwater journey will be a joint film with National Geographic. The photo shows manipulators with cameras:

At a depth of 11 kilometers:

3D camera:

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 kind of 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.

The rise of the bathyscaphe:

James Cameron - the first person in the world to make a solo dive into the abyss- to the bottom of Mariana. In the coming weeks, it will sink to a depth of 4 more times.

For the first time, the English deep-sea submersible Challenger descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1951. In 1960, the Trieste bathyscaphe was immersed to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10915 m. The sound-detecting device began to transmit noises to the surface, reminiscent of the grinding of saw teeth on metal. At the same time, vague 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 became worried that the unique equipment, made of beams of ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel, spherical in shape with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss forever. It was decided to take her upstairs. The equipment 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 brought up on 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 turned out to be half sawn. Who tried to leave the device at depth and why is an absolute mystery.

This is not the only case of a collision with the inexplicable in the depths of the Mariana Trench. Something similar happened to the German research vehicle "Hyfish" with a crew on board. Once at a depth of 7 km, the device suddenly refused to float. Finding 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, biting its teeth into a bathyscaphe, tried to crack it like a nut. Having come to their senses, the crew activated a device called an "electric gun". The monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss. At depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the 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 in a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);

Of the multicellular - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, holothurians, bivalves and gastropods.

At depths there is no sunlight, no algae, salinity is constant, temperatures are low, an 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 animals are bacteria, as well as the rain of "corpses" and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals or blind, or with very developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluores; in other forms, the surface of the body or parts of it glow. Therefore, the appearance of these animals is as terrible and incredible as the conditions in which they live. Among them are terrifying worms 1.5 meters long without a mouth and anus, mutant octopuses, unusual starfish and some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified at all.

Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest known on Earth geographical objects. 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 border of the docking 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 systematic measurements of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. This three-masted, sail-rigged military corvette was rebuilt as 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, vague shadows appeared on the TV monitor, resembling giant fairy dragons. These creatures had several heads and tails. An hour later, scientists on the American research vessel Glomar Challenger became worried that the unique apparatus, made from ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel beams in the NASA laboratory, 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 raise it 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 TV camera and echo sounder were lifted onto 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 turned out to be half sawn. Who tried to leave the hedgehog at depth and why is an absolute mystery. The details of this most interesting experiment, conducted 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 deep space - the bottom of the ocean. It is believed that world science has not really even begun to study it. 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 in the ocean and the first to do it alone.

On January 23, 1960, Jacques Picard and US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh made a dive into the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10,920 meters on the Trieste bathyscaphe. 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 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 submersible, on which James Cameron plunged to the bottom of the ocean. It was developed in an Australian laboratory, weighs 11 tons and is over 7 meters long.

The dive began on March 26th. James Cameron's last words were: "Lower, lower, lower." When diving to the bottom of the ocean, the bathyscaphe turns over and falls vertically down:

This is a real vertical torpedo that glides through a huge column of water at high speed:

The compartment in which Cameron was located during the dive is a metal sphere with a diameter of 109 cm with thick walls that can withstand 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 kind of 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 the 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 mystery, but are the main theme of mystical stories.

One of these places, the Mariana Trench or Trench, is a typical element of the relief of the continental-ocean transition zones. In such places, there is a decrease in the ocean floor, which is a narrow long depression in shape. The deepest trenches are the Pacific.

The Mariana Islands gave the name to one of the deep ocean trenches, two and a half thousand kilometers long. 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 of the entire oceans. It is more of an abyss or abyss than a depression.

What else is known to man about this mysterious place? The study of the Mariana Trench began in the 19th century, when the Challenger ship, with members of the English expedition on board, set off to measure the Pacific depths. In the gutter area is the oldest of the sea bottoms in the world. It is with this that the depth of the Mariana Trench is connected. In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste, with two researchers on board, plunged into the deepest part of the Challenger Deep. This dive became a journey into the mystery of the deep sea, since the relief of the trench was completely unexplored. The risk was great. The contribution to the study of this issue was made by Hollywood film director James Cameron, 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 thousand twenty-two meters. As for living organisms, their study is carried out by underwater vehicles made of materials of high strength, at depth they are automatically piloted. The video cameras with which these devices were equipped recorded living organisms (whole colonies) below the mark of seven thousand meters. In what conditions do these one and a half meter worms live, unidentified creatures two meters long with a soft body, mutated octopuses, sea stars? In complete darkness, without algae, at low temperatures and monstrous hydrostatic pressure. Under such conditions, all living organisms have a really awesome look, and they mostly feed on bacteria.

