The deepest sea trench. Who was the first to descend to the deepest point in the world. (Marian Trench)

The relief of the earth's surface is very diverse. From space it looks like a smooth ball, but in fact, on its surface there are both the highest mountains and the deepest depressions. Where is the deepest place on earth located? ocean or land?

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The World Ocean is a huge expanse of water that occupies more than 71% of the Earth's surface. It includes all the seas and our planet. The relief of the ocean floor complex and varied, its waters are the habitat of millions of living organisms.

The deepest ocean in the world is the Pacific. The map shows that it occupies a huge area and borders on Asia, North and South America, Australia, Antarctica. More than 49.5% of the total water space of the Earth contains the Pacific Ocean itself. Its bottom is a mixture of relict relief with transgressive plains. Most of the ocean floor elevations are of tectonic origin. There are hundreds of natural underwater canyons and ridges. In the body of water Pacific Ocean located the deepest depression in the world - Mariana Trench.

Mariana Trench

Mariana Trench(or Mariana Trench) - a deep oceanic trench, considered deepest known on earth. It received its name in honor of Mariana Islands with which it is located. This is the deepest and mysterious place in the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists have been studying the Mariana Trench since the late 19th century. This is the deepest trench recorded by researchers.

Then they did not have good equipment at their disposal, so the data that was obtained is not true. In 1875, a deep water lot set the depth. it lowest point on earth.

During the same period, the deepest place on Earth began to be called the "Challenger Abyss" on behalf of the British ship on which the explorers sailed. Secondarily, the Mariana Trench was measured in 1951.

In the middle of the last century, scientists managed to study the depression more and establish its depth at 10,863 m. In the future, many research ships visited the Challenger Deep. The most accurate results were obtained in 1957. Then the depth of the depression was 11,023 m.

Important! Now the depth of the Mariana Trench is 10,994 meters below sea level, this is the deepest place in the ocean known today.

Inhabitants of the ocean floor

Even at present, the bottom of the Pacific Ocean has not been fully studied, because it is the deepest ocean in the world. Many places in the Mariana Trench remain unexplored, because at such a great depth too high pressure. But, despite all the difficulties, people managed to descend to the depth of the depression. The first dive into the deepest trench happened in 1960. Scientist Jacques Picard and US Navy soldier Don Walsh descended to a record depth of 10,918 meters. During the dive, people were inside the bathyscaphe. Scientists said that they saw at the bottom of the ocean flat 30-centimeter fish, outwardly similar to a flounder.

During further research, other living organisms were discovered:

1. In 1995, Japanese researchers found foraminifera - living organisms that live at a depth of 10,911 m.
2. During a series of dives by American scientists, fish of the opisthoproct family were found, football fish and frilled shark.
3. In the course of numerous studies, the bottom of the Mariana Trench was studied by special probes, which were photographed at a depth of 6000–8000 m of angler, sea devil and other terrifying fish.

There are legends that huge 25-meter sharks are found in the Mariana Trench. Scientists even found trophies - bones, shark teeth and other fossils. But this does not indicate that sharks still live there now. Perhaps they were here far in antiquity.

The deepest places in the world's oceans

Each of the four oceans has its own deep place. The lowest point is in the Pacific Ocean, but what about other trenches and depressions?

Puerto Rico Trench

The Puerto Rico Ocean Trench is located at the junction caribbean and Atlantic Ocean. The absolute depth of the trench reaches 8385 m. This area, due to the structure of the relief, is often subject to tremors and high volcanic activity. Nearby islands suffer from constant tsunamis and earthquakes.

Java depression

Java Depression (or Sunda Trench) - the deepest place indian ocean. Gutter stretches for 4-5 thousand kilometers, and the lowest point reaches 7729 m. The name of the depression was due to the proximity to the island of Java. The bottom of the trench is an alternation of plains and canyons with ridges and ledges.

Greenland Sea

The part of the Arctic Ocean that is located on crossing Iceland with Greenland and Jan Mayen Island is called the Greenland Sea.

