What creatures live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench - what is it, where is it located, who lives in its waters? Are there Mariana Caves? James Cameron's dive into the Mariana Trench

In honor of which it, in fact, got its name. The basin is a crescent-shaped ravine on the ocean floor with a length of 2,550 km. with an average width of 69 km. According to the latest measurements (2014), the maximum depth of the Mariana Trench is 10 984 m. This point is located at the southern end of the trough and is called the Challenger Deep. Challenger Deep).

The trench was formed at the junction of two lithospheric tectonic plates - the Pacific and the Philippine. The Pacific Plate is older and heavier. For millions of years, she "creeped" under the younger Philippine plate.

Opening

For the first time, the Mariana Trench was discovered by a scientific expedition of a sailing ship " Challenger". This corvette, which was originally a warship, was converted into a scientific vessel in 1872 specifically for the Royal Society of London for the Advancement of Natural Knowledge. The ship was equipped with biochemical laboratories, means for measuring depth, water temperature and soil sampling. In the same year, in December, the ship set off for scientific research and spent three and a half years at sea, covering a journey of 70,000 nautical miles. At the end of the expedition, which was recognized as one of the most scientifically successful since the famous geographical and scientific discoveries of the 16th century, over 4,000 new animal species were described, almost 500 underwater objects were deep-seated and soil samples were taken from various parts of the oceans.

Against the backdrop of important scientific discoveries made by the Challenger, the discovery of an underwater trough, the depth of which strikes the imagination of even contemporaries, not to mention scientists of the 19th century, stood out in particular. True, initial depth measurements showed that its depth was just over 8,000 m, but even this value was enough to talk about the discovery of the deepest point known to man on the planet.

The new depression was called the Mariana Trench - in honor of the nearby Mariana Islands, which in turn are named after Marianne of Austria, Queen of Spain, wife of King Philip IV of Spain.

Exploration of the Mariana Trench continued only in 1951. English survey ship Challenger II explored the trench with an echo sounder and found that its maximum depth is much greater than previously thought, and is 10,899 m. This point was given the name "Challenger Abyss" in honor of the first expedition of 1872-1876.

Abyss Challenger

Abyss Challenger is a relatively small flat plain in the south of the Mariana Trench. Its length is 11 km and its width is about 1.6 km. Along its edges are gentle slopes.

Its exact depth, which is called a meter per meter, is still unknown. This is due to the errors of the echo sounders and sonars themselves, the changing depth of the oceans, as well as the uncertainty that the very bottom of the abyss remains motionless. In 2009, the US vessel Kilo Moana (eng. RV Kilo Moana) determined a depth of 10,971 m with an error probability of 22-55 m. the value is fixed in reference books and is currently considered the closest to the real one.

diving

Only four scientific apparatuses have visited the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and only two expeditions were people.

Project "Nekton"

The first descent into the Abyss of the Challenger took place in 1960 on a manned submersible " Trieste”, named after the Italian city of the same name, where it was created. It was flown by an American lieutenant in the US Navy Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard. The apparatus was designed by Jacques' father, Auguste Piccard, who already had experience in creating bathyscaphes.

Trieste made its first dive in 1953 in the Mediterranean Sea, where it reached a record depth of 3,150 m at the time. In total, the bathyscaphe made several dives between 1953 and 1957. and the experience of its operation has shown that it can dive to more serious depths.

Trieste was bought by the US Navy in 1958, when the United States became interested in seabed exploration in the Pacific region, where some island states came under its de facto jurisdiction as victorious countries in World War II.

After some improvements, in particular, even more compaction of the outer part of the hull, Trieste began to prepare for diving into the Mariana Trench. Jacques Piccard remained the pilot of the bathyscaphe, since he had the greatest experience in piloting Trier in particular and bathyscaphes in general. His companion was Don Walsh, then a US Navy lieutenant who served on a submarine and later became a well-known scientist and marine specialist.

The project of the first dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench received a code name Project "Nekton", although this name did not catch on among the people.