The depth of the Mariana Trench keeps so much inexplicable that oceanologists will still long years try to lift the veil of secrecy over this part of the Pacific Ocean. This was once again confirmed by the director from Hollywood, 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

The Mariana Trench is not a vertical abyss. It is a crescent-shaped trough that stretches 2,500 km east of the Philippines and west of Guam, USA. The deepest point of the basin, the Challenger Deep, is located at a distance of 11 km from the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Everest, if it were at the bottom of the depression, 2.1 km would not be enough to sea level.

Map of the Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench (as the trench is also commonly called) is part of a global network of troughs that cross the seabed and were formed as a result of ancient geological events. They arise when two tectonic plates collide, when one layer sinks under the other and goes into the Earth's mantle.

The underwater trench was discovered by the British research ship Challenger during the first global oceanographic expedition. In 1875, scientists tried to measure the depth with a diplot - a rope with a load tied to it and meter markings. The rope was only enough for 4,475 fathoms (8,367 m). Almost a hundred years later, the Challenger II returned to the Mariana Trench with an echo sounder and set the current depth to 10,994 m.

The bottom of the Mariana Trench is hidden in eternal darkness - the sun's rays do not penetrate to such a depth. The temperature is only a few degrees above zero - and close to the freezing point. The pressure in the abyss of the Challenger is 108.6 MPa, which is about 1,072 times the normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean. This is five times the pressure that is created when a bullet hits a bulletproof object and is approximately equal to the pressure inside a reactor for the synthesis of polyethylene. But people have found a way to get to the bottom.

man in the deep

The first people to visit the Challenger abyss were the US military Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. In 1960, on the Trieste bathyscaphe, they descended 10,918 m in five hours. At this point, the researchers spent 20 minutes and saw almost nothing because of the silt clouds raised by the apparatus. Except for the fish from the flounder species, which was hit by a searchlight beam. The presence of life under such high pressure was the main discovery of the mission.

Before Piccard and Walsh, scientists believed that fish could not live in the Mariana Trench. The pressure in it is so great that calcium can only exist in liquid form. This means that the bones of vertebrates must literally dissolve. No bones, no fish. But nature has shown scientists that they are wrong: living organisms are able to adapt even to such unbearable conditions.

A lot of living organisms in the abyss of the Challenger were discovered by the Deepsea Challenger bathyscaphe, on which director James Cameron alone descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 2012. In soil samples taken by the apparatus, scientists found 200 species of invertebrates, and at the bottom of the depression - strange translucent shrimps and crabs.

At a depth of 8 thousand meters, the bathyscaphe discovered the deepest-sea fish - a new representative of the species of lipar or sea slugs. The head of the fish resembles that of a dog, and its body is very thin and elastic - while moving, it resembles a translucent napkin that is carried by the current.

A few hundred meters below live giant ten-centimeter amoeba called xenophyophores. These organisms show amazing resistance to several elements and chemicals such as mercury, uranium and lead that would kill other animals or humans in minutes.

Scientists believe that there are many more species at depth waiting to be discovered. In addition, it is still not clear how such microorganisms - extremophiles - can survive in such extreme conditions.

The answer to this question will lead to a breakthrough in biomedicine and biotechnology and will help to understand how life began on Earth. For example, researchers from the University of Hawaii believe that thermal mud volcanoes near the basin could provide conditions for the survival of the first organisms on the planet.

Volcanoes at the bottom of the Mariana Trench

What's the break?

The depression owes its depth to the fault of two tectonic plates - the Pacific layer goes under the Philippine, forming a deep trench. The regions in which such geological events have occurred are called the subduction zone.

The thickness of each plate is almost 100 km, and the depth of the fault is at least 700 km from the lowest point of the Challenger Deep. “This is an iceberg. The man wasn't even at the top - 11 was nothing compared to the 700 lurking in the depths. The Mariana Trench is the boundary between the limits of human knowledge and a reality that is inaccessible to man,” says geophysicist Robert Stern from the University of Texas.

Plates at the bottom of the Mariana Trench Photo: NOAA

Scientists suggest that through the subduction zone into the Earth's mantle, water in large volumes - the rocks at the boundaries of the faults act like sponges, absorbing water and transporting it to the bowels of the planet. As a result, the substance is at a depth of 20 to 100 km below the seabed.

Geologists from the University of Washington have found that over the past million years, more than 79 million tons of water have entered the bowels of the earth through the junction - this is 4.3 times more than previous estimates.

The main question is what happens to the water in the bowels. Volcanoes are thought to complete the water cycle by returning water to the atmosphere as water vapor during eruptions. This theory was supported by previous measurements of the volume of water penetrating into the mantle. Volcanoes ejected into the atmosphere approximately equal to the absorbed volume.

