What is the greatest depth in the world. Where is the deepest place in the world? How was the depth of the Mariana Trench measured?

Now we approximately know the internal structure of our planet. The outer hard shell of the Earth is called the crust. It makes up less than 1% of the planet's mass and has a thickness of 5 to 70 kilometers. Next comes the mantle (outer and inner), and then the core (outer and inner).

How close to the core do you think a person can go? Theoretically, in the future we can make devices that can withstand colossal loads and temperatures in order to get as close to the core as possible, but in practice we have not yet gotten to the areas that are under the crust.

Let's see what are the deepest places on the planet we know.

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10

Lake Zakaton

Depth 319 meters

The lake is the world's largest natural well. It is located in Central Mexico. Its depth is 319 meters and its diameter is about 100 meters. At the same time, a hole was found on one of the “walls” of the well, which may be the entrance to another, deeper “well” or even to a system of deep-sea underground caves.

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9

Depth 370 meters

This is a coal mine located in Elsdorf in Germany. It is considered the deepest open pit mine in the world. Its depth is about 370 meters and its area is about 33.9 sq. km. Next to the quarry there is an artificial hill, which was formed from the material taken from the quarry.

The hill has its own name Sophienhöhe and is the largest artificial hill in the world. Its height is 301 meters.

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8

Woodingdean Well

Depth 392 meters

Let's start with a man-made feat that appeared in 1862 in the English town of Woodingdean. It all started with the fact that in 1858, during the construction of a new building, a source of water was required. It was decided to dig a well. To reduce costs, the well was dug by workers. It was planned to go 122 meters into the ground, lining the walls of the well with bricks.

The workers lowered themselves into the well, and lifted the excess earth in buckets to the surface. After 2 years of digging, the depth of the well exceeded the design depth by 12 meters, but there was still no water. Despite the fact that this depth was slightly below sea level.

Then it was decided to dig four horizontal shafts at this depth to get to the water. But this also did not give any results. Then the construction organizers decided not to give up and get to the water at any cost. At the end of one of the horizontal shafts they began to dig deeper again. After another 2 years, in March 1862, workers felt the ground in the mine begin to rise. People began to rush to the surface. After 45 minutes, water rushed out.

This well is the deepest well in the world that was dug by hand.

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7

Lake Baikal

Depth 1642 meters

Reaching a maximum depth of 1,642 meters, Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world. The lake is a treasure not only of Russia, but of the whole world; it is a natural reservoir for the purest fresh water. It is home to many plants and animals that are unique.

An interesting fact is that if all the water from Lake Baikal is divided equally among all Russian citizens, then for each resident there will be approximately 2,780 railway tanks of 60 tons each.

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6

Depth 2199 meters

This deepest cave in the world is located in Abkhazia near the city of Gagra. The cave has several entrances located at an altitude of above 2000 meters above sea level. It is a system of several wells, which are interconnected by manholes and galleries. Inside there are several high plumbs, the deepest of which are 110, 115 and 152 meters.

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5

Depth 3048 meters

The Mponeng mine in South Africa is considered the deepest mine in the world. Its depth is 4000 meters. However, a mine called Kidd Mine in Ontario, Canada, which has a depth of 3048 meters, is closer to the Earth's core than the Mponeng mine. This is because our planet does not have an ideal spherical shape. Due to the rotation of the Earth, the diameter in the equatorial part is slightly larger than at the poles. The difference in size is about 140 kilometers. So a person standing at the equator is on average 70 kilometers further from the core than a person standing at the pole.

The Kidd Mine opened in 1964 as an open pit mine and has gradually expanded underground. It is now the largest copper mine in the world. It employs 2,200 workers and produces millions of tons of ore annually.

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4

Litke Gorge

Depth 5449 meters

Litke's Gap (Litke's Trench) is an oceanic trench located northeast of Greenland, 350 km north of Spitsbergen, in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean. This is the most deep point in the Arctic Ocean, its depth is 5449 meters.

The gorge was found and explored by a Soviet expedition on the icebreaker Fedor Litke in 1955.

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3

Milwaukee Depression

Depth 8385 meters

The Milwaukee Trench is the deepest part Atlantic Ocean. Its maximum depth is 8385 meters. The place is named after the American cruiser that discovered it in 1939.

