Many people know that the highest point is (8848 m). If you are asked where the deepest point of the ocean is, what will you answer? Mariana Trench– this is the very place we want to tell you about.

But first I would like to note that they never cease to amaze us with their mysteries. The described place has also not yet been properly studied for completely objective reasons.

So, we offer you or, as it is also called, the Mariana Trench. Below are valuable photographs of the mysterious inhabitants of this abyss.

It is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean. This is the deepest place in the world known to date.

Having a V-shape, the depression runs along the Mariana Islands for 1,500 km.

Mariana Trench on the map

An interesting fact is that the Mariana Trench is located at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine.

The pressure at the bottom of the trench reaches 108.6 MPa, which is almost 1072 times higher than normal pressure.

You probably now understand that due to such conditions, exploring the mysterious bottom of the world, as this place is also called, is extremely difficult. However, the scientific community, since the end of the 19th century, has not stopped studying this mystery of nature step by step.

Mariana Trench Research

In 1875, the first attempt was made to explore the Mariana Trench globally. The British expedition "Challenger" carried out measurements and analysis of the trench. It was this group of scientists who set the initial mark at 8184 meters.

Of course, this was not the full depth, since the capabilities of that time were significantly more modest than today's measuring systems.

Soviet scientists also made enormous contributions to research. An expedition led by the research vessel Vityaz began its own studies in 1957 and discovered that there was life at a depth of more than 7,000 meters.

Until this time, there was a strong belief that life at such depths was simply impossible.

We invite you to look at an interesting image Mariana Trench to scale:

Diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench

1960 was one of the most fruitful years in terms of research into the Mariana Trench. The research bathyscaphe Trieste made a record dive to a depth of 10,915 meters.

This is where something mysterious and inexplicable began. Special devices that record underwater sound began to transmit eerie noises to the surface, reminiscent of the grinding of a saw on metal.

The monitors registered mystical shadows that were shaped like fairy-tale dragons with several heads. For an hour, scientists tried to record as much data as possible, but then the situation began to get out of control.

It was decided to immediately raise the bathyscaphe to the surface, as there were reasonable fears that if we waited a little longer, the bathyscaphe would forever remain in the mysterious abyss of the Mariana Trench.

For more than 8 hours, specialists recovered from the bottom unique equipment made of heavy-duty materials.

Of course, all the instruments, and the bathyscaphe itself, were carefully placed on a special platform to study the surface.

Imagine the surprise of the scientists when it turned out that almost all the elements of the unique apparatus, made of the most durable materials at that time, were severely deformed and distorted.

The cable, 20 cm in diameter, lowering the bathyscaphe to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was half sawn through. Who tried to cut it and why remains a mystery to this day.

An interesting fact is that only in 1996 the American newspaper The New York Times published details of this unique study.

Lizard from the Mariana Trench

The German Haifish expedition also encountered the inexplicable mysteries of the Mariana Trench. While plunging the research apparatus to the bottom, the scientists faced unexpected difficulties.

Being at a depth of 7 kilometers under water, they decided to lift the equipment.

But the technology refused to obey. Then special infrared cameras were turned on to find out the cause of the failures. However, what they saw on the monitors plunged them into indescribable horror.

A fantastic giant-sized lizard was clearly visible on the screen, which was trying to chew the bathyscaphe like a squirrel nut.

Being in a state of shock, the hydronauts activated the so-called electric gun. Having received a powerful electric shock, the lizard disappeared into the abyss.

What it was, the fantasy of scientists obsessed with research, mass hypnosis, the delirium of people tired of colossal stress, or just someone’s joke is still unknown.

The deepest place in the Mariana Trench

On December 7, 2011, researchers at the University of New Hampshire sank a unique robot to the bottom of the trench under study.

Thanks to modern equipment, it was possible to record a depth of 10,994 m (+/- 40 m). This place was named after the first expedition (1875), about which we wrote above: “ Challenger Deep».

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

Of course, after these inexplicable and even mystical secrets, natural questions began to arise: what monsters live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench? After all, for a long time it was believed that below 6000 meters the existence of living beings is in principle impossible.