A new study refutes this theory - calculations suggest that the Earth absorbs more water than it returns. And this is really strange - provided that the level of the World Ocean over the past few hundred years has not only not decreased, but also increased by several centimeters.

A possible solution is to abandon the theory of equal capacity of all subduction zones on Earth. It is likely that the conditions in the Mariana Trench are more extreme than in other parts of the planet, and more water enters the bowels through a rift in the Challenger Deep.

“Does the amount of water depend on the structural features of the subduction zone, for example, on the angle of the bend of the plates? We assume that similar faults exist in Alaska and Latin America, but so far man has not been able to find a deeper structure than the Mariana Trench, ”added Doug Vines, lead author of the study.

Water hiding in the bowels of the Earth is not the only mystery of the Mariana Trench. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) calls the region an amusement park for geologists.

This is the only place on the planet where carbon dioxide exists in liquid form. It is ejected by several underwater volcanoes located outside the Okinawa Trough near Taiwan.

At a depth of 414 m in the Mariana Trench is the Daikoku volcano, which is a lake of pure sulfur in liquid form, which constantly boils at a temperature of 187 ° C. Geothermal springs are located 6 km below, throwing water at a temperature of 450 ° C. But this water does not boil - the process is hindered by the pressure exerted by a 6.5-kilometer water column.

The ocean floor has been less explored by man today than the moon. Probably, scientists will be able to detect faults deeper than the Mariana Trench, or at least explore its structure and features.

In honor of which it, in fact, got its name. The basin is a crescent-shaped ravine on the ocean floor with a length of 2,550 km. with an average width of 69 km. According to the latest measurements (2014), the maximum depth of the Mariana Trench is 10 984 m. This point is located at the southern end of the trough and is called the Challenger Deep. Challenger Deep).

The trench was formed at the junction of two lithospheric tectonic plates - the Pacific and the Philippine. The Pacific Plate is older and heavier. For millions of years, she "creeped" under the younger Philippine plate.

Opening

For the first time, the Mariana Trench was discovered by a scientific expedition of a sailing ship " Challenger". This corvette, which was originally a warship, was converted into a scientific vessel in 1872 specifically for the Royal Society of London for the Advancement of Natural Knowledge. The ship was equipped with biochemical laboratories, means for measuring depth, water temperature and soil sampling. In the same year, in December, the ship set off for scientific research and spent three and a half years at sea, covering a journey of 70,000 nautical miles. At the end of the expedition, which was recognized as one of the most scientifically successful since the famous geographical and scientific discoveries of the 16th century, over 4,000 new animal species were described, almost 500 underwater objects were deep-seated and soil samples were taken from various parts of the oceans.

Against the backdrop of important scientific discoveries made by the Challenger, the discovery of an underwater trough, the depth of which strikes the imagination of even contemporaries, not to mention scientists of the 19th century, stood out in particular. True, initial depth measurements showed that its depth was just over 8,000 m, but even this value was enough to talk about the discovery of the deepest point known to man on the planet.

The new depression was called the Mariana Trench - in honor of the nearby Mariana Islands, which in turn are named after Marianne of Austria, Queen of Spain, wife of King Philip IV of Spain.

Exploration of the Mariana Trench continued only in 1951. English survey vessel Challenger II explored the trench with an echo sounder and found that its maximum depth is much greater than previously thought, and is 10,899 m. This point was given the name "Challenger Abyss" in honor of the first expedition of 1872-1876.

Abyss Challenger

Abyss Challenger is a relatively small flat plain in the south of the Mariana Trench. Its length is 11 km and its width is about 1.6 km. Along its edges are gentle slopes.

Its exact depth, which is called a meter per meter, is still unknown. This is due to the errors of the echo sounders and sonars themselves, the changing depth of the oceans, as well as the uncertainty that the very bottom of the abyss remains motionless. In 2009, the US vessel Kilo Moana (eng. RV Kilo Moana) determined a depth of 10,971 m with an error probability of 22-55 m. the value is fixed in reference books and is currently considered the closest to the real one.

diving

Only four scientific apparatuses have visited the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and only two expeditions were people.

Project "Nekton"

The first descent into the Abyss of the Challenger took place in 1960 on a manned submersible " Trieste”, named after the Italian city of the same name, where it was created. It was flown by an American lieutenant in the US Navy Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard. The apparatus was designed by Jacques' father, Auguste Piccard, who already had experience in creating bathyscaphes.

Trieste made its first dive in 1953 in the Mediterranean Sea, where it reached a record depth of 3,150 m at the time. In total, the bathyscaphe made several dives between 1953 and 1957. and the experience of its operation has shown that it can dive to more serious depths.