The Milwaukee Trench is located in the Puerto Rican Trench, which is located at the boundary of two lithospheric plates. The Caribbean Plate moves east and the North American Plate moves west.

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2

Challenger Deep

Depth 10994 meters

The top five deepest sea trenches in the world include those located in the Pacific Ocean, and the most famous of them is Mariana Trench, with a maximum depth of 10994 meters (Challenger Deep).

The name of the depression comes from the Mariana Islands, located nearby. The depression stretches for 1500 kilometers, they have a standard V-shaped profile. The bottom of the depression is flat, ranging from 1 to 5 km wide.

The water pressure at the bottom of the Challenger Deep is 108,600 Pa, which is 1,100 times higher than atmospheric pressure on the Earth's surface. People have dived to the bottom of the Mariana Trench twice. The first dive was made in 1960 by explorer Jacques Piccard and US Navy SEAL Don Walsh. Their bathyscaphe "Trieste" had walls 127 millimeters thick to resist the monstrous pressure. The second time the famous director James Cameron visited the bottom of the depression was in 2012. He plunged into the Challenger Deep in the single-seat deep-sea submersible Deepsea Challenger. During the dive, he filmed in 3D.

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1

Depth 12262 meters

This is the deepest man-made place on Earth. It is located in the Murmansk region near the city of Zapolyarny.

Work to begin drilling the well was timed to coincide with the centenary of the birth of V.I. Lenin in 1970. Unlike others, this well was drilled specifically for the purpose of studying the structure of the planet. The location was chosen specifically where the thickness of the earth's crust is supposed to be thinnest.

Up to 7000 meters drilling proceeded normally. The drill passed through a uniform granite layer of the lithospheric plate. But lower down the rock was less dense and crumbled, jamming the equipment. I had to change the drilling angles a little.

Thirteen years later, in 1983, drillers reached a level of 12,066 meters and stopped. But after drilling resumed, the drill string broke. Drilling had to be started again from a depth of 7,000 meters. By 1990, the drill crossed the 12,262 meter mark and the accident repeated. Then, for financial reasons, the project had to be frozen, and in 2008, the Kola Superdeep Well project was finally abandoned.

I really want to believe that Russian science will turn its attention to this project. He has many prospects. The lion's share of the work has already been completed, and to revive the project, several million rubles are required, a significant amount for a country with high scientific ambitions.

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Conclusion

It was an article about the deepest places on Earth. We hope that you learned something new and interesting from us. Thank you for your attention!

Where is the deepest place on Earth? How far is it from the center of the Earth? If Everest was placed there, would it rise above the surface of the Earth?
Today we will deal with the most deep places, holes, wells, caves, wells in the world, natural and man-made.

Here are the famous Parisian Catacombs - a network of winding underground tunnels and man-made caves beneath Paris. The total length, according to various sources, is from 187 to 300 kilometers. Since the end of the 18th century, the remains of almost six million people have been buried in the catacombs.


40 meters

The Terme Millepini hotel in Italy chose this bold strategy, digging a 40-meter-deep tunnel for snorkelers and divers. This is the Y-40 pool. The most interesting thing about the Y-40 deepest pool is that it is filled thermal water and has a wonderful temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.


105.5 meters

This is the depth of the Arsenalnaya metro station of the Kyiv metro, which is located on the Svyatoshinsko-Brovarskaya line between the Khreshchatyk and Dnepr stations. This is the deepest metro station in the world.


122 meters

Tree roots can penetrate to this depth. The tree with the deepest roots is a wild ficus growing at Echo Caves near Ohrigstad, South Africa. This tree is native to South Africa. Its roots go almost 122 meters deep.


230 meters

The deepest river. This is the Congo - a river in Central Africa. In the lower reaches of the Congo breaks through the South Guinea Highlands in a deep narrow (in some places no more than 300 meters) gorge, forming the Livingston Falls (total drop 270 meters), the depths in this area are 230 meters or more, which makes the Congo the deepest river in the world .


240 meters

This is the Seikan Tunnel railway tunnel in Japan, 53.85 km long. The tunnel descends to a depth of about 240 meters, 100 meters below the seabed. It is the deepest under the seabed and the second longest (after the Gotthard Base Tunnel) railway tunnel in the world.


