There are deep faults in the earth's crust - sea depressions at the bottom of the oceans, where impenetrable darkness and the highest pressure reign. We offer a selection of the deepest sea depressions, which the lack of technology does not yet allow to study well.
The Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on our planet, which is located in Pacific Ocean not far from the Mariana Islands that gave it its name. The depth of the trench is 10994 ± 40 m below sea level.
Paradoxically, the Mariana Trench has been more or less explored - three people have already descended here.
Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard The first time this happened was on January 23, 1960, when the bathyscaphe, carrying US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Piccard, managed to sink to a depth of 10,918 m. Then there were no such technologies as there are now, and two people were connected to the world only by a strong cable. After a successful return, the researchers said that they saw flat flounder-like fish at the very bottom, but, unfortunately, there were no photographs.
Just a year ago, director James Cameron descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. It was easier for him, even though he was alone: in 50 years, technology has moved far forward. Moreover, his bathyscaphe “Deepsea Challenger” was equipped with everything necessary for photo and video shooting, and there were also 3D cameras on board. Based on the material received, the National Geographic channel is preparing a film.
And recently, information was received that there are real mountains at the bottom of the Mariana Trench: using echolocation, it was possible to “see” four ridges 2.5 km high.
The Tonga Trench is the deepest trench in the Southern Hemisphere and the second deepest on Earth. The maximum known depth is 10,882 m. It is unusual primarily because the speed of movement of lithospheric plates in the Tonga region is much greater than in all other parts of the planet where there are breaks in the earth's crust. Here the plates move at a speed of 25.4 cm per year versus the usual 2 cm. This was established by observing the tiny island of Niautoputanu, which moves by an average of just 25 cm every year.
Somewhere in the middle of Tonga, the Apollo 13 lunar landing stage was stuck, having fallen there during the lunar module's return to Earth. It is located at a depth of approximately 6,000 m, and no attempts have been made to extract it from there. Along with it, a plutonium energy source containing plutonium-238 fell into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. It seems great harm this did not harm the environment, although considering that the half-life of plutonium-238 is slightly less than 88 years, and the module fell there in 1970, very interesting discoveries can await pioneers who decide to go down to the bottom of Tonga.
The Philippine Trench is also located in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippine Islands. The maximum depth is 10,540 m. Little is known about the trench - only that it was formed as a result of subduction. No one tried to go down to its bottom, since the Mariana Trench, of course, is more interesting.
The Kermadec connects to the north with the Tonga Trench. The maximum depth is 10,047 m. During an expedition in 2008, it was possible to photograph a strange pink creature of the species Notoliparis kermadecensis at a depth of 7,560 m. Other inhabitants were also found there - huge crustaceans 34 cm in length.
The maximum depth of the Izu-Bonin Pacific Trench, also known as Izu-Ogasawara, is 9,810 m. It was discovered at the end of the 19th century during an expedition when it was decided to lay a telephone cable along the ocean floor. Of course, it was first necessary to take measurements, and in one place, not far from the Izu Islands, the Tuscarora vessel’s lot did not reach the bottom, recording a depth of more than 8,500 m.
In the north, Izu-Ogasawara connects with the Japan Trench, and in the south with the Volcano Trench. There is a whole chain of deep-sea depressions in this area of the ocean, and Izu-Bonin is just part of it.
This depression was discovered shortly after Izu-Bonin during the same expedition. The maximum depth is 9,783 m. This trench is quite narrow compared to all the others, its width is only 59 m. It is known that on the slopes of this trench there are ledges, terraces, canyons and valleys that appear up to the maximum depth. The bottom of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench is uneven, divided by rapids into separate depressions. To our knowledge, no detailed studies have been carried out.
The Puerto Rico Trench is located on the border of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The maximum depth is 8,385 m, and this is the deepest place in Atlantic Ocean. The area where the trench is located is a zone of high seismic activity. The last disaster occurred here in 2004, when underwater volcanic eruptions caused a tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean countries. Recent studies have shown that perhaps the depth of the trench is gradually increasing due to the fact that the North American tectonic plate - the southern “wall” of the trench - is gradually descending.
At a depth of 7,900 m in the Puerto Rican Trench, an active mud volcano was discovered, which erupted rock 10 km high in 2004. A column of hot mud and water was clearly visible above the surface of the ocean.
