What do we know about the deepest place in the World Ocean? This is the Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench.

What is its depth? This is not an easy question ...

But definitely not 14 kilometers!

In the section, the Mariana Trench has a characteristic V-shaped profile with very steep slopes. The bottom is flat, several tens of kilometers wide, divided by ridges into several almost closed sections. The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is more than 1,100 times higher than normal atmospheric pressure, reaching 3,150 kg / cm2. Temperatures at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (Mariana Trench) are surprisingly high thanks to the hydrothermal vents dubbed "black smokers". They constantly heat the water and keep the overall temperature in the trough at about 3 ° C.

The first attempt to measure the depth of the Mariana Trench (Mariana Trench) was made in 1875 by the crew of the British oceanographic vessel "Challenger" during a scientific expedition to the World Ocean. The British discovered the Mariana Trench quite by accident, during a stand-by sounding of the bottom with a lot (Italian hemp rope and lead weight). For all the inaccuracy of such a measurement, the result was amazing: 8367 m. In 1877, a map was published in Germany, on which this place was marked as the Challenger Abyss.

The measurement, made in 1899 from the board of the American coal miner "Nero", already showed a great depth: 9636 m.

In 1951, the bottom of the depression was measured by the British survey vessel “Challenger”, named after its predecessor, informally called “Challenger II”. Now, with the help of the echo sounder, a depth of 10899 m was recorded.

The maximum depth indicator was obtained in 1957 by the Soviet research vessel Vityaz: 11,034 ± 50 m. It is strange that no one remembered the anniversary date of the generally epoch-making discovery of Russian oceanologists. However, they say that when taking readings, the change in environmental conditions at different depths was not taken into account. This erroneous figure is still present on many physical and geographical maps published in the USSR and Russia.

In 1959, the American research vessel "Stranger" measured the depth of the trough in a rather unusual way for science - using depth charges. Result: 10915 m.

The last known measurements were made in 2010 by the American vessel Sumner, they showed a depth of 10994 ± 40 m.

It has not yet been possible to obtain absolutely accurate readings even with the most modern equipment. The operation of the echo sounder is hampered by the fact that the speed of sound in water depends on its properties, which manifest themselves differently depending on the depth.

This is how the most durable hulls of underwater vehicles look after tests at extreme pressure. Photo: Sergey Ptichkin / RG

And now it is reported that Russia has developed an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of operating at a depth of 14 kilometers. Hence, it is concluded that our military oceanographers have found a depression in the World Ocean deeper than the Mariana.

The announcement that the device was created and passed its test compression at a pressure corresponding to a depth of 14,000 meters was made during an ordinary press trip of journalists to one of the leading scientific centers involved in deep-sea vehicles. It’s even strange that no one paid attention to this sensation and has not yet voiced it. And the developers themselves did not particularly become frank. Or maybe they just reinsure themselves and want to get reinforced concrete evidence? And now we have every reason to expect a new scientific sensation.

The decision was made to create an uninhabited deep-sea vehicle capable of withstanding pressure, which is much higher than that existing in the Mariana Trench. The device is ready for use. If the depth is confirmed, it will become a super sensation. If not, the device will work to the maximum in the same Mariana Trench, study it up and down. In addition, the developers claim that with a not very complicated revision, the AUV can be made habitable. And it will be comparable to manned deep space missions.

The existence of the Mariana Trench has been known for a long time, and there are technical possibilities for descending to the bottom, but over the past 60 years, only three people have been able to do this: a scientist, a military man and a film director.

During the entire time of the study of the Mariana Trench (Mariana Trench), devices with people on board were lowered to its bottom twice and automatic devices four times (as of April 2017). By the way, less than people have visited the moon.

On January 23, 1960, the Trieste bathyscaphe sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (Mariana Trench). On board were the Swiss oceanographer Jacques Picard (1922-2008) and the US Navy lieutenant, explorer Don Walsh (born 1931). The bathyscaphe was designed by the father of Jacques Picard, a physicist, inventor of the stratospheric balloon and bathyscaphe Auguste Piccard (1884-1962).