Trieste was bought by the US Navy in 1958 when the United States became interested in seabed exploration in the Pacific region, where some island states came under its de facto jurisdiction as victorious countries in World War II.

After some improvements, in particular, even more compaction of the outer part of the hull, Trieste began to prepare for diving into the Mariana Trench. Jacques Piccard remained the pilot of the bathyscaphe, since he had the greatest experience in piloting Trier in particular and bathyscaphes in general. His companion was Don Walsh, then a US Navy lieutenant who served on a submarine and later became a well-known scientist and marine specialist.

The project of the first dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench received a code name Project "Nekton", although this name did not catch on among the people.

The dive began on the morning of January 23, 1960 at 8:23 local time. To a depth of 8 km. the apparatus descended at a speed of 0.9 m/s, and then slowed down to 0.3 m/s. The researchers saw the bottom only at 13:06. Thus, the time of the first dive was almost 5 hours. At the very bottom of the bathyscaphe was only 20 minutes. During this time, the researchers measured the density and temperature of the water (it was + 3.3ºС), measured the radioactive background, observed an unknown fish, similar to a flounder, and a shrimp suddenly found themselves at the bottom. Also, based on the measured pressure, the immersion depth was calculated, which amounted to 11,521 m, which was later corrected to 10,916 m.

Being at the bottom of the Abyss of the Challenger, they explored and managed to refresh themselves with a chocolate bar.

After that, the bathyscaphe was freed from the ballast and the ascent began, which took less time - 3.5 hours.

Submersible "Kaiko"

Kaiko (Kaikō) is the second of four vehicles that reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. But he went there twice. This uninhabited remote-controlled underwater vehicle was created by the Japan Agency for Marine Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and was intended to study the deep seabed. The device was equipped with three video cameras, as well as two manipulator arms controlled remotely from the surface.

He made more than 250 dives and made a huge contribution to science, but he made his most famous trip in 1995, diving to a depth of 10,911 m in the Challenger Abyss. It took place on March 24 and samples of extremophile benthic organisms were brought to the surface - the so-called animals that can survive in the most extreme environmental conditions.

Kaiko returned to the Challenger Abyss again a year later, in February 1996, and took samples of soil and microorganisms from the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Unfortunately, Kaiko was lost in 2003 after a break in the cable connecting it to the carrier vessel.

Deep-sea vehicle "Nereus"

Unmanned remote-controlled deep-sea vehicle " Nereus" (eng. Nereus) closes the top three vehicles that reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. His dive took place in May 2009. Nereus reached a depth of 10,902 m. He was sent to the site of the very first expedition to the bottom of the Challenger Abyss. He spent 10 hours at the bottom, broadcasting live video from his cameras to the carrier ship, after which he collected water and soil samples and successfully returned to the surface.

The device was lost in 2014 during a dive into the Kermadec trench at a depth of 9,900 m.

Deepsea Challenger

The last dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to date was made by the famous Canadian director James Cameron, inscribed not only in the history of cinema, but also in the history of great research. It happened on March 26, 2012 on a single-seat bathyscaphe Deepsea Challenger built by Australian engineer Ron Alloon in collaboration with National Geographic and Rolex. The main objective of this dive was to collect documentary evidence of life at such extreme depths. From the soil samples taken, 68 new animal species were discovered. The director himself said that the only animal he saw at the bottom was an amphipod, an amphipod that looked like a small shrimp about 3 cm long. The footage formed the basis documentary film, telling about his immersion in the Abyss of the Challenger.

James Cameron became the third person on Earth to visit the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He set a diving speed record - his bathyscaphe reached a depth of 11 km. in less than two hours. He also became the first person to reach this depth in a solo dive. At the bottom, he spent 6 hours, which is also a record. Bathyscaphe Trieste was at the bottom of only 20 minutes.

Animal world

The first expedition of Trieste with great surprise told that there is life at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Although it was previously believed that the existence of life in such conditions is simply not possible. According to Jacques Piccard, they saw at the bottom a fish resembling an ordinary flounder, about 30 cm long, as well as amphipod shrimp. Many marine biologists are skeptical that the Trier crew actually saw a fish, but they do not so much question the words of the researchers as they are inclined to believe that they mistook a sea cucumber or other invertebrate for a fish.

During the second expedition, the Kaiko apparatus took soil samples and indeed found many tiny organisms in it that could survive in absolute darkness at temperatures close to 0 ° C and under monstrous pressure. Not a single skeptic remained who questioned the existence of life everywhere in the ocean, even in the most incredible conditions. The truth remained not clear how such deep-sea life is developed. Or are the only representatives of the Mariana Trench - the simplest microorganisms, crustaceans and invertebrates?