The Japan Trench is also located in the Pacific Ocean, as the name suggests, located near the Japanese Islands. The depth of the Japan Trench, according to the latest data, is about 8,400 m, and the length is more than 1,000 km.
No one has yet reached its bottom, but in 1989, the Shinkai 6500 bathyscaphe with three researchers on board sank to 6,526 m. Later, in 2008, a group of Japanese and British researchers managed to photograph large groups of fish 30 cm long at a depth of 7,700 m.
The bottom of the world's oceans is uneven, cut through by gorges whose depth is tens of thousands of meters. The relief was formed millions of years ago due to the movement of tectonic plates - the “shell” earth's crust. Due to their continuous movement, the location and shape of the continents and the ocean floor changed. The deepest ocean on the planet is the Pacific Ocean, which is at this stage technological developments cannot be fully explored.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest on the planet. In its western latitudes lie the continents of Australia and Eurasia, in the southern - Antarctica, in the eastern - South and North America. The length of the Pacific Ocean from south to north is almost 16 thousand kilometers, and from west to east - 19 thousand. The area of the ocean together with its seas is 178.684 million kilometers, and the average depth is about 4 kilometers. But there are amazing places in the Pacific Ocean that make it the deepest in the world.
This deepest chasm got its name in honor of the nearby Mariana Islands. The depth of the Pacific Ocean in this place is 10 kilometers 994 meters. The deepest point of the trench is called the Challenger Deep. Geographically, the “Abyss” is located 340 km from the southwestern tip of the island of Guam.
If we take Mount Everest for comparison, which, as is known, rises 8848 m above sea level, it can completely disappear under water and there will still be room.
In 2010, an oceanographic expedition from New Hampshire conducted research on the ocean floor in the Mariana Trench area. Scientists have discovered four seamounts, each at least 2.5 kilometers high, crossing the surface of the trench at the point of contact between the Philippine and Pacific lithospheric plates. According to scientists, these ridges were formed about 180 million years ago as a result of the movement of the above-mentioned plates and the gradual creep of the older and heavier Pacific Plate under the Philippine Plate. The maximum depth of the Pacific Ocean was recorded here.
Deep-sea vehicles with three people descended into the depths of the Challenger Deep four times:
This depression is located at the junction of the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. Extends from the Kermadec Trench towards the Tonga Islands. Its length is 860 km and its depth is 10,882 m, which is a record in the Southern Hemisphere and the second deepest on the planet. The Tonga region is notorious for being one of the most active seismic zones.
In 1970, on April 17, during Apollo 13's return to earth, the spent landing stage containing plutonium fell into the Tonga Trench to a depth of 6 km. No attempts were made to remove her from there.
The second deepest place in the Pacific Ocean is located in the Philippine Islands. The recorded depth of the depression is 10,540 m. The depression was formed as a result of the collision of granite and basalt layers, the latter, being heavier, was undermined by the granite layer. The process of meeting two lithospheric plates is called subduction, and the place of “meeting” is the subduction zone. In such places, tsunamis are born and earthquakes occur.
The depression runs along a volcanic ridge Kuril Islands on the border between Japan and Russia. The length of the trench is 1300 km, and the maximum depth is 10500 m. The depression was formed more than 65 million years ago during the Cretaceous period as a result of the collision of two tectonic plates.
It is located near the Kermadec Islands, northeast of New Zealand and in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The trench was first discovered by the Galatea group from Denmark, and the Soviet research vessel Vityaz studied the bottom of the trench in 1958 and recorded a maximum depth of 10,047 m. In 2008, an unknown species of sea slugs was discovered at the bottom of the trench, as well as deep-seated crustaceans long up to 30 cm.
Our blue planet is full of secrets, and we humans strive to comprehend them. We are curious by nature, learning from the past and looking forward to the future. The ocean is the cradle of humanity. When will he reveal his secrets to us? The greatest depth of the Pacific Ocean that is known to scientists - are these figures true, or is there something incomprehensible hidden under the black water?
The Mariana Trench, or Mariana Trench, is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest geographical feature known on Earth.
The depression stretches along the Mariana Islands for 1500 km; she has V-profile, steep (7-9°) slopes, flat bottom 1-5 km wide, which is divided by rapids into several closed depressions. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is more than 1100 times the normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean. The depression is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, in the zone of movement along faults, where the Pacific plate goes under the Philippine plate.