287 meters

Even deeper is Eiksund road tunnel, laid along the bottom of the Storfjord in the Norwegian province of Møre og Romsdal, connects the cities of Eiksund and Rjanes. Construction began in 2003, the opening ceremony took place on February 17, 2008, full traffic opened on February 23, 2008. With a length of 7765 m, the tunnel goes to a depth of 287 m below sea level - this is the deepest tunnel in the world. The slope of the road surface reaches 9.6%


382 meters

Woodingdean is an eastern suburb of Brighton and Hove, located in East Sussex, England. It is notable for the fact that it contains the deepest well in the world, dug by hand between 1858–1862. The depth of the well is 392 meters.

Of course, it doesn't look so picturesque, it's just an illustration.


603 meters

"Cave of Vertigo" Vrtoglavica in the Julian Alps. It is located on the territory of Slovenia, near the border with Italy). The cave was discovered by a joint Slovenian-Italian group of speleologists in 1996. The cave contains the deepest karst well in the world, its depth is 603 meters.

It can easily fit here North Tower World shopping centers in New York (its height is 417 m, and taking into account the antenna installed on the roof - 526.3 m).

If you accidentally fall into this hole, you can reach the bottom in 11 seconds.


700 meters

33 miners were trapped under the rubble as a result of the collapse of the San Jose mine on August 5, 2010. They were held captive at a depth of 700 meters for more than 2 months and were considered dead for almost 3 weeks. As a result of 40 days of work, a well was drilled to rescue Chilean miners.


970 meters

This is the largest dug hole in the Earth, from the bottom of which you can still see the sky. The Bingham Canyon Quarry in Utah is one of the largest man-made (man-dug) formations in the world. After more than 100 years of mining, a large crater was formed, 970 meters deep and 4 km wide. This unique canyon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

The entire Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure ever built, will fit into this quarry at 828 meters. And not only will it fit, but from its “top” there will be more than 140 meters to the surface.

On April 10, 2013, a giant block of earth broke off and rushed into a huge hole in the artificial Bingham Canyon in Utah. Approximately 65 - 70 million cubic meters of earth thundered along the walls of the mine, reaching speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour. The event was so powerful that it shook the earth - seismic sensors were activated, recording the earthquake. Intensity was measured as 2.5 on the Richter scale.


1642 meters

Baikal is the deepest lake on Earth. The current maximum depth of the lake is 1642 m.


1857 meters

The Grand Canyon is one of deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA. Depth - more than 1800 m.


2199 meters

So we reached the deepest cave in the world. This is the Krubera (Voronya) cave - the only known cave in the world deeper than 2 kilometers. The main entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of about 2250 m above sea level.


3132 meters

Today, the deepest mine is the Moab Khotsong mine in South Africa, located southwest of Johannesburg. Its depth is a little over 3 kilometers. The elevator takes 4.5 minutes to reach the very bottom, but you can speed up the process: if a person accidentally falls here, the flight to the bottom will take him 25 seconds.


3600 meters

A living organism was found at this depth. About a hundred years ago, the English scientist Edward Forbes argued that there are no living creatures deeper than 500 meters. But in 2011, nematode worms Halicephalobus mephisto were found in a gold mine in South Africa. The second name for these 0.5 mm creatures is “worm from hell.”


4500 meters

The deepest mines in the world are located in South Africa: Tau-Tona, Witwatersrand - depth of more than 4500 m, Western Deep Levels Mine - 3900 m (De Beers company), Mponeng - 3800 m. For miners have to work in extreme conditions. The heat reaches 60 °C, and at such depths there is always the danger of water breakthrough and explosions. These mines produce gold. The journey here takes miners about 1 hour.

By the way, from 25 to 50% of the gold mined in the world is obtained from the Witwatersrand deposit. Extraction is carried out, among other things, from the deepest mine in the world, “Tau-Tona” - its depth is more than 4.5 km, the temperature in the workings reaches 52 degrees.

A piece of gold-bearing ore mined at the deposit:


Let's move on. What follows will be very deep.

