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The Deepest Deep
Mt. Everest, at just over 29,000 feet above sea level, may be the highest point on Earth’s surface—but what’s the lowest?
Well, the deepest part of the deep sea is the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, off the island of Guam, about halfway between Japan and Australia.
It’s five times as long as the Grand Canyon and more than a mile deeper than Everest is tall.
And the deepest point in the trench is called Challenger Deep, nearly 36,000 feet below sea level. It’s named after the Challenger 1 and 2 exploration ships which, in the 1870’s and 1950’s, first measured Earth’s lowest point using iron weights and very, very long metal wires.
Deep sea trenches like the Mariana form along tectonic plate boundaries, where plates collide and one is forced under the other, pushing down the surface of Earth in what’s called a subduction zone.
No sunlight can reach this deep, so the trench is in absolute darkness. Life and the food web are very sparse, with some creatures relying on chemosynthesis—feeding on methane or sulfur.
The water is near freezing, and water pressure at the bottom of Challenger Deep is 1000 times that at sea level—enough to crush the bones of humans.
Of course, that didn’t stop humans from wanting to explore it. Who they were, how they did it, and what they found, we’ll talk about on another EarthDate.
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By Switch Energy AllianceMt. Everest, at just over 29,000 feet above sea level, may be the highest point on Earth’s surface—but what’s the lowest?
Well, the deepest part of the deep sea is the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, off the island of Guam, about halfway between Japan and Australia.
It’s five times as long as the Grand Canyon and more than a mile deeper than Everest is tall.
And the deepest point in the trench is called Challenger Deep, nearly 36,000 feet below sea level. It’s named after the Challenger 1 and 2 exploration ships which, in the 1870’s and 1950’s, first measured Earth’s lowest point using iron weights and very, very long metal wires.
Deep sea trenches like the Mariana form along tectonic plate boundaries, where plates collide and one is forced under the other, pushing down the surface of Earth in what’s called a subduction zone.
No sunlight can reach this deep, so the trench is in absolute darkness. Life and the food web are very sparse, with some creatures relying on chemosynthesis—feeding on methane or sulfur.
The water is near freezing, and water pressure at the bottom of Challenger Deep is 1000 times that at sea level—enough to crush the bones of humans.
Of course, that didn’t stop humans from wanting to explore it. Who they were, how they did it, and what they found, we’ll talk about on another EarthDate.