The device recording sounds began to transmit to the surface noises reminiscent of the grinding of saw teeth on metal. At the same time, unclear shadows appeared on the TV monitor, similar to giant fairy-tale dragons. These creatures had several heads and tails. An hour later, scientists on the American research vessel Glomar Challenger became worried that the unique equipment, made from beams of ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel in a NASA laboratory, having a spherical structure, the so-called “hedgehog” with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss forever. The decision was made to raise it immediately. It took more than eight hours for the “hedgehog” to be recovered from the depths. As soon as he appeared on the surface, he was immediately placed on a special raft. The television camera and echo sounder were lifted onto the deck of the Glomar Challenger. It turned out that the strongest steel beams the structures were deformed, and the 20-centimeter steel cable on which it was lowered turned out to be half sawn through. Who tried to leave the “hedgehog” at depth and why is an absolute mystery. Details of this interesting experiment conducted by American oceanologists in the Mariana Trench were published in 1996 in the New York Times (USA).
This is not the only case of a collision with the inexplicable in the depths of the Mariana Trench. Something similar happened to the German research vehicle Haifish with a crew on board. Once at a depth of 7 km, the device suddenly refused to float. Finding out the cause of the problem, 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 chew it like a nut. Having come to their senses, the crew activated a device called “ electric gun" The monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss.
The inexplicable and incomprehensible have always attracted people, which is why scientists around the world want to answer the question: “What does the Mariana Trench hide in its depths?”
Can living organisms live at such great depths, and what should they look like, given the fact that they are pressed by huge masses of ocean waters, the pressure of which exceeds 1100 atmospheres? The challenges associated with exploring and understanding the creatures that live at these unimaginable depths are numerous, but human ingenuity knows no bounds. For a long time, oceanographers considered the hypothesis that life could exist at depths of more than 6,000 m in impenetrable darkness, under enormous pressure and at temperatures close to zero, to be crazy. However, the results of research by scientists in the Pacific Ocean have shown that even in these depths, much below the 6000-meter mark, there are huge colonies of living organisms pogonophora ((pogonophora; from the Greek pogon - beard and phoros - bearing), a type of marine invertebrate animals living in long chitinous tubes open at both ends). IN Lately The veil of secrecy was lifted by manned and automatic underwater vehicles made of heavy-duty materials, equipped with video cameras. The result was the discovery of a rich animal community consisting of both familiar and less familiar marine groups.
Thus, at depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the following were discovered:
- barophilic bacteria (developing only when high blood pressure),
- from protozoa - foraminifera (an order of protozoa of the subclass of rhizomes with a cytoplasmic body covered with a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);
- from multicellular organisms - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, sea cucumbers, bivalves and gastropods.
At the depths no sunlight, there are no algae, constant salinity, low temperatures, an abundance of carbon dioxide, enormous hydrostatic pressure (increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters). What do the inhabitants of the abyss eat?
The food sources of deep animals are bacteria, as well as the rain of “corpses” and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals are either blind, or with very developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluoride; in other forms the surface of the body or parts of it glow. Therefore, the appearance of these animals is as terrible and incredible as the conditions in which they live. Among them are frightening-looking worms 1.5 meters long, without a mouth or anus, mutant octopuses, extraordinary sea stars and some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified at all.
So, man has never been able to resist the desire to explore the unknown, and the rapidly developing world of technological progress allows us to penetrate ever deeper into the secret world of the most inhospitable and rebellious environment in the world - the World Ocean. There will be enough items for research in the Mariana Trench for many years to come, given that the most inaccessible and mysterious point of our planet, unlike Everest (altitude 8848 m above sea level), was conquered only once. So, on January 23, 1960, US Navy officer Don Walsh and Swiss explorer Jacques Piccard, protected by the armored, 12-centimeter thick walls of the bathyscaphe called Trieste, managed to descend to a depth of 10,915 meters.
Despite the fact that scientists have made a huge step in researching the Mariana Trench, the questions have not decreased, and new mysteries have appeared that have yet to be solved. And the ocean abyss knows how to keep its secrets. Will people be able to reveal them in the near future?
In those places, the rays of sunlight will never penetrate; to get there, researchers, risking their lives, make a lot of effort and effort; mysterious creatures live there, which look more like aliens, than on the inhabitants of the ocean - all these are deep-sea depressions (trenches) of the World Ocean.
Ocean trenches are deep cracks on the ocean floor, the length of which reaches at least five thousand meters. They play an important role in the formation climatic conditions and the climate in general.
