How deep is the Mariana Trench. How many people have visited the bottom of the Mariana Trench? From movie reviews

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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

Despite the fact that 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 - this is 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 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 in the area Mariana Trench depth of 10,863 meters. After that, the deepest point of the ocean floor began to be called the "Challenger Abyss".

In 1957, Soviet researchers already established the existence of life at depths of more than 7,000 meters, thereby refuting the opinion that existed at that time about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6,000-7,000 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 high) 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 dull, 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.

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

Paradoxically, but about the mysteries of space or mountain peaks humanity knows much more than about the ocean depths. And one of the most mysterious and unexplored places on our planet is just 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 rope of the lot went overboard, but there was no bottom! And only at a depth of 8184 meters the descent of the rope stopped. Thus, the deepest underwater crack on Earth was discovered. It was named the Mariana Trench, after the nearby islands. Its shape (in the form of a crescent) and the location of the deepest section, called the "Challenger Abyss", were determined. It is located 340 km. south of the island Guam and has coordinates 11°22′ s. sh., 142°35′ E d.

“The fourth pole”, “the womb of Gaia”, “the bottom of the world” has since been called this deep-water depression. Oceanographic scientists have long tried to find out its true depth. Studies of different years gave different values. The fact is that at such a colossal depth, the density of water increases as it approaches the bottom, so the properties of the sound from the echo sounder also change in it. By using barometers and thermometers together with echo sounders on different levels, in 2011 the depth value in the "Challenger Abyss" was set at 10994 ± 40 meters. This is the height of Mount Everest plus another two kilometers from above.

The pressure at the bottom of the underwater crevasse is almost 1100 atmospheres, or 108.6 MPa. Most of the deep-sea vehicles are designed for a maximum depth of 6-7 thousand meters. Since the opening deepest canyon, it was possible to successfully reach its bottom only four times.

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

Their observations led to an important conclusion about the presence of life at the bottom of the canyon. The discovery of the upward flow of water was also of great ecological importance: based on it, the nuclear powers refused to bury radioactive waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trough.

In the 90s, the gutter 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, raising samples of silt, minerals, samples of deep-sea fauna and photos of inhabitants of unknown depths from the bottom.

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

Amazing discoveries

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

At 2 kilometers from the surface, "black smokers" swirl - sources of geothermal water with hydrogen sulfide and other substances that, upon contact with cold water are converted to black sulfides. The movement of sulfide water resembles puffs 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 "boilers" that one should look for the origins of life on Earth. Hot springs "warm up" the icy waters, supporting life in the abyss - the temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is in the range of 1-3 ° C.

Life beyond life

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

The bottom of the sinkhole is covered with a thick layer of mucus from organic sediments that have been descending from the upper layers of the ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. Mucus is an excellent nutrient medium for barrophilic bacteria, which form the basis of the nutrition of protozoa and multicellular organisms. 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, a small amount of oxygen and a high concentration of toxic substances. Life in such unbearable conditions gave many inhabitants of the abyss a frightening and unattractive look.

Deep-sea fish have incredible mouths, seated 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, living 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 their organs of vision are, allowing them to catch the slightest glimmer of light on the body of their prey in complete darkness. Some individuals themselves are able to produce 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 lose their color more and more, the bodies of many of them are almost transparent.

On the slopes where the "black smokers" live, molluscs have learned to neutralize the sulfides and hydrogen sulfide that are fatal to them. And, which remains a mystery to scientists so far, under conditions of enormous pressure at the bottom, they somehow miraculously manage to keep their mineral shell intact. Similar abilities are shown by other inhabitants of the Mariana Trench. The study of fauna samples showed a multiple excess of the level of radiation and toxic substances.

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

Secrets and mysteries 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! Confirmation is 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 specimens of these monsters are still preserved in the depths of the failure.

There are many stories about the corpses of giant monsters thrown ashore. When descending into the abyss of the German bathyscaphe "Highfish", 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 crack open some prehistoric lizard! Only a pulse of electric current through the outer skin managed to scare away the monster.

On another occasion, when an American submersible was submerging, a scraping of metal began to be heard from under the water. The descent was stopped. When inspecting the lifted equipment, it turned out that the titanium alloy metal cable was half sawn (or gnawed), and the beams of the underwater vehicle were bent.

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

Unfortunately, there is no documentary evidence of these interesting facts; they are all based only on eyewitness accounts. Every story has its fans and skeptics, its pros and cons.

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

So what do we know about her?

To understand how the Mariana Underwater Gap was formed, it should be remembered that such gaps (troughs) are usually formed along the edges of the oceans under the action of moving lithospheric plates. The oceanic plates, being older and heavier, "creep" under the continental ones, forming deep dips at the junctions. The deepest is the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates near the Mariana Islands (Marian Trench). The Pacific Plate is moving at a speed of 3-4 centimeters per year, resulting in increased volcanic activity along both of its edges.