However, later studies of the Pacific Ocean in general, and the Mariana Trench in particular, confirmed the fact that at a much greater depth, in impenetrable darkness, under monstrous pressure and water temperatures close to 0 degrees, a huge number of unprecedented creatures live.

Undoubtedly, without modern technology, made of the most durable materials and equipped with cameras unique in their properties, such research would simply be impossible.

As a general summary, we can confidently say that at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, between 6000 and 11000 meters under water, the following were reliably discovered: worms (up to 1.5 meters in size), crayfish, a variety of amphipods, gastropods, mutants, mysterious, not identified soft-bodied creatures two meters in size, etc.

These inhabitants feed mainly on bacteria and the so-called “corpse rain,” that is, dead organisms that slowly sink to the bottom.

Hardly anyone doubts that the Mariana Trench stores many more. However, the person does not give up trying to explore this unique place planets.

Thus, the only people who dared to dive to the “bottom of the earth” were the American marine specialist Don Walsh and the Swiss scientist Jacques Picard. On the same bathyscaphe "Trieste" they reached the bottom on January 23, 1960, descending to a depth of 10915 meters.

However, on March 26, 2012, James Cameron, an American director, made a solo dive to the bottom of the deep point World ocean. The bathyscaphe collected all the necessary samples and took valuable photos and videos. Thus, we now know that only three people visited the Challenger Deep.

Did they manage to answer at least half of the questions? Of course not, since the Mariana Trench still hides much more mysterious and inexplicable things.

By the way, James Cameron stated that after diving to the bottom he felt completely cut off from the human world. Moreover, he assured that no monsters simply exist at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

But here we can recall the primitive Soviet statement, after a flight into space: “Gagarin flew into space - he did not see God.” From this the conclusion was drawn that there is no God.

Likewise here, we cannot say unequivocally that the giant lizard and other creatures that scientists saw during previous research were the result of someone’s sick imagination.

It is important to understand that the subject being studied geographical feature has a length of more than 1000 kilometers. Therefore, potential monsters, inhabitants of the Mariana Trench, could well be located many hundreds of kilometers from the research site.

However, these are just hypotheses.

Panorama of the Mariana Trench on Yandex Map

Another interesting fact may intrigue you. On April 1, 2012, the Yandex company published a comic panorama of the Mariana Trench. On it you can see a sunken ship, water drains and even the glowing eyes of a mysterious underwater monster.

Despite the humorous idea, this panorama is tied to a real place and is still available to users.

To view it, copy this code into the address bar of your browser:

https://yandex.ua/maps/-/CZX6401a

The Abyss knows how to keep its secrets, and our civilization has not yet reached such a development as to “hack” natural mysteries. However, who knows, maybe one of the readers of this article in the future will become the genius who will be able to solve this problem?

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It got its name from 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. Essentially, this is a tectonic fault where the Pacific plate comes under the Philippine plate, and directly Mariana Trench- the deepest place).

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 areas. The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench reaches 108.6 MPa - this is more than 1100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure!

The first who dared to challenge the abyss were the British - the three-masted military corvette Challenger with sail equipment was rebuilt into an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work back in 1872.

However, the first data on its depth were obtained only in 1951. According to the measurements, the depth of the trench was declared equal to 10,863 m. After this, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench began to be called “Challenger Deep”.

It’s hard to imagine that the depths of the Mariana Trench could easily accommodate the most high mountain of our planet is Everest, and above it there will still be more than a kilometer of water left to the surface... Of course, it will fit not in area, but solely in height, but the numbers are still amazing...

The next explorers 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 depression equal to 11,022 meters, but also established the presence of life at depths of more than 7,000 meters, thereby refuting the prevailing idea at that time about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6,000-7,000 meters.

With each new study, scientists discovered new secrets. Previously it was believed that there was no life at great depths, however, in subsequent studies a number of deep-sea life forms were discovered.

Secrets of the Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench has repeatedly frightened researchers with unknown life forms lurking in its depths.

For the first time, the expedition of the American research vessel Glomar Challenger encountered the unknown.

Some time after the descent of the apparatus began, the device recording sounds began to transmit to the surface some kind of metallic grinding sound, reminiscent of the sound of sawing metal. At this time, some vague shadows appeared on the monitor, similar to giant dragons with several heads and tails.