The dive began on the morning of January 23, 1960 at 8:23 local time. To a depth of 8 km. the apparatus descended at a speed of 0.9 m/s, and then slowed down to 0.3 m/s. The researchers saw the bottom only at 13:06. Thus, the time of the first dive was almost 5 hours. At the very bottom of the bathyscaphe was only 20 minutes. During this time, the researchers measured the density and temperature of the water (it was + 3.3ºС), measured the radioactive background, observed an unknown fish, similar to a flounder, and a shrimp suddenly found themselves at the bottom. Also, based on the measured pressure, the immersion depth was calculated, which amounted to 11,521 m, which was later corrected to 10,916 m.

Being at the bottom of the Abyss of the Challenger, they explored and managed to refresh themselves with a chocolate bar.

After that, the bathyscaphe was freed from the ballast and the ascent began, which took less time - 3.5 hours.

Submersible "Kaiko"

Kaiko (Kaikō) is the second of four vehicles that reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. But he went there twice. This uninhabited remote-controlled underwater vehicle was created by the Japan Agency for Marine Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and was intended to study the deep seabed. The device was equipped with three video cameras, as well as two manipulator arms controlled remotely from the surface.

He made more than 250 dives and made a huge contribution to science, but he made his most famous trip in 1995, diving to a depth of 10,911 m in the Challenger Abyss. It took place on March 24 and samples of extremophile benthic organisms were brought to the surface - the so-called animals that can survive in the most extreme environmental conditions.

Kaiko returned to the Challenger Abyss again a year later, in February 1996, and took samples of soil and microorganisms from the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Unfortunately, Kaiko was lost in 2003 after a break in the cable connecting it to the carrier vessel.

Deep-sea vehicle "Nereus"

Unmanned remote-controlled deep-sea vehicle " Nereus" (eng. Nereus) closes the top three vehicles that reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. His dive took place in May 2009. Nereus reached a depth of 10,902 m. He was sent to the site of the very first expedition to the bottom of the Challenger Abyss. He spent 10 hours at the bottom, broadcasting live video from his cameras to the carrier ship, after which he collected water and soil samples and successfully returned to the surface.

The device was lost in 2014 during a dive into the Kermadec trench at a depth of 9,900 m.

Deepsea Challenger

The last dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to date was made by the famous Canadian director James Cameron, inscribed not only in the history of cinema, but also in the history of great research. It happened on March 26, 2012 on a single-seat bathyscaphe Deepsea Challenger built by Australian engineer Ron Alloon in collaboration with National Geographic and Rolex. The main objective of this dive was to collect documentary evidence of life at such extreme depths. From the soil samples taken, 68 new animal species were discovered. The director himself said that the only animal he saw at the bottom was an amphipod, an amphipod that looked like a small shrimp about 3 cm long. The footage formed the basis of a documentary about his dive into the Challenger Abyss.

James Cameron became the third person on Earth to visit the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He set a diving speed record - his bathyscaphe reached a depth of 11 km. in less than two hours. He also became the first person to reach this depth in a solo dive. At the bottom, he spent 6 hours, which is also a record. Bathyscaphe Trieste was at the bottom of only 20 minutes.

Animal world

The first expedition of Trieste with great surprise told that there is life at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Although it was previously believed that the existence of life in such conditions is simply not possible. According to Jacques Piccard, they saw at the bottom a fish resembling an ordinary flounder, about 30 cm long, as well as amphipod shrimp. Many marine biologists are skeptical that the Trier crew actually saw a fish, but they do not so much question the words of the researchers as they are inclined to believe that they mistook a sea cucumber or other invertebrate for a fish.

During the second expedition, the Kaiko apparatus took soil samples and indeed found many tiny organisms in it that could survive in absolute darkness at temperatures close to 0 ° C and under monstrous pressure. Not a single skeptic remained who questioned the existence of life everywhere in the ocean, even in the most incredible conditions. The truth remained not clear how such deep-sea life is developed. Or are the only representatives of the Mariana Trench - the simplest microorganisms, crustaceans and invertebrates?