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

The gutter is V-shaped in cross-section, strongly widening upwards 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 sheer and is only 7-8°. The depression stretches from north to south for 2500 kilometers. The gutter has average depth about 10,000 meters.

Only three people have been to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench to date. In 2018, another manned dive to the “bottom of the world” is planned at its deepest section. This time the well-known will try to conquer the hollow and find out what it hides in its depths Russian traveler Fedor Konyukhov and polar explorer Artur Chilingarov. At present, a deep-sea bathyscaphe is being manufactured and a research program is being drawn up.

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. We will 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 most high mountain planets - Everest.

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

How was the Mariana Trench formed?

It represents the boundary between two lithospheric plates. There is a break in the earth's crust, formed as a result of the movements of these plates. The depression is V-shaped and is 1,500 kilometers long.

Location

How to find the Mariana Trench on the 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 surface of the Earth. Naturally, it is extremely difficult to conduct research in such conditions. However, the secrets and mysteries of the deepest place in the world attract many scientists.

Who lives at the bottom of the hollow

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

Recent studies have found 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, therefore they have specific shapes and colors.

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The Mariana Trench is the deepest place on our planet. I think almost everyone heard about it or studied it at school, but I myself, for example, have long forgotten both its depth and the facts about how it was measured and studied. So I decided to “refresh” my and your memory

This absolute depth got its name thanks to the nearby Mariana Islands. The entire depression stretched along the islands for one and a half thousand kilometers and has a characteristic V-shaped profile. In fact, this is an ordinary tectonic fault, the place where the Pacific plate comes under the Philippine, just Mariana Trench- this is the deepest place of this kind) Its slopes are steep, on average about 7-9 °, and the bottom is flat, from 1 to 5 kilometers wide, and divided by rapids into several closed sections. The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench reaches 108.6 MPa - this is more than 1100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure!

The first who dared to challenge the abyss were the British - the military three-masted corvette "Challenger" with sailing equipment was rebuilt into an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work in 1872. But the first data on the depth of the Mariana Trench were obtained only in 1951 - according to measurements, the depth of the trench was declared equal to 10,863 m. After that, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench was called the “Challenger Deep”. It is hard to imagine that the highest mountain of our planet, Everest, can easily fit in the depths of the Mariana Trench, and more than a kilometer of water will remain above it to the surface ... Of course, it will fit not in area, but only 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 the maximum depth of the trench equal to 11,022 meters, but also established the presence of life at depths of more than 7,000 meters , thereby refuting the then prevailing idea that life was impossible at depths of more than 6000-7000 meters. In 1992, the Vityaz was handed over to the newly formed Museum of the World Ocean. For two years, the ship was being repaired at the plant, and on July 12, 1994, it was permanently moored at the museum pier in the very center of Kaliningrad

On January 23, 1960, the first and only human dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was carried out. Thus, the only people who have been “at the bottom of the Earth” were US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Picard.

During the dive, they were protected by armored, 127 millimeter thick, walls of a bathyscaphe called “Trieste”

Bathyscaphe was named after Italian city Trieste, in which the main work on its creation was carried out. According to the instruments on board the Trieste, Walsh and Picard dived to a depth of 11,521 meters, but this figure was later slightly corrected - 10,918 meters.

The dive took about five, and the rise - about three hours, the researchers spent only 12 minutes at the bottom. But even this time was enough for them to make a sensational discovery - at the bottom they found flat fish up to 30 cm in size, similar to flounder !

Studies in 1995 showed that the depth of the Mariana Trench is about 10,920 m, and the Japanese probe "Kaik?", descended into the Challenger Deep on March 24, 1997, recorded a depth of 10,911.4 meters. Below is a diagram of the cavity - when clicked, it will open in a new window in normal size

The Mariana Trench has repeatedly frightened researchers with monsters lurking in its depths. For the first time, the expedition of the American research vessel Glomar Challenger encountered the unknown. Some time after the start of the descent of the apparatus, the sound-recording device began to transmit some kind of metallic rattle to the surface, reminiscent of the sound of sawn metal. At this time, some indistinct shadows appeared on the monitor, similar to giant fairy-tale dragons with several heads and tails. An hour later, scientists became worried that the unique equipment, made in the NASA laboratory from beams of ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel, having a spherical structure, the so-called “hedgehog” with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss of the Mariana Trench forever - so it was decided to immediately raise apparatus on board the ship. The “Hedgehog” was retrieved from the depths for more than eight hours, and as soon as it appeared on the surface, they immediately put it on a special raft. The TV camera and echo sounder were raised on the deck of the Glomar Challenger. The researchers were horrified when they saw how deformed the strongest steel beams of the structure were, as for the 20-cm steel cable on which the “hedgehog” was lowered, the scientists were not mistaken in the nature of the sounds transmitted from the abyss of water - the cable was half sawn. Who tried to leave the device at a depth and why - will forever remain a mystery. Details of this incident were published in 1996 by the New York Times.