An hour later, scientists became worried that the unique equipment, made in a NASA laboratory from beams of ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel, having a spherical design, the so-called “hedgehog” with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss of the Mariana Trench forever - it was decided to immediately raise the device to side of the ship.

The “hedgehog” was extracted from the depths for more than eight hours, and as soon as it appeared on the surface, it was immediately placed on a special raft. The television camera and echo sounder were lifted onto the deck of the Glomar Challenger.

Researchers saw deformed steel beams of the structure. 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 the water - the cable was half damaged.

How such damage occurred remains a mystery forever. Details of this incident were published in 1996 by the New York Times.

Fishermen also constantly encounter strange phenomena in this area.

An eyewitness told reporters that while fishing near the Mariana Trench, he noticed a red glow underwater. The fisherman became alarmed and decided to leave the fishing spot, but a mysterious glow followed his boat, sometimes it became more intense, as if floating closer to the surface, and sometimes dimmed, as if plunging deeper. The fisherman was very frightened when he reached the shore; for another week he did not dare to go out into the sea.

The fisherman’s colleagues did not believe his stories, but in the following days several more eyewitnesses saw the same mysterious glow, which was accompanied by seething water and splashes of water.

Scientists have never been able to explain this strange phenomenon.

Numerous other researchers were often at a loss about the nature of the strange phenomena occurring there.

A few years after the expedition of the famous French explorer Jacques Piccard, his logbook entries were published. Information that has been classified for a long time makes you think... While still at a depth of one and a half kilometers, the researcher makes a strange note: “You can see through the porthole a large disc-shaped object that accompanies the bathyscaphe. The object is performing maneuvers, clearly looking at us..."

This meeting left an indelible impression. The object had clear outlines and there could be no mistake; it’s scary to think what could have happened if the bathyscaphe had come into contact with an unknown creature. Fortunately, the object disappeared from view after a few minutes without causing any harm. What or who it was will remain a mystery. There are many versions, according to one of them, mysterious object- the work of an unknown underwater civilization. Another version says that this is an ancient underwater creature. Both versions are a little fantastic, but there is no other, more real one yet.

Mikhail Trakhtengerts, a cryptozoologist, speaks of this event as follows: “The lack of knowledge about the nature of these things suggests that these may indeed be objects of other civilizations.”

Having managed to systematize the many years of experience of researchers, biologists proposed a sensational version - damage to the cables and platform could only have been caused by a giant relic underwater monster - megalodon. The version contains many contradictions, the first is that the megalodon is a huge prehistoric shark (22 meters in length and with 50 tons of weight) - the long-extinct ancestor of modern sharks. It was believed that they disappeared one and a half million years ago. It turns out that megalodon did not go extinct at all, but found a home in the depths of the Mariana Trench.

This idea arose after scientists discovered a giant tooth - the size of a palm - in the Mariana Trench area. Careful research confirmed that this tooth belonged to a megalodon.

The version with a huge relic shark is considered the most plausible, but it is not final either. Because scientists cannot determine the age of an animal that has lost a tooth. Meanwhile, a fantastic story with a living fossil animal is far from news, and the following story is a clear confirmation of this.

Twenty years ago, in a remote Chinese village, local residents killed a real sea dragon. In China, the dragon is considered a sacred creature and very real.

The residents of the village were not at all surprised by the meeting with the sea dragon. They, as they should in such cases, beat him to death and began to cook miraculous soup from him according to his grandmother’s recipes. They used the dragon bones for healing powder.

By the way, at the local market, dragon meat was put up for sale at 4 yuan per kilogram. Probably, the dragon was not small, because the trade continued for twenty years, until a professor at the Institute of Paleontology stopped this unscientific crime.

Scientists examined the remains of the dragon and it turned out that the peasants had dealt with a real plesiosaur. By their actions they caused irreparable damage to science. If scientists had caught it first, then world science would have received, perhaps, the most ancient creature on the planet.

Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) – deepest place earth's surface. It is located on western outskirts Pacific Ocean 200 kilometers east of the Mariana Archipelago.