In December 2014, a new species of sea slugs was discovered - a family of deep-sea marine fish. The cameras recorded them at a depth of 8,145 m, which at that time was an absolute record for fish.

In the same year, cameras recorded several more species of huge crustaceans, which differ from their shallow-water relatives in deep-sea gigantism, which is generally inherent in many deep-sea species.

In May 2017, scientists reported the discovery of another new species of sea slugs, which were found at a depth of 8,178 m.

All deep-sea inhabitants of the Mariana Trench are almost blind, slow and unpretentious animals that can survive in the most extreme conditions. Popular stories that the Challenger Abyss is inhabited by marine, megalodon and other huge animals are nothing more than fiction. The Mariana Trench is fraught with many secrets and mysteries, and new species of animals are no less interesting to scientists than relic animals known since the Paleozoic. Being at such a depth for millions of years, evolution has made them completely different from shallow-water species.

Current research and future diving

The Mariana Trench continues to attract the attention of scientists around the world, despite the high cost of research and their poor practical application. Ichthyologists are interested in new types of animals and their adaptive abilities. Geologists are interested in this region from the point of view of the processes taking place in the lithospheric plates and the formation of underwater mountain ranges. Simple researchers dream of just visiting the bottom of the deepest trench on our planet.

Several expeditions to the Mariana Trench are currently planned:

1. American company Triton Submarines designs and manufactures private submersibles. The newest Triton 36000/3 model, consisting of a crew of 3, is planned to be sent to the Challenger Abyss in the near future. Its characteristics allow reaching a depth of 11 km. in just 2 hours.

2. Company Virgin Oceanic(Virgin Oceanic), which specializes in private shallow diving, is developing a single-seat submersible that can take a passenger to the bottom of the chute in 2.5 hours.

3. American company DOER marine working on a project deep search"- one or two-seater bathyscaphe.

4. In 2017, the famous Russian traveler Fedor Konyukhov announced that he plans to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

1. Established in 2009 Maritime National Monument of the Mariana Islands. It does not include the islands themselves, but covers only their marine territory, with an area of more than 245 thousand km². Almost the entire Mariana Trench was included in the monument, although its deepest point, the Challenger Abyss, did not fall into it.

2. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the water column exerts a pressure of 1,086 bar. This is a thousand times more than standard atmospheric pressure.

3. Water compresses very poorly and at the bottom of the gutter its density increases by only 5%. This means that 100 liters of ordinary water at a depth of 11 km. will occupy a volume of 95 liters.

4. Although the Mariana Trench is considered the deepest point on the planet, it is not the closest point to the center of the Earth. Our planet is not a perfect spherical shape, and its radius is about 25 km. less at the poles than at the equator. Therefore, the deepest point at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean is 13 km. closer to the center of the Earth than in the Challenger Abyss.

5. The Mariana Trench (and other deep-sea trenches) have been proposed to be used as nuclear waste cemeteries. It is assumed that the movement of the plates will "push" the waste under the tectonic plate deep into the Earth. The proposal is not devoid of logic, but the dumping of nuclear waste is prohibited by international law. In addition, the zones of joints of lithospheric plates give rise to earthquakes of enormous force, the consequences of which are unpredictable for buried waste.

For the first time, people descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (depth - 11.5 km), the deepest ocean trench known on Earth, using the Trieste bathyscaphe on January 23, 1960. They were US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh (Don Walsh) and engineer Jacques Piccard (Jacques Piccard). Since then and until recently, man has not descended to this depth.

Hollywood director James Cameron in a bathyscaphedeepseaChallenger

After 52 years, the director of "Avatar" and "Titanic" James Cameron repeated this path to the deepest point of the ocean, who successfully sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench on March 25 and returned to the surface. On a special vertical bathyscaphe Deepsea Challenger, two hours after the start of the dive, he reached the bottom by 7:52 am local time. He stayed there for three hours, surveying and collecting samples, after which he successfully returned to the surface.