The oceans' depressions act as major sinks for the most common carbon gas, CO2, which is a major component in biochemical processes. globe. Depressions are traps of organic matter, which is intensively processed by bacteria. Much more bacterial organisms are concentrated in the depressions than on the ocean plains (up to 6000 meters), which were previously considered the main utilizers of organic matter. In addition, such peculiar traps can act in the opposite direction global warming, which helps support ecological system planets are in a balanced state.
Oceanic cracks and faults also include depressions in marginal seas that develop in oceanic conditions. Sea depressions are deep cracks that are located at the bottom of the seas, where complete darkness and high pressure reign. The most famous are the sea depressions that stretch along the eastern shores of Eurasia.
Oceanic depressions are the most common relief elements in the intermediate sector between the ocean and the continental part of the continent. These long, narrow depressions of the ocean floor are located on the outer part of the oceanic ridges of continental arcs.
The deepest faults are concentrated in the Pacific region and reach up to 11 km. The deepest place on earth is the Mariana Trench with a recorded depth of 11,022 meters. The length of the trench is 1500 km, the slopes are steep and the bottom is flat (width from 1 to 5 km).
IN Indian Ocean the deepest is the Java Trench with a depth of 7,730 meters, a length of more than 4,000 kilometers, and a width of 10 to 50 km. It is located near the island of Bali. The bottom of the depression is indented with ledges and underwater canyons, there are active volcanoes, and earthquakes occur.
The Peruvian-Chilean trench is considered the longest in the world, its depth reaches 6000 km. This depression is the widest rift in the World Ocean and is recognized as one of the 7 wonders of the world (more than 90 km wide).
The Aleutian Trench, 7,700 m deep, stretches from Alaska to Kamchatka. The depression was formed during the collision of two plates, the Pacific and North American.
(Contour of Mount Chomolungma (Everest) on the Marina Basin diagram)
If only high mountain world Chomolungma (Everest) ended up in the Mariana Trench, it would have been covered with water for another 2 km.
At a depth of about one and a half kilometers from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean there is thermal springs, so the water warms up to 450 C.
Recently, giant amoebas (up to 10 cm) were discovered at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which are of such size due to the environment in which they live.
Today we will talk about the deepest oceanic place on the planet - the Mariana Trench and its deepest point - the Challenger Deep.
“The Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) is an oceanic deep-sea trench in the western Pacific Ocean, the deepest known on Earth. Named after the nearby Mariana Islands.
The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep. It is located in the southwestern part of the depression, 340 km southwest of the island of Guam (point coordinates: 11°22′N 142°35′E (G) (O)). According to measurements in 2011, its depth is 10,994 ± 40 m below sea level.
The deepest point of the depression, called the Challenger Deep, is further from sea level than Mount Everest is above it.”
Many people know from school that the depth of the Mariana Trench is 11 km, and this is the deepest place on the planet. However, with a slight amendment, it is the deepest known. That is, theoretically there could be even more deep depressions... but they are still unknown. Even the tallest mountain in the world - Everest - could easily fit into the trench and still have room left.
The Mariana Trench is rich in records and titles: and it became famous not only for its depth, but also for its mystery, the terrible inhabitants of the underwater depths, the “monsters” guarding the bottom of the earth, mysteries, the unknown, primordiality, darkness, etc. In general, Space Inside Out is the bottom of the Mariana Trench. There are versions that life began in the Mariana Trench.
MARIANA TRENCH. PuzzlesMarianadepressions:
In the video they show and tell that at such a great depth the pressure is higher than from powder gases when fired from a hunting rifle, about 1100 times more than atmospheric pressure: 108.6 MPa (Mariana Trench - bottom) by 104 MPa (powder gases). Glass and wood turn into powder under such conditions.
Still, it is not clear then how there is life there and the ominous underwater monsters about which there are legends?
The length of the trench along the Mariana Islands is 1.5 km.
“It has a V-shaped profile: steep (7-9°) slopes, a flat bottom 1-5 km wide, which is divided by rapids into several closed depressions.
The depression is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, in the zone of movement along faults, where the Pacific plate goes under the Philippine plate.”
The Mariana Trench was discovered in 1875:
“The first measurements (and discovery) of the Mariana Trench were taken in 1875 from the British three-masted corvette Challenger. Then, with the help of a deep-sea lot, the depth was established at 8367 meters (with repeated sounding - 8184 m).