The black-and-white photograph half a century ago shows the legendary bathyscaphe "Trieste" at the time of preparation for the dive. The crew of two was in a spherical steel nacelle. It was attached to a float filled with gasoline to provide positive buoyancy.

The descent of "Trieste" lasted 4 hours 48 minutes, the crew periodically interrupted it. At a depth of 9 km, plexiglass glass cracked, but the descent continued until the Trieste sank to the bottom, where the crew spotted a 30-centimeter flat fish and some crustacean creature. Having spent about 20 minutes at a depth of 10,912 m, the crew began the ascent, which took 3 hours 15 minutes.

Man made another attempt to descend to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (Mariana Trench) in 2012, when American filmmaker James Cameron (born 1954) became the third to reach the bottom of the Challenger Abyss. Previously, he repeatedly dived on Russian Mir spacecraft in Atlantic Ocean to a depth of over 4 km during the filming of the movie "Titanic". Now, on the Dipsy Challenger bathyscaphe, he sank into the abyss in 2 hours 37 minutes - almost a widow faster than the "Trieste" - and spent 2 hours 36 minutes at a depth of 10898 m. Then he rose to the surface in just an hour and a half. At the bottom, Cameron saw only creatures that looked like shrimps.
The fauna and flora of the Mariana Trench are poorly studied.

In the 1950s. Soviet scientists during the expedition of the ship "Vityaz" discovered life at depths of more than 7 thousand meters. Before that it was believed that there was nothing living there. Pogonophores were discovered - a new family of marine invertebrates living in chitinous tubes. Disputes about their scientific classification are still ongoing.

The main inhabitants of the Mariana Trench (Mariana Trench), living at the very bottom, are barophilic (developing only at high pressure) bacteria, the simplest creatures of the foraminifera - unicellular in shells and xenophyophores - amoebas, reaching 20 cm in diameter and living by shoveling silt.
Foraminifera managed to get the Japanese automatic deep-sea probe "Kaiko" in 1995, which sank to 10911.4 m and took soil samples.

The larger inhabitants of the gutter live throughout its entire thickness. Deep life made them either blind or with highly developed eyes, often telescopic. Many have photophores - organs of luminescence, a kind of bait for prey: in some, on long processes, like in an angler fish, while in others, it is in the mouth right away. Some accumulate a luminous liquid and, in case of danger, douse the enemy with it in the manner of a "light curtain".

Since 2009, the territory of the depression has been part of the American Conservation Area Marine National Monument Mariana Trench with an area of ​​246,608 km2. The zone includes only the underwater part of the trough and the water area. The reason for this action was the fact that the Northern Mariana Islands and the island of Guam - in fact, American territory - are the island boundaries of the water area. The Challenger Abyss is not included in this zone, as it is located in ocean territory. Federated States Micronesia.

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Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the distant planets of the solar system, people explored only five percent of the ocean floor, which remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet. The deepest part ocean - Mariana Trench or Mariana Trenchis one of the most famous places, about which we still do not know very much.

With a water pressure that is a thousand times greater than at sea level, diving in this place is akin to suicide.

But thanks to modern technology and a few daredevils who, risking their lives, went down there, we learned a lot of interesting things about this amazing place.

Mariana Trench on the map. Where is she located?

The Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is located in the western part The Pacific east (about 200 km) from 15 Mariana Islands near Guam. It is a crescent-shaped trench in the earth's crust about 2,550 km long and an average of 69 km wide.

Coordinates of the Mariana Trench: 11 ° 22 ′ north latitude and 142 ° 35 ′ east longitude.

Depth of the Mariana Trench

According to the latest research in 2011, the depth of the deepest point in the Mariana Trench is about 10,994 meters ± 40 meters... For comparison, the height of the high summit the world - Everest is 8,848 meters. This means that if Everest was in the Mariana Trench, then it would be covered with another 2.1 km of water.

Here are others Interesting Facts about what can be found along the way and at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench

1. Very hot water

Descending to this depth, we expect it to be very cold there. The temperature here reaches slightly above zero, varying 1 to 4 degrees Celsius.

However, at a depth of about 1.6 km from the surface of the Pacific Ocean there are hydrothermal vents called "black smokers". They shoot water that heats up to 450 degrees Celsius.