Paradoxically, but about the secrets of space or mountain peaks humanity knows much more than ocean depths. And one of the most mysterious and unexplored places on our planet is the Mariana Trench. So what do we know about him?

Mariana Trench - the bottom of the world

In 1875, the crew of the British corvette Challenger discovered a place in the Pacific Ocean where there was no bottom. Kilometer after kilometer the line of the lot went overboard, but there was no bottom! And only at a depth of 8184 meters the descent of the rope stopped. This is how the deepest underwater crack on Earth was discovered. It was called the Mariana Trench, named after the nearby islands. Its shape (in the form of a crescent) and the location of the deepest section, called the “Challenger Deep,” were determined. It is located 340 km south of the island Guam and has coordinates 11°22′ N. latitude, 142°35′ e. d.

Since then this deep-sea depression has been called the “fourth pole”, “the womb of Gaia”, “the bottom of the world”. Oceanographers have long tried to find out its true depth. Studies over the years have given different values. The fact is that at such a colossal depth, the density of water increases as it approaches the bottom, therefore the properties of the sound from the echo sounder in it also change. Using barometers and thermometers at different levels along with echo sounders, in 2011 the depth in the Challenger Deep was determined to be 10994 ± 40 meters. This is the height of Mount Everest plus another two kilometers above.

The pressure at the bottom of the underwater chasm is almost 1100 atmospheres, or 108.6 MPa. Most deep-sea vehicles are designed for a maximum depth of 6-7 thousand meters. During the time that has passed since the discovery of the deepest canyon, it was possible to successfully reach its bottom only four times.

In 1960, the deep-sea bathyscaphe Trieste, for the first time in the world, descended to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Challenger Deep area with two passengers on board: US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard.

Their observations led to an important conclusion about the presence of life at the bottom of the canyon. The discovery of an upward flow of water also had important environmental significance: based on it, nuclear powers refused to dump radioactive waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

In the 90s, the trench was explored by the Japanese unmanned probe "Kaiko", which brought samples of silt from the bottom in which bacteria, worms, shrimp were found, as well as pictures of a hitherto unknown world.

In 2009, the American robot Nereus conquered the abyss, picking up from the bottom samples of silt, minerals, samples of deep-sea fauna and photos of the inhabitants of unknown depths.

In 2012, James Cameron, the author of Titanic, Terminator and Avatar, dived alone into the abyss. He spent 6 hours at the bottom, collecting samples of soil, minerals, fauna, as well as taking photographs and 3D video filming. Based on this material, the film “Challenge the Abyss” was created.

Amazing discoveries

Located in a trench at a depth of about 4 kilometers active volcano Daikoku, spewing liquid sulfur that boils at 187 ° C in a small depression. The only lake liquid sulfur was discovered only on Jupiter's moon Io.

“Black smokers” swirl 2 kilometers from the surface - sources of geothermal water with hydrogen sulfide and other substances that, upon contact with cold water, turn into black sulfides. The movement of sulfide water resembles clouds of black smoke. The water temperature at the point of release reaches 450° C. The surrounding sea does not boil only because of the density of the water (150 times greater than at the surface).

In the north of the canyon there are “white smokers” - geysers spewing liquid carbon dioxide at a temperature of 70-80 ° C. Scientists suggest that it is in such geothermal “cauldrons” that one should look for the origins of life on Earth. Hot springs “heat” the icy waters, supporting life in the abyss - the temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is between 1-3° C.

Life beyond life

It would seem that in an environment of complete darkness, silence, icy cold and unbearable pressure, life in the depression is simply unthinkable. But studies of the depression prove the opposite: there are living creatures almost 11 kilometers under water!

The bottom of the hole is covered with a thick layer of slime from organic sediments that have been sinking from the upper layers of the ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. Mucus is an excellent breeding ground for barrophilic bacteria, which form the basis of nutrition for protozoa and multicellular organisms. The bacteria, in turn, become food for more complex organisms.

The ecosystem of the underwater canyon is truly unique. Living beings have managed to adapt to an aggressive, destructive environment under normal conditions, with high pressure, lack of light, low amounts of oxygen and high concentrations of toxic substances. Life in such unbearable conditions gave many of the inhabitants of the abyss a frightening and unattractive appearance.