BathyscaphedeepseaChallenge with James Cameron descends into the depths of the Pacific Ocean

The first people who plunged to the bottom of the Mariana Trench stayed there for only 20 minutes, doing the minimum amount of work and seeing almost nothing but the mud and silt that had risen from the sinking. The past decades have not been in vain. Mr. Cameron's bathyscaphe was well equipped, as one would expect from a man who has made one of the most impressive stereoscopic feature films and many documentaries about the underwater world.

The Deepsea Challenger was equipped with multiple stereoscopic cameras, an LED tower, a sampling bathometer, a robotic arm, and a special device capable of capturing small underwater organisms by suction. The deep-sea vehicle itself was created in Australia and has a length of 7 meters and a weight of 11 tons. The compartment in which James Cameron huddled is a sphere with an inner diameter of just over a meter and assumes only a sitting position.

ApparatusdeepseaChallenge sank to the bottom at a speed3-4 nodes

The director told the BBC before the dive that it was his dream: “I grew up with sci-fi at a time when people lived in sci-fi reality. People went to the moon, Cousteau studied the ocean. This is the environment in which I grew up, this is what I appreciate since childhood.

James Cameron greets ocean explorer US Navy Captain Don Walsh immediately after diving

James Cameron in the sunroofdeepseaChallenge prepares to dive

Another shot of filmmaker and ocean explorer Don Walsh (far right), who, along with Jacques Picart, was the first person to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench 52 years ago

The journey of James Cameron as a one-minute animation

The most mysterious and inaccessible point of our planet - the Mariana Trench - is called the "fourth pole of the Earth." It is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean and stretches 2926 km long and 80 km wide. At a distance of 320 km south of the island of Guam is the deepest point of the Mariana Trench and the entire planet - 11022 meters. These little-studied depths hide living creatures whose appearance is as monstrous as the conditions of their habitat.

The Mariana Trench is called the "fourth pole of the Earth"

The Mariana Trench, or the Mariana Trench, is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest geographic feature known on Earth. Studies of the Mariana Trench were laid by the expedition ( December 1872 - May 1876) English vessel "Challenger" ( HMS Challenger), who carried out the first systematic measurements of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. This three-masted, sail-rigged military corvette was rebuilt as an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological, and meteorological work in 1872.

In 1960, a great event took place in the history of the conquest of the oceans

The Trieste bathyscaphe, piloted by French explorer Jacques Picard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh, reached the deepest point of the ocean floor - the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench and named after the English ship Challenger, from which the first data were obtained in 1951 about her.

Bathyscaphe "Trieste" before diving, January 23, 1960

The dive lasted 4 hours 48 minutes and ended at 10911 m relative to sea level. At this terrible depth, where a monstrous pressure of 108.6 MPa ( which is more than 1100 times the normal atmospheric) flattens all living things, the researchers made the most important oceanological discovery: they saw two 30-centimeter fish similar to flounder swimming past the porthole. Before that, it was believed that at depths exceeding 6000 m, no life exists.

Thus, an absolute record of diving depth was set, which cannot be surpassed even theoretically. Picard and Walsh were the only people to have been at the bottom of the Challenger abyss. All subsequent dives to the deepest point of the oceans, for research purposes, were already made by unmanned bathyscaphes-robots. But there were not so many of them either, since “visiting” the Challenger abyss is both time-consuming and expensive.

One of the achievements of this dive, which had a beneficial effect on the ecological future of the planet, was the refusal of nuclear powers to bury radioactive waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The fact is that Jacques Picard experimentally refuted the opinion that prevailed at that time that at depths of more than 6000 m there is no upward movement of water masses.

In the 1990s, three dives were made by the Japanese Kaiko, controlled remotely from the "mother" vessel via a fiber-optic cable. However, in 2003, while exploring another part of the ocean, a towing steel cable broke during a storm, and the robot was lost. Underwater catamaran Nereus became the third deep-sea vehicle to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

In 2009, humanity again reached the deepest point in the world's oceans.