Another collision with the inexplicable in the depths of the Mariana Trench occurred with the German research apparatus "Highfish" with a crew on board. At a depth of 7 km, the device suddenly stopped moving. To find out the cause of the malfunctions, 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, sinking its teeth into the bathyscaphe, tried to crack it like a nut. Recovering from the shock, the crew activated a device called an "electric gun", and the monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss ...

On May 31, 2009, the Nereus automatic underwater vehicle sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to measurements, he sank 10,902 meters below sea level.

At the bottom, Nereus filmed a video, took some photos, and even collected sediment samples from the bottom.

Thanks to modern technology, the researchers managed to capture a few representatives Mariana Trench I invite you to get to know them :)

So now we know that in Mariana Depths different octopuses live

Near east coast The Philippine Islands is an underwater canyon. It is so deep that you can place Mount Everest in it and still have about three kilometers left. There is impenetrable darkness and an incredible pressure force, so one can easily imagine the Mariana Trench as one of the most unfriendly places in the world. However, despite all this, life still somehow continues to exist there - and not just barely survive, but actually thrive, thanks to which a full-fledged ecosystem has appeared there.

Life at such a depth is extremely difficult - eternal cold, impenetrable darkness and enormous pressure will not let you exist in peace. Some creatures, such as the anglerfish, create their own light to attract prey or mates. Others, such as the hammerhead fish, have evolved huge eyes to capture as much light as possible reaching incredible depths. Other creatures are just trying to hide from everyone, and in order to achieve this, they become translucent or red (the red color absorbs all the blue light that manages to make it to the bottom of the cavity).

Cold protection

It is also worth noting that all creatures that live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench need to cope with cold and pressure. Protection from the cold is provided by the fats that form the shell of the creature's body cells. If this process is not followed, the membranes can crack and stop protecting the body. To combat this, these creatures have acquired an impressive supply of unsaturated fats in their membranes. With the help of these fats, the membranes always remain in a liquid state and do not crack. But is that enough to survive in one of the deepest places on the planet?

What is the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench has the shape of a horseshoe, and its length is 2550 kilometers. It is located in the east of the Pacific Ocean, and its width is about 69 kilometers. The most deep point the depression was discovered near the southern tip of the canyon in 1875 - the depth there was 8184 meters. A lot of time has passed since then, and with the help of an echo sounder, more accurate data were obtained: it turns out that the deepest point has more great depth, 10994 meters. It was named "Challenger Depth" in honor of the vessel that made the very first measurement.

Human immersion

However, about 100 years have passed since that moment - and only then for the first time a person plunged to such a depth. In 1960, Jacques Picard and Don Walsh set off in the Trieste bathyscaphe to conquer the depths of the Mariana Trench. Trieste used gasoline as fuel and iron structures as ballast. Bathyscaphe took 4 hours and 47 minutes to reach a depth of 10916 meters. It was then that the fact that life still exists at such a depth was first confirmed. Picard reported that he saw "flat fish" then, although in fact it turned out that he saw only a sea cucumber.

Who lives at the bottom of the ocean?

However, not only sea cucumbers are at the bottom of the depression. Together with them live large single-celled organisms known as foraminifera - they are giant amoeba that can grow up to 10 centimeters in length. Under normal conditions, these organisms create shells of calcium carbonate, but at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where the pressure is a thousand times greater than at the surface, the calcium carbonate dissolves. This means that these organisms have to use proteins, organic polymers and sand to build their shells. Shrimps and other crustaceans known as amphipods also live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The largest of the amphipods look like giant albino woodlice - they can be found at the depths of the Challenger.

Food at the bottom

Given that sunlight does not reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench, another question arises: what do these organisms feed on? Bacteria manage to survive at this depth because they feed on methane and sulfur that come from the earth's crust, and some organisms feed on these bacteria. But many rely on what's called "sea snow," tiny bits of detritus that reach the bottom from the surface. One of the most striking examples and richest sources of food are the carcasses of dead whales, which as a result end up on the ocean floor.

Fish in the hollow

But what about fish? The deepest-sea fish of the Mariana Trench was discovered only in 2014 at a depth of 8143 meters. An unknown ghostly white subspecies of Liparidae with broad pterygoid fins and an eel-like tail has been recorded several times by cameras that plunged into the depths of the depression. However, scientists believe that this depth is most likely the limit where the fish can survive. This means that there can be no fish at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, since the conditions there do not correspond to the structure of the body of vertebrate species.