Deep-sea fish have incredibly large mouths lined with sharp, long teeth. High pressure made their bodies small (from 2 to 30 cm). However, there are also large specimens, such as the xenophyophora amoeba, reaching 10 cm in diameter. The frilled shark and goblin shark, which live at a depth of 2000 meters, generally reach 5-6 meters in length.

Representatives live at different depths different types living organisms. The deeper the inhabitants of the abyss, the better developed their organs of vision are, allowing them to catch the slightest reflection of light on the body of prey in complete darkness. Some individuals themselves are capable of producing directional light. Other creatures are completely devoid of organs of vision; they are replaced by organs of touch and radar. With increasing depth, underwater inhabitants increasingly lose their color; the bodies of many of them are almost transparent.

On the slopes where the “black smokers” are located, mollusks live that have learned to neutralize sulfides and hydrogen sulfide that are lethal to them. And, which still remains a mystery to scientists, under conditions of enormous pressure at the bottom, they somehow miraculously manage to keep their mineral shell intact. Other inhabitants of the Mariana Trench show similar abilities. The study of fauna samples showed many times higher levels of radiation and toxic substances.

Unfortunately, deep-sea creatures die due to changes in pressure when any attempt is made to bring them to the surface. Only thanks to modern deep-sea vehicles has it become possible to study the inhabitants of the depression in their natural environment. Representatives of fauna unknown to science have already been identified.

Secrets and riddles of the “womb of Gaia”

The mysterious abyss, like any unknown phenomenon, is shrouded in a mass of secrets and mysteries. What does she hide in her depths? Japanese scientists claimed that while feeding goblin sharks, they saw a shark 25 meters long devouring goblins. A monster of this size could only be a megalodon shark, which became extinct almost 2 million years ago! This is confirmed by the findings of megalodon teeth in the vicinity of the Mariana Trench, whose age dates back to only 11 thousand years. It can be assumed that in the depths of the hole there are still specimens of these monsters preserved.

There are many stories about the corpses of giant monsters washed up on the shore. When descending into the abyss of the German bathyscaphe "Haifish", the dive stopped 7 km from the surface. To understand the reason, the passengers of the capsule turned on the lights and were horrified: their bathyscaphe, like a nut, was trying to chew some kind of prehistoric lizard! Only a pulse of electric current through the outer skin managed to scare away the monster.

Another time, when an American submersible was diving, the grinding of metal began to be heard from under the water. The descent was stopped. Upon inspection of the raised equipment, it turned out that the titanium alloy metal cable was half sawed (or chewed), and the beams of the underwater vehicle were bent.

In 2012, the video camera of the Titan unmanned aerial vehicle from a depth of 10 kilometers transmitted a picture of metal objects, presumably a UFO. Soon the connection with the device was interrupted.

Unfortunately, there is no documentary evidence of these interesting facts none, they are all based only on eyewitness accounts. Each story has its fans and skeptics, its arguments for and against.

Before the risky dive into the trench, James Cameron said that he wanted to see with his own eyes at least part of the secrets of the Mariana Trench, about which there are so many rumors and legends. But he did not see anything that went beyond the knowable.

So what do we know about her?

To understand how the Mariana underwater gap was formed, it should be remembered that such gaps (trenches) are usually formed along the edges of the oceans under the influence of moving lithospheric plates. Oceanic plates, being older and heavier, “crawl” under continental plates, forming deep gaps at the junctions. The deepest is the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates near the Mariana Islands (Mariana Trench). The Pacific plate is moving at a rate of 3-4 centimeters per year, resulting in increased volcanic activity along both its edges.

Along the entire length of this deepest failure, four so-called bridges—transverse mountain ridges—were discovered. The ridges were presumably formed due to the movement of the lithosphere and volcanic activity.

The gutter is V-shaped in cross-section, greatly expanding at the top and narrowing downwards. The average width of the canyon in the upper part is 69 kilometers, in the widest part - up to 80 kilometers. The average width of the bottom between the walls is 5 kilometers. The slope of the walls is almost vertical and is only 7-8°. The depression stretches from north to south for 2,500 kilometers. The trench has an average depth of about 10,000 meters.