On May 31, 2009, mankind again reached the deepest point of the Pacific, and indeed the entire world ocean - the American deep-sea vehicle Nereus sank into the Challenger sinkhole at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The device took soil samples and conducted underwater photo and video shooting at the maximum depth, illuminated only by its LED spotlight. During the current dive, Nereus' instruments recorded a depth of 10,902 meters. The indicator was 10,911 meters, and Picard and Walsh measured a value of 10,912 meters. On many Russian maps, the value of 11,022 meters is still given, obtained by the Soviet oceanographic vessel Vityaz during the 1957 expedition. All this testifies to the inaccuracy of measurements, and not to a real change in depth: no one carried out cross-calibration of the measuring equipment that gave the given values.

The Mariana Trench is formed by the boundaries of two tectonic plates: the colossal Pacific plate goes under the not so large Philippine plate. This is a zone of extremely high seismic activity, which is part of the so-called Pacific volcanic ring of fire, stretching for 40 thousand km, an area with the most frequent eruptions and earthquakes in the world. The deepest point of the trough is the Challenger Deep, named after the English ship.

The inexplicable and incomprehensible has always attracted people, so scientists around the world are so eager to answer the question: “ What hides in its depths the Mariana Trench?»

The inexplicable and incomprehensible has always attracted people

For a long time, oceanologists considered the hypothesis that at depths of more than 6000 m in impenetrable darkness, under monstrous pressure and at temperatures close to zero, life could exist to be insane. However, the results of research by scientists in the Pacific Ocean have shown that even at these depths, well below the 6000-meter mark, there are huge colonies of living organisms of pogonophores, a type of marine invertebrates that live in long chitinous tubes open at both ends.

Recently, the veil of secrecy has been lifted by manned and automatic, made of heavy-duty materials, underwater vehicles equipped with video cameras. As a result, a rich animal community was discovered, consisting of both well-known and less familiar marine groups.

Thus, at depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the following were found:

- barophilic bacteria (developing only at high pressure);

- from the protozoa - foraminifera (a detachment of the protozoan subclass of rhizopods with a cytoplasmic body dressed in a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);

- from multicellular - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, holothurians, bivalves and gastropods.

At depths there is no sunlight, no algae, salinity is constant, temperatures are low, an abundance of carbon dioxide, enormous hydrostatic pressure (increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters). What do the inhabitants of the abyss eat?

Studies have shown that at a depth of more than 6000 meters there is life

The food sources of deep animals are bacteria, as well as the rain of "corpses" and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals or blind, or with very developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluores; 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 and 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 the research of the Mariana Trench, the questions have not decreased, 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 open them in the near future? We will follow the news.

Not far from Japan, in the depths of the sea, the deepest trench in the world's oceans, the Mariana Trench, hid. This geographical feature got its name due to the islands of the same name located nearby. Scientists call this phenomenon the "Fourth Pole", along with the South, North and the highest point on the planet - Mount Everest.

Geolocation

The coordinates of the Mariana Trench are 11°22` north latitude and 142°35` east longitude. The trench surrounds the coastal islands for a length of more than 2.5 thousand km, and a width of about 69 km. In its shape, it resembles the English letter V, expanded at the top and narrowed towards the bottom. This formation was the result of the impact of the boundaries of tectonic plates. The maximum depth of the world ocean in this place is 10994 (plus or minus 40 m).

Rice. 1. Mariana Trench on the map

Compared to Everest, the largest depression is farther from the surface of the Earth than the highest peak. The mountain has a length of 8848 m, and climbing it was much easier than overcoming the incredible pressure, plunging into the abyss of the sea.

The deepest place in the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep point, which means “Challenger Deep” in English. It was first explored by a British ship of the same name. They recorded a depth of 11521m.

First studies

The deepest point of the oceans was conquered only in 1960 by two daredevils: Don Walsh and Jacques Picard. They dived on the Trieste bathyscaphe and became the first people in the world to descend first to a depth of 3,000 meters, and then to 10,000 meters. The bottom mark was recorded as early as 30 minutes after the dive. In total, they spent about 3 hours at a depth, and froze significantly. After all, in addition to the huge pressure, there is also a low water temperature - about 2 degrees Celsius.