This water is rich in minerals that help keep the area alive. Despite the water temperature, which is hundreds of degrees above the boiling point, she doesn't boil here due to the incredible pressure, 155 times higher than on the surface.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

2. Giant toxic amoeba

A few years ago, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, giant 10 cm amoebas called xenophyophores.

These single-celled organisms are likely to have grown so large because of the environment in which they live at a depth of 10.6 km. Cold temperatures, high pressure and lack of sunlight most likely contributed to the fact that these amoebas have become enormous.

In addition, xenophyophores have incredible abilities. They are resistant to many elements and chemicals, including uranium, mercury and lead,that would kill other animals and people.

3. Molluscs

The strong pressure of the water in the Mariana Trench does not give any animal with shell or bones a chance of survival. However, in 2012, shellfish were found in a trench near serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which allows living organisms to form.

TO How did the molluscs keep their shells under this pressure? remains unknown.

In addition, hydrothermal vents release another gas, hydrogen sulfide, which is fatal to shellfish. However, they learned to bind the sulfur compound into a safe protein, which allowed the population of these molluscs to survive.

At the bottom of the Mariana Trench

4. Pure liquid carbon dioxide

Hydrothermal Champagne spring The Mariana Trench, which lies outside the Okinawa Trench near Taiwan, is the only known underwater area where liquid carbon dioxide can be found... The source, discovered in 2005, gets its name from the bubbles, which turned out to be carbon dioxide.

Many believe that these springs, called "white smokers" due to the lower temperature, may be the source of life. It was in the depths of the oceans with low temperatures and an abundance of chemicals and energy that life could originate.

5. Slime

If we had the opportunity to swim to the very depths of the Mariana Trench, then we would feel that she covered with a layer of viscous mucus... Sand, in the form we are used to, does not exist there.

The bottom of the depression is mainly composed of crushed shells and plankton debris that have accumulated at the bottom of the depression for many years. Due to the incredible pressure of the water, almost everything there turns into fine grayish-yellow thick mud.

Mariana Trench

6. Liquid sulfur

Daikoku volcano, which lies at a depth of about 414 meters on the way to the Mariana Trench, is the source of one of the rarest phenomena on our planet. Here is lake of pure molten sulfur... The only place where liquid sulfur can be found is Jupiter's moon Io.

In this pit called the "cauldron", a seething black emulsion boils at 187 degrees Celsius... Although scientists have not been able to investigate the site in detail, there may be even more liquid sulfur contained deeper. It may reveal the secret of the origin of life on Earth.

According to Gaia's hypothesis, our planet is one self-governing organism, in which all living and non-living things are combined to support its life. If this hypothesis is correct, then a number of signals can be observed in the natural cycles and systems of the Earth. So the sulfur compounds created by organisms in the ocean must be stable enough in the water to allow them to pass into the air, and then return to land.

7. Bridges

At the end of 2011, in the Mariana Trench, it was discovered four stone bridges, which stretched from one end to the other for 69 km. They appear to have formed at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates.

One of the bridges Dutton Ridge, which was discovered back in the 1980s, turned out to be incredibly high, like a small mountain. In the most high point, the ridge reaches 2.5 km over the Challenger Abyss.

Like many aspects of the Mariana Trench, the purpose of these bridges remains unclear. However, the very fact that in one of the most mysterious and uncharted places discovered these formations is amazing.

8. The immersion of James Cameron in the Mariana Trench

Since opening the deepest place of the Mariana Trench - "Challenger Abyss" in 1875, only three people visited it. The first were an American lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Piccard who dived on 23 January 1960 on the ship "Trieste".

52 years later, another person dared to dive here - a famous film director James Cameron... So March 26, 2012 Cameron went down and took some photos.

In our article we want to talk about the mysterious Mariana Trench. This is the most deep point on the surface of the earth. By and large, this is where our knowledge of this place ends. But the Mariana Trench, the monsters that live in it, are eternal and assumptions. Her secrets are as deep as she is.

The first mystery of the Mariana Trench

One of the mysteries of the depression is its depth. Until recently, it was believed that the Mariana Trench, as it is more correct to call this place from a scientific point of view, has a depth of more than eleven kilometers. However, the latest modern technical measurements give a value of 10994 kilometers. Although, it is worth noting that this value is very relative, since diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench is a technically very difficult event, which is influenced by many factors. Scientists talk about a possible error of forty meters.