Sea area - 1.2 million square meters. km. The average depth of the body of water is 1444 m, and the deepest point is 5527 m below sea level. Most of the relief of the seabed is a huge basin with underwater ridges.

it deepest trench in Europe. There is a lot of commercial fish here, which is caught by fishermen of nearby islands.

Inland basins of Russia

Deep depressions are located not only in the waters of the oceans. A striking example of this is the Baikal Rift, located in. The lake itself is considered the deepest on Earth, so it is not surprising that the lowest inland place is located here. Lake Baikal is surrounded by mountains, so the elevation differences between ocean level and the rift exceeds the mark of 3615 m.

Important! The depression reaches 1637 m in depth and is the largest depth of Lake Baikal.

Depression of Lake Ladoga. Ladoga lake located in the Republic of Karelia. It is considered the largest freshwater lake in Europe. The average depth of the lake ranges from 70-220 m, but it reaches its absolute maximum in one place - 223 m below sea level.

Caspian Sea. Caspian lake located on the border of Europe and Asia. It is the largest enclosed body of water on earth, which is why it is often referred to as the Caspian Sea.

On the Russian side, the reservoir borders on the Volga islands and, but most of the Caspian Sea is located on the territory of Kazakhstan. Max Depth lake is 1025 m below sea level.

Khanty lake. Occupies third place among the deepest places in Russia. The maximum depth here reaches 420 m. The reservoir is located in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. There is not much data about this place, but this is enough to make Khantai Lake one of the deepest places in Russia.

inland depressions

Our Earth is rich in relief. You can see many high mountains, thousands of endless plains and hundreds of depressions. Below is a list of the deepest places recorded worldwide:

• Jordanian rift valley(Ghor) - located at the intersection of Syria, Jordan and Israel. The deepest place is 804 m.
• The basin of Lake Tanganyika is located in Central Africa and is longest freshwater lake in the world. The deepest place is 696 m.
• The Great Slave Lake Depression is located in Canada. The lowest point is 614 m. This is the deepest trench in North America.
• Great Bear Lake Depression - also located in Canada and is rich uranium deposits. The deepest place is 288 m.

Science's view of the deepest places

Dive to the bottom of the earth with Cameron

Conclusion

In fact, there are dozens of deep places in the world. Many of them can be found at the bottom of reservoirs, others - in the Earth itself. This topic is quite interesting, and scientists are studying such places. Now you know where the deepest place on Earth is located, in which ocean the deepest depression and what interesting places world are studied by experts.

Excellent students at school firmly learned: the most high point land - Mount Everest (8848 m), the deepest depression - Mariana. However, if we know a lot about Everest interesting facts, then about the depression in the Pacific Ocean, in addition to being the deepest, most people do not know anything.

FIVE HOURS DOWN, THREE HOURS UP

Even though the oceans are closer to us than Mountain peaks and even more so distant planets solar system, people have explored only five percent of the seabed, which still remains one of the greatest mysteries our planet.

An average width of 69 km, the Mariana Trench was formed several million years ago due to shifts in tectonic plates and stretches in the shape of a crescent for two and a half thousand kilometers along the Mariana Islands.

Its depth, according to recent studies, is 10,994 meters ± 40 meters (for comparison: the Earth's equatorial diameter is 12,756 km), the water pressure at the bottom reaches 108.6 MPa - more than 1,100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure!

The Mariana Trench, which is also called the fourth pole of the Earth, was discovered in 1872 by the crew of the British research ship Challenger. The crew measured the bottom at various points in the Pacific Ocean.

In the area of ​​the Mariana Islands, another measurement was made, but a one-kilometer rope was not enough, and then the captain ordered to add two more kilometer segments to it. Then more and more...

Almost a hundred years later, the echo sounder of another English, but under the same name, scientific vessel recorded a depth of 10,863 meters in the Mariana Trench. After that, the most deep point The ocean floor became known as the "Challenger Deep".