10994 meters

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. According to measurements in 2011, its depth is 10,994 m below sea level.

This is very deep. If Everest, 8848 meters high, could be placed here, then there would still be more than 2 km left from its top to the surface.

Yes, there is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about distant space - the mysterious bottom of the ocean. It is believed that world science has not yet really even begun to study it...

At a depth of 11 kilometers. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is approximately 1072 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean.


12262 meters

We have reached the deepest well in the world. This is the Kola superdeep well. Located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. Unlike other ultra-deep wells that were drilled for oil production or geological exploration, SG-3 was drilled solely for scientific research purposes in the place where the Mohorovicic boundary comes close to the surface of the Earth.

At a depth of five kilometers, the ambient temperature exceeded 70 °C, at seven - 120 °C, and at a depth of 12 kilometers, sensors recorded 220 °C.

Kola superdeep well, 2007:

The Kola Superdeep served as the source of the urban legend about the “well to hell.” This urban legend has been circulating on the Internet since at least 1997. For the first time on English language The legend was announced in 1989 on the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which took the story from a Finnish newspaper report published on April Fool's Day. According to this legend, in the very thickness of the earth, at a depth of 12,000 meters, microphones of scientists recorded screams and moans. The tabloid newspapers write that this is “a voice from the underworld.” The Kola superdeep well began to be called “the road to hell” - every new kilometer drilled brought misfortune to the country.

If you drop something into this hole, it will take 50 seconds before that “something” falls to the bottom.

This is it, the well itself (welded), August 2012:


12376 meters

The Z-44 Chaivo well, which was drilled in Russia on the shelf of Sakhalin Island, is considered the world's deepest oil well. It goes to a depth of about 13 kilometers - this depth is comparable to the height of 14.5 skyscrapers Burj Khalifa, which remains the tallest in the world. This is the deepest hole that humanity has been able to drill.


On this moment, this is the deepest place in the world. And it is located only at a depth of about 12.4 km. Is this too much? Let us remember that the average distance to the center of the Earth will be 6371.3 kilometers...

Where is the deepest place on Earth? How far is it from the center of the Earth? If Everest was placed there, would it rise above the surface of the Earth?

Today we will deal with the deepest places, holes, wells, caves, wells in the world, natural and man-made.

1.8 meters

Graves are usually dug at this depth. It is from this depth that the zombies will emerge when the time comes.


20 meters

Here are the famous Paris catacombs- a network of winding underground tunnels and artificial caves near Paris. The total length, according to various sources, is from 187 to 300 kilometers. Since the end of the 18th century, the remains of almost six million people have been buried in the catacombs.

40 meters

The Terme Millepini hotel in Italy chose this bold strategy, digging a 40-meter-deep tunnel for snorkelers and divers. This is the Y-40 pool. The most interesting thing about the deepest is that it is filled with thermal water and has a wonderful temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.

105.5 meters

This is the depth Kyiv metro station "Arsenalnaya", which is located on the Svyatoshinsko-Brovarskaya line between the Khreshchatyk and Dnepr stations. This is the deepest metro station in the world.

122 meters

Tree roots can penetrate to this depth. The tree with the deepest roots is a wild ficus growing at Echo Caves near Ohrigstad, South Africa. This tree is native to South Africa. Its roots go almost 122 meters deep.

230 meters

The deepest river. This Congo - river in Central Africa. In the lower reaches of the Congo breaks through the South Guinea Highlands in a deep narrow (in some places no more than 300 meters) gorge, forming the Livingston Falls (total drop 270 meters), the depths in this area are 230 meters or more, which makes the Congo the deepest river in the world .

240 meters

This is a railway tunnel with a length of 53.85 km. The tunnel descends to a depth of about 240 meters, 100 meters below the seabed. It is the deepest under the seabed and the second longest (after the Gotthard Base Tunnel) railway tunnel in the world.

287 meters

It is located even deeper, laid along the bottom of the Storfjord in the Norwegian province of Møre og Romsdal, connecting the cities of Eiksund and Rjanes. Construction began in 2003, the opening ceremony took place on February 17, 2008, full traffic opened on February 23, 2008. With a length of 7765 m, the tunnel goes to a depth of 287 m below sea level - this is the deepest tunnel in the world. The slope of the road surface reaches 9.6%.