In December 2014, a new species of sea slugs was discovered - a family of deep-sea marine fish. The cameras recorded them at a depth of 8,145 m, which at that time was an absolute record for fish.

In the same year, cameras recorded several more species of huge crustaceans, which differ from their shallow-water relatives in deep-sea gigantism, which is generally inherent in many deep-sea species.

In May 2017, scientists reported the discovery of another new species of sea slugs, which were found at a depth of 8,178 m.

All deep-sea inhabitants of the Mariana Trench are almost blind, slow and unpretentious animals that can survive in the most extreme conditions. Popular stories that the Challenger Abyss is inhabited by marine, megalodon and other huge animals are nothing more than fiction. The Mariana Trench is fraught with many secrets and mysteries, and new species of animals are no less interesting to scientists than relic animals known since the Paleozoic. Being at such a depth for millions of years, evolution has made them completely different from shallow-water species.

Current research and future diving

The Mariana Trench continues to attract the attention of scientists around the world, despite the high cost of research and their poor practical application. Ichthyologists are interested in new types of animals and their adaptive abilities. Geologists are interested in this region from the point of view of the processes taking place in the lithospheric plates and the formation of underwater mountain ranges. Simple researchers dream of just visiting the bottom of the deepest trench on our planet.

Several expeditions to the Mariana Trench are currently planned:

1. American company Triton Submarines designs and manufactures private submersibles. The newest Triton 36000/3 model, consisting of a crew of 3, is planned to be sent to the Challenger Abyss in the near future. Its characteristics allow reaching a depth of 11 km. in just 2 hours.

2. Company Virgin Oceanic(Virgin Oceanic), which specializes in private shallow diving, is developing a single-seat submersible that can take a passenger to the bottom of the chute in 2.5 hours.

3. American company DOER marine working on a project deep search"- one or two-seater bathyscaphe.

4. In 2017, the famous Russian traveler Fedor Konyukhov announced that he plans to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

1. Established in 2009 Nautical national monument Mariana Islands. It does not include the islands themselves, but covers only their marine territory, with an area of ​​​​more than 245 thousand km². Almost the entire Mariana Trench was included in the monument, although its deepest point, the Challenger Abyss, did not fall into it.

2. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the water column exerts a pressure of 1,086 bar. This is a thousand times more than standard atmospheric pressure.

3. Water compresses very poorly and at the bottom of the gutter its density increases by only 5%. This means that 100 liters of ordinary water at a depth of 11 km. will occupy a volume of 95 liters.

4. Although the Mariana Trench is considered the deepest point on the planet, it is not the closest point to the center of the Earth. Our planet is not a perfect spherical shape, and its radius is about 25 km. less at the poles than at the equator. Therefore, the deepest point at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean is 13 km. closer to the center of the Earth than in the Challenger Abyss.

5. The Mariana Trench (and other deep-sea trenches) have been proposed to be used as nuclear waste cemeteries. It is assumed that the movement of the plates will "push" the waste under the tectonic plate deep into the Earth. The proposal is not devoid of logic, but the dumping of nuclear waste is prohibited by international law. In addition, the zones of joints of lithospheric plates give rise to earthquakes of enormous force, the consequences of which are unpredictable for buried waste.

The Mariana Trench (or the Mariana Trench) is a crescent-shaped trench in the earth's crust, measuring 2550 by 69 km. This is the deepest place on Earth (about 11 thousand kilometers!). The depression is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean near the Mariana Islands, which gave it its name.

The Mariana Trench is described in detail below and its distinctive features are given.

The uniqueness of the hollow

Few people decide to dive to the bottom of the ocean in this place, since in the Mariana Trench the water pressure exceeds the pressure in other parts of the ocean by about a thousand times.

The water temperature in the gutter varies from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius. In addition, here a large number of hydrothermal springs (in other words, "black smokers"), from which water comes with a temperature of up to 450 ° C.

Due to the strong pressure of the water, all living creatures in this part of the sea are doomed to extinction. But at the beginning of the 21st century, living organisms (mollusks) were discovered near the accumulations of serpentine, which could survive in such conditions.

In addition, liquid carbon dioxide was detected here. The Mariana Trench is the only such underwater area, named Champagne (after the bubbles that break out of the water).

Dirt or mucus is the usual coating of the bottom of the depression. Due to the fact that the pressure does not allow the remnants of animals and plankton to rise to the top, everything remains on the ocean floor, turning into grey-yellow mud. There is practically no sand in the gutter.

The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep.

You can learn about other interesting facts from the section.