In 1951, an English expedition on the research vessel Challenger recorded a maximum depth of 10,863 meters using an echo sounder.”
Back in 1951, this point was given the name Challenger Deep.
Later, during several expeditions, the depth of the Mariana Trench was established to be more than 11 km; the last measurement (late 2011) recorded a depth of 10,994 m (+/- 40 m):
“According to the results of measurements carried out in 1957 during the 25th voyage of the Soviet research vessel “Vityaz” (headed by Alexey Dmitrievich Dobrovolsky), the maximum depth of the trench is 11,023 m (updated data, initially the depth was reported as 11,034 m).
On January 23, 1960, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard dived in the bathyscaphe Trieste. They recorded a depth of 10,916 m, which also became known as the "Trieste depth".
Unmanned Japanese Submarine Kaiko collected soil samples from this location in March 1995 and recorded a depth of 10,911 m.
On May 31, 2009, the unmanned submarine Nereus took soil samples at this location. The collected mud mostly consists of foraminifera. This dive recorded a depth of 10,902 m.
More than two years later, on December 7, 2011, researchers at the University of New Hampshire published the results of an underwater robot dive that recorded a depth of 10,994 m (+/- 40 m) using sound waves.
And yet, despite many obstacles, difficulties, and dangers, three people in the entire history of the Mariana Trench managed to reach the bottom, naturally, while in special devices. On March 26, 2012, director James Cameron single-handedly reached the bottom of the Abyss on the Deepsea Challenger.
Channel One's story "James Cameron - diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench":
And here is Jace Cameron's film "Challenging the Abyss 3D|Journey to the Bottom of the Mariana Trench":
The film was created in collaboration with National Geographic, created in documentary format. Before some of his box-office creations (like Titanic), the director also sank to the bottom of the depths to the place of events, so before his “visit” of the Mariana Trench in 2012, many were waiting for either a grandiose masterpiece, or a video with monsters living in the darkness of the ocean .
The film is a documentary, but the main thing is that Cameron did not see giant octopuses, monsters, “leviathans”, multi-headed creatures there, although for the first time he spent more than three hours at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. There were small marine derivatives no more than 2.5 cm... but those same outlandish flat fish, huge, snacking steel rope, there were no creatures... although he wasn’t there for 12 minutes.
To questions about whether the director saw any terrible creature at the bottom of the depression, he answered: “Probably everyone would like to hear that I saw some kind of sea monster, but it wasn’t there... There was nothing living, more than 2- 2.5 cm".
Public reaction to Cameron's film The Abyss was mixed. Some people thought the film was boring and could not be compared with his works like “Titanic”, “Avatar”, someone said that the film was real and in its “boringness” it showed the way of interaction between one of the seven billion people on the planet and the deepest abyss.
From reviews of the film:
“Of course, the content of the film can hardly be called exciting. The viewer spends most of the time in endless tedious meetings and tests in the laboratory. But I believe that this difficult and long path from a dream to its realization had to be shown. It is he who most inspires us to work for our idea.”
I mentioned the film precisely because the path that led the director to the creation of the creation is the basis for the interaction of the secrets of nature and mortal man.
People are frightened and attracted by the unknown, rebellion, depth, danger, mortality, mystery, eternity, loneliness, independence of the depths, distances, heights of nature. And the title of the film - “Challenge to the Abyss...” - is naturally not without reason: at a certain stage of potential development, a person either wants to touch the unknown, or completely forget about its existence, to live in everyday life.
Cameron, having the opportunity and zeal, decided to take this leap into depth. This is the desire to rise to a level close to God, and pride, and to perpetuate this abyss in oneself and to perpetuate oneself in the abyss, understanding the frailty of matter and much more.
Many people look in and are interested, some out of curiosity, some out of nothing to do. But only a few will dare to come close.
Let's remember famous saying F. Nietzsche: “If you gaze into an abyss for a long time, the abyss will begin to peer into you,” or another translation: “For a person who gazes into an abyss for a long time, the abyss begins to live in his eyes,” or full text quotes: “Whoever fights monsters should be careful not to become a monster himself. And if you look into the abyss for a long time, then the abyss also looks into you.” Here we are talking about the dark sides of the soul and the world, if you attract evil, evil will attract you, although there are many interpretation options.