382 meters

Woodingdean is an eastern suburb of Brighton and Hove, located in East Sussex, England. It is notable for the fact that on its territory there is deepest well in the world, dug by hand between 1858–1862. The depth of the well is 392 meters.

Of course, it doesn't look so picturesque, it's just an illustration.

603 meters

"Cave of Vertigo" Vrtoglavica in the Julian Alps. It is located on the territory of Slovenia, near the border with Italy). The cave was discovered by a joint Slovenian-Italian group of speleologists in 1996. Located in the cave the world's deepest karst well, its depth is 603 meters.

The North Tower can easily fit here (its height is 417 m, and taking into account the antenna installed on the roof - 526.3 m).

If you accidentally fall into this hole, you can reach the bottom in 11 seconds.

700 meters

33 miners were trapped under the rubble on August 5, 2010. They were held captive at a depth of 700 meters for more than 2 months and were listed as dead for almost 3 weeks. As a result of 40 days of work, a well was drilled to rescue Chilean miners.

970 meters

This largest dug hole in the earth, from the bottom of which you can still see the sky. The Bingham Canyon Quarry in Utah is one of the largest man-made (man-dug) formations in the world. After more than 100 years of mining, a large crater was formed, 970 meters deep and 4 km wide. This unique canyon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

This quarry will fit entirely into the tallest structure in the world ever created, whose height is 828 meters. And not only will it fit, but from its “top” there will be more than 140 meters to the surface.

On April 10, 2013, a giant block of earth broke off and rushed into a huge hole in the artificial Bingham Canyon in Utah. Approximately 65 - 70 million cubic meters of earth thundered along the walls of the mine, reaching speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour. The event was so powerful that it shook the earth - seismic sensors were activated, recording the earthquake. Intensity was measured as 2.5 on the Richter scale.


1642 meters

The deepest lake on Earth. The current maximum depth of the lake is 1642 m.

1857 meters

One of the deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA. Depth - more than 1800 m.

2199 meters

So we reached the deepest cave in the world. This is the only known cave in the world deeper than 2 kilometers. The main entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of about 2250 m above sea level.

3132 meters

To date, the deepest mine is located southwest of Johannesburg. Its depth is a little over 3 kilometers. The elevator takes 4.5 minutes to reach the very bottom, but you can speed up the process: if a person accidentally falls here, the flight to the bottom will take him 25 seconds.

3600 meters

A living organism was found at this depth. About a hundred years ago, the English scientist Edward Forbes argued that there are no living creatures deeper than 500 meters. But in 2011, nematode worms were found in a gold mine in South Africa. The second name for these 0.5 mm creatures is “worm from hell.”

4500 meters

The deepest mines in the world are located in South Africa: Tau-Tona, Witwatersrand - depth of more than 4500 m, Western Deep Levels Mine - 3900 m (De Beers company), Mponeng - 3800 m. For miners have to work in extreme conditions. The heat reaches 60 °C, and at such depths there is always the danger of water breakthrough and explosions. These mines produce gold. The journey here takes miners about 1 hour.

By the way, from 25 to 50% of the gold mined in the world is obtained from the Witwatersrand deposit. Extraction is carried out, among other things, from the deepest mine in the world, “Tau-Tona” - its depth is more than 4.5 km, the temperature in the workings reaches 52 degrees.

10994 meters

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. According to measurements in 2011, its depth is 10,994 m below sea level.

This is very deep. If Everest, 8848 meters high, could be placed here, then there would still be more than 2 km left from its top to the surface.

Yes, there is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about distant space - mysterious ocean floor. It is believed that world science has not yet really even begun to study it...

At a depth of 11 kilometers. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is approximately 1072 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean.

12262 meters

We have reached the deepest well in the world. This . Located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. Unlike other ultra-deep wells that were drilled for oil production or geological exploration, SG-3 was drilled solely for scientific research purposes in the place where the Mohorovicic boundary comes close to the surface of the Earth.

At a depth of five kilometers, the ambient temperature exceeded 70 °C, at seven - 120 °C, and at a depth of 12 kilometers, sensors recorded 220 °C.