Rice. 2. Mariana Trench in section

In 2012, famous director James Cammeron (“Titanic”) conquered the deepest trench, becoming the third person on Earth to descend this far. It was the most important expedition, during which unique photo and video materials were obtained, as well as bottom samples were taken. Contrary to popular belief, at the bottom is not sand, but mucus - a product of processing the remains of fish bones and plankton.

Flora and fauna

The underwater world of the largest crack has been studied very poorly. It was first discovered that life in this part of the Earth is possible in 1950. Then Soviet scientists suggested that some of the simplest creatures managed to adapt in chitinous pipes. The new family was named pogonophores.

What have we learned?

We learned which part of the Earth is the deepest. This is the Mariana Trench. The deepest point is the Challenger Abyss (11,521 m). The first expedition to the bottom ended successfully in 1960. In conditions of pitch darkness, pressure and constant poisonous fumes, a special world has formed here with its unique animals and simple organisms. It is very difficult to say what the world of the Mariana Trench really is, because it has only been studied by 5%.

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

The deepest depression

The Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) is an oceanic trench, the deepest in the oceans. According to measurements in 2011, the bottom of the trough drops to a maximum of 10920 m. This is the data of organizations associated with UNESCO, and it approximately corresponds to the measurements made by landers, which showed a maximum depth of 10916 m. This place is called the Challenger Deep - after the English ship, who discovered the depression in the 19th century.

The depression is a tectonic fault.

In 2012, an American oceanographic expedition discovered four ridges up to 2.5 km high at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to the University of New Hampshire, they formed about 180 million years ago in the process of constant movement of lithospheric plates. The marginal part of the Pacific plate is gradually "leaving" under the Philippine one. And then folding is formed in the form of mountains near the boundary of the lithospheric plates.

In 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 1100 times higher than normal atmospheric pressure, reaching 3150 kg / cm 2.

The temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) is surprisingly high thanks to hydrothermal vents, nicknamed "black smokers". They constantly heat the water and maintain the overall temperature in the cavity at around 3°C.

The first attempt to measure the depth of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) was made in 1875 by the crew of the English oceanographic vessel Challenger during a scientific expedition across the World Ocean. The British discovered the Mariana Trench quite by accident, during the duty sounding of the bottom with the help of a lot (Italian hemp rope and lead weight). Despite 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.

A measurement made in 1899 from the board of the American collier Nero showed already a great depth: 9636 m.

In 1951, the bottom of the depression was measured by the English survey vessel Challenger, named after its predecessor, unofficially referred to as the Challenger II. Now, with the help of an 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. However, 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 ship Stranger measured the depth of the trench in a rather unusual way for science - using depth charges. Result: 10915 m.

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

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

Dive into the Mariana Trench

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

For the entire time of the study of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench), vehicles with people on board fell to its bottom twice and automatic vehicles fell four times (as of April 2017).

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

The descent of the Trieste lasted 4 hours 48 minutes, the crew periodically interrupted it. At a depth of 9 km, the plexiglass cracked, but the descent continued until the Trieste sank to the bottom, where the crew saw a 30-centimeter flat fish and some kind of crustacean creature. Having stayed at a depth of 10912 m for about 20 minutes, the crew began the ascent, which took 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Man made another attempt to descend to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) in 2012, when American film director James Cameron (born 1954) became the third to reach the bottom of the Challenger Abyss. Previously, he repeatedly dived on Russian Mir submersibles into the Atlantic Ocean to a depth of more than 4 km during the filming of the movie Titanic. Now, on the Dipsy Challenger bathyscaphe, he descended into the abyss in 2 hours and 37 minutes - almost a widow faster than the Trieste - and spent 2 hours and 36 minutes at a depth of 10898 m. After which he rose to the surface in just an hour and a half. At the bottom, Cameron saw only creatures that looked like shrimp.