In 1957, Soviet researchers already established the existence of life at depths of more than 7000 meters, thereby refuting the opinion that prevailed at that time about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6000-7000 meters, and also clarified the data of the British, fixing a depth of 11,023 meters in the Mariana Trench .

The first human dive to the bottom of the trench took place in 1960. It was carried out on the Trieste bathyscaphe by the American Don Walsh and the Swiss oceanologist Jacques Picard.

The descent into the abyss took them almost five hours, and the rise - about three hours, at the bottom the researchers stayed only 20 minutes. But even this time was enough for them to make a sensational discovery - in the bottom waters they found flat fish up to 30 cm in size, unknown to science, similar to flounder.

LIFE IN PUT DARKNESS

In the course of further research with the help of unmanned deep-sea vehicles, it turned out that at the bottom of the depression, despite the terrifying water pressure, a wide variety of species of living organisms live. Giant 10-centimeter amoebas are xenophyophores, which under normal, terrestrial conditions can only be seen with a microscope, amazing two-meter worms, no less huge starfish, mutant octopuses and, of course, fish.

The latter amaze with their terrifying appearance. Their distinctive feature is a huge mouth and many teeth. Many open their jaws so wide that even a small predator can swallow an animal larger than itself whole.

There are also completely unusual creatures that reach a two-meter size with a soft jelly-like body, which have no analogues in nature.

It would seem that at such a depth the temperature should be at the level of the Antarctic. However, the Challenger Deep contains hydrothermal vents called "black smokers". They constantly heat the water and thereby maintain the overall temperature in the cavity at 1-4 degrees Celsius.

The inhabitants of the Mariana Trench live in pitch darkness, some of them are blind, others have huge telescopic eyes that catch the slightest glare of light. Some individuals have "lanterns" on their heads, emitting a different color.

There are fish in the body of which a luminous liquid accumulates. When they feel danger, they splash this liquid towards the enemy and hide behind this "curtain of light." The appearance of such animals is very unusual for our perception, it can cause disgust and even inspire a sense of fear.

But it is obvious that not all the mysteries of the Mariana Trench have yet been solved. Some strange animals of truly incredible sizes live in the depths!

THE LIZARD TRIED TO BUTTON THE BATHISCAFE LIKE A NUT

Sometimes on the shore, not far from the Mariana Trench, people find the bodies of dead 40-meter monsters. Giant teeth were also found in those places. Scientists have proven that they belong to a multi-ton prehistoric megalodon shark, whose mouth span reached two meters.

These sharks were thought to have died out about three million years ago, but the teeth found are much younger. So did the ancient monsters really disappear?

In 2003, another sensational study of the Mariana Trench was published in the United States. Scientists have loaded an unmanned platform equipped with searchlights, sensitive video systems and microphones in the deepest part of the world's oceans.

The platform descended on 6 steel cables of an inch section. At first, the technique did not give any unusual information. But a few hours after the dive, silhouettes of strange large objects (at least 12-16 meters) began to flicker on the monitor screens in the light of powerful searchlights, and at that time the microphones transmitted sharp sounds to the recording devices - the grinding of iron and deaf, uniform blows on metal.

When the platform was raised (never lowered to the bottom due to incomprehensible interference that prevented the descent), it was found that the powerful steel structures were bent, and the steel cables seemed to be sawn. A little more - and the platform would forever remain the "Challenger Abyss".

Earlier, something similar happened to the German apparatus "Hyfish". Having descended to a depth of 7 kilometers, he suddenly refused to emerge. To find out what the problem was, the researchers turned on the infrared camera.

What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, clinging its teeth to a bathyscaphe, tried to crack it like a nut.

Recovering from the shock, the scientists activated the so-called electric gun, and the monster, struck by a powerful discharge, hastened to retreat.

Giant 10 cm amoeba - xenophyophora

WHO IS THE REAL “OWNER” OF PLANET EARTH

But not only fantastic monsters fall into the field of view of deep-sea cameras. In the summer of 2012, the unmanned deep-sea submersible Titan, launched from the research vessel Rick Mesenger, was in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 10,000 meters. His main goal was to film and photograph various underwater objects.