Where is the Mariana Trench located?

The Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Guam and Micronesia. Its deepest point is called the Challenger Abyss and is located 340 kilometers from

Answering the question, where is the Mariana Trench, you can give its exact geographical coordinates- 11 ° 21 ′ s. sh. 142 ° 12 ′ E The place got this name due to the fact that they are located nearby, which are part of a state such as Guam.

What is the Mariana Trench?

What is the Mariana Trench? The ocean carefully hides its true size. One can only guess about them. This is not just a "very deep hole". The gutter itself stretched along seabed one and a half thousand kilometers. The depression has a V-shape, that is, it is much wider from above, and the walls narrow from top to bottom.

The bottom of the Mariana Trench is characterized by a flat relief, and the width varies from 1 to 5 kilometers. Its upper part is eighty kilometers wide.

This place is one of the most inaccessible in our land.

Is it necessary to explore the depression?

It seems that life at such depths is simply impossible. Therefore, it makes no sense to study such an abyss. However, the secrets of the Mariana Trench have always interested and attracted researchers. Believe it or not, space is easier to explore nowadays than such depths. Many people have been outside the Earth, and only three brave men sank to the bottom of the trench.

Examining the gutter

The British were the first to explore the Mariana Trench. In 1872, the Challenger ship with scientists entered the Pacific Ocean to study the trough. It was found that this point is the deepest in the globe... Since then, people have been haunted by the secrets and creatures of the Mariana Trench.

As time went on, research was carried out, a new depth value was established - 10863 meters.

Research is carried out by lowering deep-sea vehicles. Most often these are unmanned automatic vehicles. And in 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descended to the very bottom on the Trieste bathyscaphe. In 2012, he ventured on Jace Cameron on the Deepsea Challenger.

Russian researchers also studied the Mariana Trench. In 1957, the ship "Vityaz" headed to the area of ​​the trough. Scientists not only measured the depth of the trench (11022 meters), but also discovered the presence of life at a depth of more than seven kilometers. This event brought about a revolution in the world of science in the mid-twentieth century. At that time it was believed that at such depths there could be no living creatures. This is where the fun begins. How many stories and legends exist about this place - simply do not count. So what exactly is the Mariana Trench really? Do monsters really live here or are they just fairy tales? Let's try to figure it out.

Mariana Trench: monsters, riddles, secrets

As we mentioned earlier, the first brave daredevils to descend to the bottom of the depression were Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. They descended in a heavy bathyscaphe called Trieste. The wall thickness of the structure was thirteen centimeters. She was submerged to the bottom for five hours. Having reached the deepest point, the researchers managed to stay there for only twelve minutes. Then the ascent of the bathyscaphe immediately began, which took three hours. No matter how surprising this phenomenon may seem, living organisms were found at the bottom. The fish of the Mariana Trench are flat, flounder-like creatures, no more than thirty centimeters long.

In 1995, the Japanese sank into the abyss. And in 2009, a miracle device called the Nereus sank to the deepest point. He not only took a number of photos, but also took soil samples.

In 1996, The New York Times published the materials of the next immersion of the apparatus from the research vessel Challenger. It turns out that when the equipment began to be lowered, after a while the instruments recorded the strongest metal grinding. This fact was the reason for the immediate rise of equipment to the surface. What the researchers saw stunned them. The steel structure was badly dented, and the thick, strong cable seemed to be sawed. Such an unexpected surprise came from the Mariana Trench. Whether monsters so crumpled the technique or representatives of an alien intelligence, or mutated octopuses ... A variety of proposals were expressed, each of which was more incredible than the previous one. However, no one found the true reason, since there was no evidence for any of the theories. All assumptions were at the level of fantastic guesses. But the secrets of the Mariana Trench have not yet been revealed.