Only three people to date have visited the very bottom of the Mariana Trench. In 2018, another manned dive to the “bottom of the world” in its deepest section is planned. This time, the famous Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov and polar explorer Artur Chilingarov. Currently, a deep-sea bathyscaphe is being manufactured and a research program is being drawn up.

Now anyone can watch the fantastic underwater world of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on our planet, captured on video, or even enjoy a live video broadcast from an 11-kilometer depth. But until relatively recently, the Mariana Trench was considered the most unexplored point on the map of the Earth.

Sensational discovery by the Challenger team

We also know from the school curriculum that the most high point The top of the earth's surface is the top of Mount Everest (8848 m), but the lowest is hidden under the waters of the Pacific Ocean and is located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (10994 m). We know quite a lot about Everest; climbers have conquered its peak more than once; there are enough photographs of this mountain taken both from the ground and from space. If Everest is all in plain sight and does not pose any mystery to scientists, then the depths of the Mariana Trench keep many secrets, because getting to its bottom requires this moment Only three daredevils succeeded.

The Mariana Trench is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean; it got its name from the Mariana Islands, which are located next to it. A place unique in depth seabed received the status of a US national monument; fishing and mining are prohibited here; in fact, it is a huge marine reserve. The shape of the depression is similar to a huge crescent, reaching 2550 km in length and 69 km in width. The bottom of the depression has a width of 1 to 5 km. The deepest point of the depression (10,994 m below sea level) was named “Challenger Deep” in honor of the British ship of the same name.

The honor of discovering the Mariana Trench belongs to the team of the British research vessel Challenger, which in 1872 carried out depth measurements at a number of points in the Pacific Ocean. When the ship found itself in the area of ​​​​the Mariana Islands, during the next depth measurement a hitch arose: the kilometer-long rope all went overboard, but it was not possible to reach the bottom. At the captain’s direction, a couple more kilometer sections were added to the rope, but, to everyone’s surprise, they were not enough and had to be added again and again. Then it was possible to establish a depth of 8367 meters, which, as it became known later, was significantly different from the real one. However, the underestimated value was quite enough to understand: the deepest place has been discovered in the World Ocean.

It is amazing that already in the 20th century, in 1951, it was the British who, using a deep-sea echo sounder, clarified the data of their compatriots; this time the maximum depth of the depression was more significant - 10,863 meters. Six years later, Soviet scientists began studying the Mariana Trench, arriving in this area of ​​the Pacific Ocean on the research vessel Vityaz. Using special equipment, they recorded the maximum depth of the depression at 11,022 meters, and most importantly, they were able to establish the presence of life at a depth of about 7,000 meters. It is worth noting that in the scientific world at that time there was an opinion that due to the monstrous pressure and lack of light at such depths, there were no manifestations of life.

Dive into the world of silence and darkness

In 1960, people visited the bottom of the depression for the first time. How difficult and dangerous such a dive was can be judged by the colossal water pressure, which at the lowest point of the depression is 1072 times higher than the average atmospheric pressure. The dive to the bottom of the depression using the Trieste bathyscaphe was carried out by US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Picard. Bathyscaphe "Trieste" with walls 13 cm thick was created in the same name Italian city and was a rather massive structure.

They lowered the submersible to the bottom for five long hours; Despite such a long descent, the researchers spent only 20 minutes at the bottom at a depth of 10,911 meters; it took them about 3 hours to rise. Within minutes of being in the abyss, Walsh and Picard were able to make a very impressive discovery: they saw two 30-centimeter flat fish, similar to flounder, that swam past their porthole. Their presence at such a depth became a real scientific sensation!

In addition to discovering the presence of life at such a mind-boggling depth, Jacques Piccard was able to experimentally refute the then prevailing opinion that at depths of more than 6000 m there is no upward movement of water masses. In terms of ecology, this was a major discovery, because some nuclear powers were planning to bury radioactive waste in the Mariana Trench. It turns out that Picard prevented large-scale radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean!