Suddenly, the cameras recorded a strange multiple brilliance of a material very similar to metal. And then, a few dozen meters from the device, several large objects lit up in the spotlight.

Approaching these objects at the maximum allowable distance, the Titan gave a very unusual picture to the monitors of the scientists on the Rick Mesenger. On the site, about a square kilometer, there were about 50 large cylindrical objects, very similar to ... flying saucers!

A few minutes after the recorded “UFO airfield”, the Titan stopped communicating and never surfaced.

There are a lot of well-known facts, which, if they do not confirm the possibility of existence in sea ​​depths rational beings, then, in any case, they fully explain why modern science still knows nothing about them.

Firstly, the habitat native to humans - the earth's firmament - occupies only a little more than a quarter of the land surface. So our planet could well be called the Ocean planet, rather than the Earth.

Secondly, as everyone knows, life originated in water, so the marine mind (if it exists) is older than the human one by about one and a half million years.

That is why, according to some experts, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, due to the presence of active hydrothermal springs, not only entire colonies of prehistoric animals that have survived to this day can exist, but also an underwater civilization of intelligent beings unknown to earthlings! The “fourth pole” of the Earth, in the opinion of scientists, is the most appropriate place for their habitat.

And once again the question arises: is man the only "owner" of the planet Earth?

"FIELD" STUDIES PLANNED FOR SUMMER 2015

The third person in the entire history of the study of the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom was exactly three years ago James Cameron.

“Practically everything on the earth’s land has been explored,” he explained his decision. - In space, the bosses prefer to send people circling the Earth, and send machine guns to other planets. For the joys of discovering the unknown, one field of activity remains - the ocean. Only about 3% of its water volume has been explored, and what’s next is unknown.”

On the DeepSes Challenge bathyscaphe, being in a half-bent state, since the internal diameter of the device did not exceed 109 cm, the famous film director watched everything that happened in this place until mechanical problems forced him to rise to the surface.

Cameron managed to take samples of rocks and living organisms from the bottom, as well as filming with 3D cameras. Subsequently, these shots formed the basis of a documentary film.

However, he never saw any of the terrible sea monsters. According to him, the very bottom of the ocean was "lunar ... empty ... lonely", and he felt "total isolation from all mankind."

Meanwhile, in the laboratory of telecommunications of Tomsk Polytechnic University, together with the Institute of Marine Technology Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the development of a domestic apparatus for deep-sea research, which can descend to a depth of 12 kilometers, is in full swing.

Specialists working on the bathyscaphe declare that there are no analogues of the equipment they develop in the world, and “field” studies of the sample in the waters of the Pacific Ocean are planned for the summer of 2015.

Started work on the project "Diving into the Mariana Trench in a bathyscaphe" and famous traveler Fedor Konyukhov. According to him, he aims not only to touch the bottom of the deepest depression of the World Ocean, but also to spend two whole days there, conducting unique research.

The bathyscaphe is designed for two people and will be designed and built by one of the Australian companies.

It would seem that by the twenty-first century, humanity knows everything about our planet and there are no white spots left on the maps. But do not forget that about 90% of the ocean floor is still covered not only by the water column, but also by mystery. So far, there are more questions than answers in this area. This is because only a few daredevils dared to dive in these places. It is considered to be akin to suicide.

Harsh conditions

The Mariana Trench is a tectonic underwater fault and has a V-shaped silhouette, with steep slopes and a flat bottom about 5 km wide. At a depth there are also peculiar seamounts about two kilometers high. The deepest point on the planet, reaching 11 thousand meters, is located here and is called the Challenger Abyss. Even the highest peak of our planet - Mount Everest, would be drowned under the water column in the Mariana Trench.

The pressure at this depth is more than a thousand times higher than Earth's normal atmospheric pressure. Just imagine, a whole ton of weight falls on one square centimeter of surface. Such loads can hardly withstand titanium alloys. If a person were here, he would be torn to pieces in the same second. It is curious that the water temperature at such a depth is about 4 degrees with a plus sign. All thanks to oceanic hydrothermal sources "black smokers", which are closer to the surface of the ocean overthrow 450 degree jets.