Another mysterious story

Another incredibly mysterious incident occurred with a team of German researchers, which lowered their device, called the Highfish, to the bottom. At some point, the device stopped diving, and the cameras installed on it gave an image of the huge size of a lizard, which was actively trying to gnaw at an unknown thing. The team chased the monster away from the apparatus with an electrical discharge. The creature got scared and swam away and did not appear again. It is a pity that such events were not recorded by the apparatus so that there was irrefutable evidence.

After this incident, the Mariana Trench began to grow overgrown with new facts, legends and speculation. The crews of the ships now and then reported a huge monster in these waters, which was towing ships at high speed. It became difficult to make out where the truth is, and where is speculation. The Mariana Trench, the monsters of which haunted many people, still remains the most mysterious point on the planet.

Indisputable facts

Along with the most incredible legends about the Mariana Trench, there are very specific, but incredible facts. There is no doubt about them, since they are supported by evidence.

In 1948, lobster fishers (Australian) reported a large transparent fish that was at least thirty meters long. They saw her at sea. Judging by their description, it looks like a very ancient shark (species Carcharodon megalodon), which lived several million years ago. Scientists managed to restore the appearance of a shark from the remains. The monstrous creature was 25 meters long and weighed one hundred tons. Her mouth was two meters in size, and each tooth was at least ten centimeters. Just imagine this monster. It was the teeth of such a creature that were discovered by oceanologists at the bottom of the vast Pacific Ocean. The youngest of them is at least eleven thousand years old.

This unique find makes it possible to assume that not all such creatures became extinct a couple of million years ago. Perhaps, at the very bottom of the depression, these incredible predators are hiding from human eyes. Research into the mysterious depths continues to this day, since the abyss is fraught with many secrets, the disclosure of which people have not yet come close to.

At the bottom of the depression, living organisms experience tremendous pressure. It would seem that in such conditions nothing living can exist. However, this opinion is erroneous. Here mollusks live quietly, their shells do not suffer from pressure at all. They are not even affected by hydrothermal vents that emit methane and hydrogen. Incredible, but true!

Another mystery is a hydrothermal spring called Champagne. Bubbles of carbon dioxide bubble up in its waters. This is the only such object in the world and it is located in a depression, which gave scientists a reason to talk about the possible origin of life in water in this very place.

There is a Daikoku volcano in the Mariana Trench. In its crater there is a lake of molten sulfur, which boils at an enormous temperature of 187 degrees. Nowhere else on earth can you find such a thing. The only analogue of such a phenomenon is in space (on the satellite of Jupiter called Io).

Amazing place

In the Mariana Trench, there are giant unicellular amoebae, the size of which reaches ten centimeters. They live next to uranium, lead, and mercury that are destructive to living things. However, they not only do not die from them, but also feel great.

The Mariana Trench is the greatest wonder on earth. Everything inanimate and living is combined here. Everything that kills life under normal conditions, at the bottom of the depression, on the contrary, gives strength for the survival of living organisms. Isn't it a miracle? How many unknown things are hidden in this place!

It would seem that by the twenty-first century, mankind knows everything about our planet and there are no blank spots 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 believed 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 the normal atmospheric pressure of the Earth. Just imagine, there is a whole ton of weight per square centimeter of surface. Titanium alloys can barely withstand such loads. If a man were here, he would have been torn to pieces at that very 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 vents "black smokers", which are closer to the surface of the ocean, throw down 450 degree jets.

The colossal pressure does not allow the water to boil and the environment is 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 in a white fog. Such hydrothermal springs enrich the aquatic environment with chemical trace elements and, according to scientists, create good conditions for the emergence 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, lack of sunlight and zero temperatures, life is in full swing. The bottom is inhabited by various types of bacteria and protozoa, sea cucumbers and amphipods, shells of mollusks and glowing octopuses, bizarre starfish, blind giant worms and flat fish with periscopic eyes.

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 the pitch darkness, the prey swims into the light and find themselves in the toothy mouth of a predator. The attention of doctors was especially attracted by one of the species of isopods, because the substance it releases may help in the development of a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Most of all, the public was shocked by the huge amoeba-xenophyophores. Their size in the Mariana Trench reaches 10 cm, while all the previously known species of protozoa can hardly be seen through a microscope. A unique feature of xenophiophores is that they are resistant to such powerful and destructive substances 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 went that the research vessel "Glomar Challenger", plunging a device to study the ocean depths into the abyss, faced difficulties. At some point, the sensors recorded an eerie noise and grinding. I had to urgently remove the apparatus from the water. It turned out to be badly damaged, the iron body of the device was badly twisted, and the reliable metal cable almost broke off, as if someone wanted to bite it.