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 alive there. Pogonophores were discovered - a new family of marine invertebrates that live in chitinous tubes. Disputes about their scientific classification are still going on.

The main inhabitants of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench), living at the very bottom, are barophilic (developing only at high pressure) bacteria, the simplest creatures of foraminifera - unicellular in shells and xenophyophores - amoeba, reaching 20 cm in diameter and living by shoveling silt.

Foraminifera managed to get the Japanese automatic deep-sea probe "Kaiko" in 1995, plunged to 10911.4 m and took soil samples.

Larger inhabitants of the gutter live throughout its thickness. Life at depth has made them either blind or with highly developed eyes, often telescopic. Many have photophores - organs of luminescence, a kind of bait for prey: some have long shoots, like an angler fish, while others have it all right in their mouths. Some accumulate a luminous liquid and, in case of danger, douse it with the enemy 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 km 2. The zone includes only the underwater part of the trench 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 Deep is not included in this zone, as it is located on the oceanic territory of the Federated States of Micronesia.

general information

Location: West Pacific.
Origin: tectonic.
Administrative affiliation :

Numbers

Length: 2550 km.
Width: 69 km.
Challenger Abyss : depth - about 11 km, width - 1.6 km.
deepest point : 10 920 ± 10 m (Challenger Deep, 340 km southwest of Guam Island (USA), 2011).
Average steepness of the slope : 7-9°.
bottom pressure: 106.6 megapascals (MPa).
Nearest islands : 287 km SW of Fais Island (Yap Islands, Federated States of Micronesia); 304 km. northeast of the island of Guam (unincorporated organized territory of the United States).
Average water temperature at the bottom : +3.3°С.

Curious facts

To emphasize the size of the depression, its depth is often compared with the highest mountain on Earth - Everest (8848 m). It is proposed to imagine that if Everest were at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, there would still be more than two kilometers from the top of the mountain to the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The research vessel "Vityaz" is a 109-meter single-screw double-deck motor ship with a displacement of 5710 tons. It was launched in 1939 at the German shipyard "Schihau" in Bremerhaven (Germany). Initially, it was a cargo-passenger ship called "Mars". During the Second World War, it was a military transport, took out more than 20 thousand refugees from East Prussia. After the war, on reparations, he first ended up in England, then in the USSR. Since 1949 - a research vessel of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, named "Vityaz" in memory of the famous Russian corvettes of the 19th century. Depicted on postage stamps of the USSR. Since 1994, it has been permanently moored at the pier of the Museum of the World Ocean in the very center of Kaliningrad. Design feature: winches for anchoring, trawling the bottom and taking soil samples at a depth of 11 thousand meters.
To date, only 5% of the ocean floor has been studied in relatively detail.
In 1951, after the members of the Challenger expedition measured the depth of the chute with an echo sounder (10,899 m), it was decided - just in case - to measure it with a good old rope lot. The measurement showed a slight deviation: 10,863 m.
British writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), describing in his novel The Maracot Abyss a dive to the bottom of a deep-sea trench, predicted future exploration of the Mariana Trench using controlled vehicles. His predictions turned out to be much more realistic than the description given earlier by the French science fiction writer Jules Verne (1828-1905) in the novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, where the Nautilus submarine descends to a depth of 16 thousand meters and rises to the surface, “ emerging from the water like a flying fish”, in just 4 minutes.
■ After descending into the Mariana Trench, Trieste was used more than once for deep-sea diving. In 1963, with its help, the US Navy found the wreckage of the sunken nuclear submarine Thresher, lying at a depth of 2560 m, along with a crew of 129 people. As a result of numerous modifications, almost nothing from the original apparatus has been preserved. The bathyscaphe is currently on display at the National Museum of the US Navy in Washington DC.
Pogonophora underwater creatures are very difficult to explore. These are the thinnest filamentous worms, often only one tenth of a millimeter thick and up to two to three tens of centimeters long, moreover, they are enclosed in fairly strong tubes.

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