After the dive of Walsh and Picard, for a long period only unmanned automatic bathyscaphes descended into the Mariana Trench, and there were only a few of them, because they were very expensive. For example, on May 31, 2009, the American deep-sea vehicle Nereus reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He not only took underwater photography and video at incredible depths, but also took soil samples. The instruments of the deep-sea vehicle recorded the depth it reached at 10,902 meters.

On March 26, 2012, a man again found himself at the bottom of the Mariana Trench; it was the famous director, creator of the legendary film “Titanic,” James Cameron.

He explained his decision to make such a dangerous journey to the “bottom of the Earth” as follows: “Almost everything on the earth’s land has been explored. In space, bosses prefer to send people circling around the Earth, and send machine guns to other planets. For the joys of discovering the unknown, there is only one field of activity left - the ocean. Only about 3% of its water volume has been studied, and what’s next is unknown.”

Cameron made a dive on the DeepSea Challenge bathyscaphe, it was not very comfortable, the researcher was in a half-bent state for a long time, since the diameter of the internal space of the device was only about 109 cm. The bathyscaphe, equipped with powerful cameras and unique equipment, allowed the popular director to film fantastic landscapes of himself deepest place on the planet. Later together with The National Geographic James Cameron has created a spectacular documentary"Challenge the Abyss"

It is worth noting that while at the bottom deepest depression world, Cameron saw neither monsters, nor representatives of an underwater civilization, nor an alien base. However, he literally looked into the eyes of the Challenger Abyss. According to him, during his short journey he experienced sensations indescribable in words. The ocean floor seemed to him not only deserted, but somehow “lunar... lonely.” He experienced a real shock from the feeling of “complete isolation from all humanity.” True, problems with the equipment of the bathyscaphe may have interrupted the “hypnotic” effect of the abyss on the famous director in time, and he rose to the surface among the people.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

Behind last years During the exploration of the Mariana Trench, many discoveries were made. For example, in bottom soil samples taken by Cameron, scientists found more than 20 thousand of a wide variety of microorganisms. Among the inhabitants of the depression there are also giant 10-centimeter amoebas, called xenophyophores. According to scientists, single-celled amoebas most likely reached such incredible sizes due to the rather hostile environment at a depth of 10.6 km in which they are forced to live. For some reason, high pressure, cold water and lack of light clearly benefited them, contributing to their gigantism.

Mollusks were also discovered in the Mariana Trench. It is unclear how their shells withstand enormous water pressure, but they feel very comfortable at depth, and are located next to hydrothermal vents that emit hydrogen sulfide, which is lethal to ordinary mollusks. However, local mollusks, having demonstrated incredible abilities for chemistry, somehow adapted to process this destructive gas into protein, which allowed them to live where, at first
look, it’s impossible to live.

Many of the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench are quite unusual. For example, scientists discovered here a fish with a transparent head, in the center of which are its eyes. Thus, during the course of evolution, the eyes of the fish received reliable protection from possible injury. At great depths there are many bizarre and sometimes even scary fish; here we managed to capture on video a fantastically beautiful jellyfish. Of course, we don’t yet know all the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench; in this regard, scientists still have many discoveries to make.

There are a lot of interesting things in this mysterious place and for geologists. Thus, in a depression at a depth of 414 meters, the Daikoku volcano was discovered, in the crater of which there is a lake of seething molten sulfur right under the water. As scientists say, the only analogue of such a lake known to them is only on Jupiter’s satellite, Io. Also in the Mariana Trench, scientists found the only underwater source of liquid on earth. carbon dioxide, called "Champagne" in honor of the famous French
alcoholic drink. There are also so-called black smokers in the depression; these are hydrothermal springs operating at a depth of about 2 kilometers, thanks to which the water temperature in the Mariana Trench is maintained within fairly favorable limits - from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius.

At the end of 2011, scientists discovered very mysterious structures in the Mariana Trench; these are four stone “bridges” stretching from one end of the trench to the other for 69 kilometers. Scientists are still at a loss to explain how these “bridges” arose; they believe that they were formed at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates.

The study of the Mariana Trench continues. This year, from April to July, scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration worked here on the Okeanos Explorer vessel. Their ship was equipped with a remotely controlled vehicle, which was used to film the underwater world of the deepest place in the World Ocean. The video broadcast from the bottom of the depression could be seen not only by scientists, but also by Internet users.