Kola superdeep well, 2007:

The Kola Superdeep served as the source of the urban legend about the “well to hell.” This urban legend has been circulating on the Internet since at least 1997. The legend was first announced in English in 1989 on the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which took the story from a Finnish newspaper report published on April Fool's Day. According to this legend, in the very thickness of the earth, at a depth of 12,000 meters, microphones of scientists recorded screams and moans. The tabloid newspapers write that this is “a voice from the underworld.” The Kola superdeep well began to be called “the road to hell” - every new kilometer drilled brought misfortune to the country.

If you drop something into this hole, it will take 50 seconds before that “something” falls to the bottom.

This is it, the well itself (welded), August 2012:

12376 meters

Which was drilled in Russia on the shelf of Sakhalin Island, it is considered the deepest oil well in the world. It goes to a depth of about 13 kilometers - this depth is comparable to the height of 14.5 skyscrapers Burj Khalifa, which remains the tallest in the world. This the deepest hole that humanity has been able to drill.

At the moment, this is deepest place in the world. And it is located only at a depth of about 12.4 km. Is this too much? Let us remember that the average distance to the center of the Earth will be 6371.3 kilometers...

The Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) is considered the deepest depression in the World Ocean. The trench, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea, was first measured in 1875 and takes its name from the Mariana Islands.

Numerous studies and measurements have established that the deepest point of the World Ocean is at a level of 10,994 m and is called the “Challenger Deep” (after the name of the corvette of the same name that first explored the trench). The length of the trench is about 1500 km. Despite such a significant depth and extent, on the surface there are no signs of the presence of the Mariana Trench under the ocean water. Every year, hundreds of ships make trade voyages from Japan to Australia, as well as North America to the Philippines, pass over it unhindered.

The entire history of mankind is a continuous study. Considering that 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by the little-studied World Ocean with an average depth of 3.7 km, there are still a lot of secrets and mysteries that humanity has not yet solved.

At the moment, the most studied and deepest underwater plain is the Abyssal Plain. Its depth varies from 2 to 6 km. Only with the use of modern equipment has it become possible to study the landscape of the plain. In addition, hundreds of volcanoes and mountain ranges, formed as a result of the movement of ancient tectonic plates, remain unexplored under the thickness of ocean waters. Landscape depressions on the bottom of the World Ocean, having a depth of more than 6 kilometers, are usually called trenches. Similar trenches exist in all oceans of the Earth, but their maximum accumulation is in the Pacific.

The main difficulty associated with studying the flora and fauna of such extreme depths is associated with the insufficient level of technological development. The "grab" method is used to take samples from the bottom of depressions, plains and troughs. This method is quite economical, but the pressure at such colossal depths reaches 108.6 MPa (1072 times higher than atmospheric pressure), which necessitates the use of the most durable materials.

Thus, one of the latest studies of the Mariana Trench was carried out in March 2012 by American film director James Cameron. A single-seat bathyscaphe was used to take samples of living organisms and rocks, as well as take photos and videos. "Deepsea Challenger"(see photo above), which reached a depth of 10,908 meters.

In more active areas thermal springs coral polyps that live at sufficient depths grow up to 1.5 meters with meter-long tentacles, while their relatives from shallower depths are about 10 centimeters tall. Currently, research into the Mariana Trench continues. Scientists claim that about 2-5% of the filling of the bottom of the deepest place on the planet has been studied.

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 most high mountain in the world - Everest - can easily fit into the trench and there will still be 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, scary inhabitants underwater depths, “monsters” guarding the earth’s bottom, secrets, 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?

Gutter length along Mariana Islands 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".

The 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 a 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 creatures that bite the steel cable were not there... although he was not 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 us recall the famous saying of 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 the full text of the quote: “Who fights with monsters, he 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” and “abyss” imply something dangerous, dark, akin to the source of 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. This was an absolute depth record for manned and unmanned vehicles.

Two researchers then discovered at a terrible depth only 6 species of living creatures, including flat fish up to 30 cm in size.”

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, however, during previous underwater expeditions, including those without the participation of people, various forms of life, fish, hitherto never seen, strange creatures, creatures similar to 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 Pacific Ocean showed that 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, open on both sides ends of the tubes).

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...