A similar incident happened with a group of German scientists, when a huge lizard attacked the "Highfish" probe, which was lowered into the water, according to the team. It was possible to get rid of it only by frightening 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 in these parts a huge white shark about 30 m long. Whereas the individuals of this species known to science do not exceed five meters. The description of the Australians completely agreed 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. It is generally accepted that the Megalodons became extinct about 2 million years ago. But just recently, in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench, a tooth of this monster was discovered. The examination determined that this find is no more than 11 thousand years old. What else does the seabed hide?

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 the unknown depths. Since 1872, more than a dozen expeditions have been sent to the waters of the Pacific Ocean. In most cases, the 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 at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

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

The first to personally visit the depth of eleven thousand meters were the Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and the American military Don Walsh. In 1960, they sank into the Mariana Trench in a deep-sea vessel. They were separated from the kilometers of frightening obscurity by only 127 mm. armored steel.

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

Near east coast The Philippine Islands is underwater canyon... It is so deep that you can place Mount Everest in it, and you still have about three kilometers left. Impenetrable darkness reigns there and an incredible force of pressure acts, so you 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 flourish, thanks to which a full-fledged ecosystem has appeared there.

Life at such a depth is extremely difficult - eternal cold, impenetrable darkness and tremendous pressure will not allow you to exist in peace. Some creatures, such as the angler, 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 simply try to hide from everyone, and in order to achieve this, they become translucent or red (red absorbs all blue light that manages to break through to the bottom of the cavity).

Cold protection

It is also worth noting that all creatures living at the bottom of the Mariana Trench need to cope with the cold and pressure. Protection from the cold is provided by fats, which form the cell membrane of the creature's body. If this process is not monitored, the membranes can crack and no longer protect 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 this enough to survive one of the deepest places on the planet?

What is the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench is shaped like a horseshoe, and its length is 2,550 kilometers. It is located in the east of the Pacific Ocean and is about 69 kilometers wide. The deepest point of the depression was discovered near the southern end of the canyon in 1875 - the depth there was 8184 meters. A lot of time has passed since then, and with the help of the echo sounder, more accurate data were obtained: it turns out that the deepest point is even deeper, 10994 meters. It was named "Challenger Depth" in honor of the vessel that made that very first measurement.

Human immersion

However, about 100 years have passed since that moment - and only then for the first time a man plunged to such a depth. In 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh went to the Trieste bathyscaphe to conquer the depths of the Mariana Trench. Trieste used gasoline as fuel and iron structures as ballast. It took the bathyscaphe 4 hours and 47 minutes to reach a depth of 10,916 meters. It was then that the fact that life still exists at such a depth was first confirmed. Picard said that he saw a "flat fish" then, although in fact it turned out that he only noticed a sea cucumber.

Who lives at the bottom of the ocean?

However, not only sea cucumbers are found at the bottom of the depression. Together with them, there are large single-celled organisms known as foraminifera - they are giant amoebas 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, calcium carbonate dissolves. This means that these organisms have to use proteins, organic polymers and sand to create shells. Shrimp and other crustaceans known as amphipods also live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The largest of the amphipods are similar to giant albino woodlice - they can be found in the depths of Challenger.

Meals at the bottom

Considering 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 due to the fact that they feed on methane and sulfur that emerge from the earth's crust, and some organisms feed on these bacteria. But many rely on what is called "sea snow" - tiny pieces of detritus that reach the bottom from the surface. One of the most striking examples and richest food sources is the carcasses of dead whales, which end up on the ocean floor.

Fish in the hollow

But what about fish? The deepest fish in the Mariana Trench was discovered only in 2014 at a depth of 8143 meters. An unknown ghostly white subspecies of Liparids with wide pterygoid fins and an eel-like tail was recorded several times by cameras that plunged into the depths of the depression. However, scientists believe that this depth is most likely the limit of 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 vertebrates.