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The Mariana Trench is a fracture in the earth's crust located in the ocean. It is one of the famous objects in the world. Let's find out where the Mariana Trench is located on the map and what it is known for.

What it is?

The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench, or a break in the earth's crust, located under water. It got its name from the nearby Mariana Islands. In the world, this object is known as the deepest place. The depth of the Mariana Trench in meters is 10994. This is 2000 meters more than the highest mountain on the planet - Everest.

The British first learned about this depression in 1875 on the Challenger ship. At the same time, the first measurement of its depth was made, which was 8367 meters.

How was the Mariana Trench formed?

It represents the boundary between two lithospheric plates. Here there is a fault in the earth's crust, formed as a result of the movements of these plates. The depression is shaped like a V and its length in kilometers is 1,500.

Location

How to find the Mariana Trench on a world map? It is located in the Pacific Ocean, in its eastern part, between the Philippine and Mariana Islands. The coordinates of the deepest point of the depression are 11 degrees north latitude and 142 degrees east longitude.

Rice. 1. The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean

Research

The enormous depth of the Mariana Trench determines the pressure at the bottom, which is 108.6 MPa. This is a thousand times more pressure on the Earth's surface. Naturally, conducting research in such conditions is extremely difficult. However, the secrets and mysteries of the deepest place in the world attract many scientists.

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As already mentioned, the first studies were carried out in 1875. But the equipment of that time did not allow not only to descend to the bottom of the depression, but even to accurately measure its depth. The first dive was carried out in 1960 - then the bathyscaphe “Trieste” sank to a depth of 10915 meters. There are many interesting facts in this study, which, unfortunately, still have no explanation.

The devices recorded sounds reminiscent of the grinding of a saw on metal. With the help of monitors, unclear shadows were visible, with outlines reminiscent of dragons or dinosaurs. The recording was carried out for an hour, then the scientists decided to urgently raise the submersible to the surface. When the device was lifted, many damages were discovered on the metal, which at that time was considered super-strong. The cable was enormously long and 20 cm wide and was half sawn through. Who could have done this is still considered unknown.

Rice. 2. The bathyscaphe Trieste dived into the Mariana Trench

The German Haifish expedition also sank its bathyscaphe into the Mariana Trench. However, they only reached a depth of 7 km and then encountered some difficulties. Attempts to remove the device were unsuccessful. Turning on the infrared cameras, scientists saw a huge lizard holding the submersible. Whether this was true - today no one can say.

The deepest part of the depression was recorded in 2011 using a special robot diving to the bottom. It reached 10994 meters. This area was called the Challenger Deep.

Is there anyone who went down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, other than robots and bathyscaphes? Such dives were carried out by several people:

• Don Walsh and Jacques Picard, research scientists, descended on the bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960 to a depth of 10,915 meters;
• James Cameron, an American director, made a solo dive to the very bottom of the Challenger Deep, collecting many samples, photographs and video materials.

In January 2017, he announced his desire to dive into the Mariana Trench famous traveler Fedor Konyukhov.

Who lives at the bottom of the depression

Despite the enormous depth and high pressure of the water column, the Mariana Trench is not uninhabited. Until recently, it was believed that life ceases at a depth of 6000 m and no animals are able to withstand the enormous pressure. In addition, at the level of 2000 m the passage of light stops and below there is only darkness.

Recent research has discovered that even below 6000 m there is life. So, who lives at the bottom of the Mariana Trench:

• worms up to one and a half meters long;
• crustaceans;
• shellfish;
• octopuses;
• sea ​​stars;
• many bacteria.

All these inhabitants have adapted to withstand pressure and darkness, and therefore have specific shapes and colors.

Rice. 3. Mariana Trench Inhabitant

What have we learned?

So, we found out in which ocean the Mariana Trench is located - the deepest place in the world. Its depth significantly exceeds the height itself. big mountains peace. Despite the harsh conditions, the depression is inhabited by a diverse population. Until now, this place is a big mystery, which scientists from all over the world are trying to unravel.

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