The colossal pressure does not allow water to boil and Environment only slightly warmed up. And the one-of-a-kind deep-sea “White Smokers” produce liquid carbon dioxide in the Mariana Trench, plunging everything around into a white fog. Such hydrothermal springs enrich the aquatic environment with chemical trace elements and, according to scientists, create good conditions for the birth of new forms of life.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

The big discovery was the fact that at a depth of more than 6000 m, with incredible pressure, no sunlight and zero temperatures, life is in full swing. Various types of bacteria and protozoa, sea cucumbers and amphipods, mollusk shells and luminous octopuses, bizarre starfish, blind giant worms and flat fish with periscopic eyes live on the bottom.

New species of scorpions and anglers have been discovered. A feature of these frightening outwardly fish is the presence of bioluminescent luminous processes that hang down like a fishing rod. Seeing a light in pitch darkness, the prey swims into the light and find themselves in the toothy mouth of a predator. The attention of physicians was especially attracted by one of the types of isopod crayfish, because. the substance it secretes could help develop a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Most of all, the public was shocked by the huge xenophyophore amoebas. Their sizes in the Mariana Trench reach 10 cm, while all previously known types of protozoa can hardly be seen through a microscope. Unique Feature xenophyophore also in the fact that they are resistant to such potent and destructive for all living things as mercury, uranium, lead.

inexplicable

In the mid-nineties, newspapers were full of headlines about a certain monster hiding at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The story said that the research vessel Glomar Challenger, plunging a device into the abyss to study ocean depths, encountered difficulties. At some point, the sensors recorded a terrible noise and rattle. I had to urgently remove the device from the water. It turned out to be badly damaged, the iron case of the device was badly mangled, and the reliable metal cable almost broke off, as if someone wanted to bite it.

A similar incident happened to a group of German scientists when, according to the team, a huge lizard attacked the Highfish probe lowered into the water. It was possible to get rid of which only by intimidating with an electric charge.

There is no convincing evidence that giant prehistoric animals are found in the Mariana Trench today. However, the opposite has not been proven either.

In the 20s of the last century, fishermen from Australia said that they saw a huge white shark about 30 m long. While individuals of this species known to science do not exceed five meters. The description of the Australians fully converged only with the external characteristics of Megalodon (scientific name Carcharodon megalodon). This animal weighed 100 tons and its mouth could swallow prey the size of a car. According to conventional wisdom, Megalodons became extinct about 2 million years ago. But just recently, a tooth of this monster was discovered in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench. The examination determined that this find is no more than 11 thousand years old. What else hides the seabed?

Journey to the center of the earth

Everything that we now know about the Mariana Trench was obtained thanks to brave explorers who were not afraid of unknown depths. Since 1872, more than a dozen expeditions have been sent to the waters of the Pacific Ocean. In most cases, research was carried out with the help of technologies that are improving every year. Various equipment with sensors and probes with video and cameras were immersed to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The researchers from the Challenger ship were the first to study the ocean abyss. In honor of this vessel, the deepest point of the planet in the Mariana Trench, the Challenger Abyss, was named.

The first who personally visited at a depth of eleven thousand meters were the Swiss oceanologist Jacques Piccard and the American military Don Walsh. In 1960, they plunged into the Mariana Trench in a deep-sea vessel. Only 127 mm separated them from kilometers of frightening uncertainty. armored steel.

Only our contemporary, the famous director James Cameron, the creator of the films “Titanic” and “Avatar”, decided to repeat their feat. In 2012, he made this dive alone in the DeepSea Challenge submersible. Taking soil and water samples from the bottom of the Mariana Trench, Cameron helped scientists do a lot important discoveries. However, he saw a silent silence. He did not encounter any monsters or strange phenomena in the abyss. James compares his adventure to flying into space - "complete isolation from all mankind."

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 western 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 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 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.