But the very words “abyss”, “abyss” imply something dangerous, dark, akin to the source dark forces. There are a lot of legends around the Mariana Trench, legends that are far from good, whoever came up with anything: monsters live there, and monsters of unknown etiology can swallow alive deep-sea research vehicles with or without people, gnaw through 20-centimeter cables, and creepy devilish creatures seem to in hell they scurry between the black waves of the deep, terrify extremely rare human guests, and in circles discussing the deepest trench, versions are expressed that people who knew how to breathe under water used to live here, and almost life originated here, etc. People want to see darkness in this abyss. And, in general, they see her...
Before the conquest of the Mariana Abyss by Cameron, a similar attempt was made in 1960:
“On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh dived into the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10,920 meters on the bathyscaphe Trieste. The dive took about 5 hours, and the time spent at the bottom was 12 minutes. It was absolute record depths 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.”
Whether the monsters were afraid of James Cameron, or they were not in the mood to pose for the camera that day, or whether there really was no one there, will remain a mystery, but during previous underwater expeditions, including those without the participation of people, they were discovered different shapes life, fish, never seen before, strange creatures, creatures that looked like monsters, giant octopuses. But let's not forget that “monsters” are just unexplored creatures.
Several times, vehicles without people descended into the depths of the Mariana Trench (with people only twice), for example, on May 31, 2009, the automatic underwater vehicle Nereus sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to measurements, it fell 10,902 meters below sea level. At the bottom, Nereus filmed a video, took some photographs, and even collected sediment samples at the bottom.
Here are some photos of those whom the expedition cameras met at the depths of the Mariana Trench:
The photo shows the bottom of the Mariana Trench:
“The mystery of the Mariana Trench. Great mysteries of the ocean." Ren-TV program.
Still, it remains a big mystery what is there, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench... They scare us in absentia with monsters, but in reality no one, in particular Cameron, who spent 3 hours at the bottom of the trench, discovered strange objects there... silence... depth... eternity.
And the most important questions are “how can monsters live there if there is enormous pressure at the bottom, no light, no oxygen??” Answer from scientific experts:
“The inexplicable and incomprehensible have always attracted people, which is why scientists all over the world want to answer the question: “What does the Mariana Trench hide in its depths?”
Can living organisms live at such great depths, and what should they look like, given the fact that they are pressed by huge masses of ocean waters, the pressure of which exceeds 1100 atmospheres?
The challenges associated with exploring and understanding the creatures that live at these unimaginable depths are numerous, but human ingenuity knows no bounds. For a long time, oceanographers considered the hypothesis that life could exist at depths of more than 6,000 m in impenetrable darkness, under enormous pressure and at temperatures close to zero, to be crazy.
However, the results of research by scientists in the Pacific Ocean have shown that even in these depths, much below the 6000-meter mark, there are huge colonies of living organisms pogonophora ((pogonophora; from the Greek pogon - beard and phoros - bearing), a type of marine invertebrate animals living in long chitinous tubes open at both ends).
Recently, the veil of secrecy has been lifted by manned and automatic underwater vehicles made of heavy-duty materials, equipped with video cameras. The result was the discovery of a rich animal community consisting of both familiar and less familiar marine groups.
Thus, at depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the following were discovered:
- barophilic bacteria (developing only at high pressure);
- from protozoa - foraminifera (an order of protozoa of the subclass of rhizomes with a cytoplasmic body covered with a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);
- from multicellular organisms - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, sea cucumbers, bivalves and gastropods.
At the depths there is no sunlight, no algae, constant salinity, low temperatures, an abundance of carbon dioxide, enormous hydrostatic pressure (increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters).
What do the inhabitants of the abyss eat?
The food sources of deep animals are bacteria, as well as the rain of “corpses” and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals are either blind, or with very developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluoride; in other forms the surface of the body or parts of it glow.
Therefore, the appearance of these animals is as terrible and incredible as the conditions in which they live. Among them are frightening-looking worms 1.5 meters long, without a mouth or anus, mutant octopuses, unusual starfish and some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified at all.
Despite the fact that scientists have made a huge step in researching the Mariana Trench, the questions have not decreased, and new mysteries have appeared that have yet to be solved. And the ocean abyss knows how to keep its secrets. Will people be able to uncover them soon?”
The Mariana Trench, considering that it is the most famous deep point on the planet, has been studied too little; people have flown into space tens of times more, and we know more about space than about the bottom of the 11-kilometer trench. Probably everything is ahead...
