The deepest depressions on Earth: world leaders. The deepest places in the world The deepest waters

In everyday life, we get used to the fact that the earth is flat and level. Potholes on the roads seem like a personal insult, a depression of 10-20 meters is a serious pit. But behind this routine, we sometimes forget that the topography of our planet is very heterogeneous. We have already talked about high points, and now it’s time to look at the other side of this problem and find the deepest place on Earth.

Underwater depths

One of the creatures from the Mariana Trench. It's alive and pretty happy

It may seem like a funny paradox, but some of the deepest points on Earth are located under water. It is in the ocean that numerous trenches are hidden - faults of lithospheric plates. Filled with water, they turned into amazing places, completely different from the world we are used to. The multi-kilometer layer of water creates unimaginable pressure; not a single ray of sunlight, even the fastest, can pass through this barrier. As a result, it is very dark and difficult there.

There are quite a lot of such points in the world, but the most impressive of them are known to everyone:

1. Mariana Trench. Its bottom is the deepest point of the Pacific Ocean and the ocean in general. Many times they tried to accurately determine its depth, and according to the latest data it is 10994 meters. This value is difficult to comprehend, but for comparison, the height of Everest, the tallest mountain, is just over 8800 meters. Thus, our planet is rather deep than high.
2. Tongo gutter. The second deepest and much less studied trench. Its deepest point is at level 10882, which is only 100 meters less than the Mariana Trench. It turns out that the difference between the two deepest gutters is about 1%. Not so much. But if he loses in depth, he is first in other respects. For some reason, in this place the plates move an order of magnitude faster than in other places. The movement speed is about 25 centimeters instead of the required 2.
3. Philippine Trench. The third deepest point in the World Ocean. The maximum value is 10,265 meters, which is clearly less than that of the Mariana Trench and the Tongo Trench.

The funny thing is that these trenches are quite well studied, unlike most of the seabed. People imagine what is happening on approximately 5% of its area, while the remaining places escape our attention.

At the same time, gutters hide many secrets. For example, previously people did not even think that at such pressure, without light and oxygen dissolved in water, someone could exist. But the expeditions still found quite cheerful, albeit strange creatures there. And this is just one of many surprises that human nature has prepared.

Wells

Despite the fact that the underwater faults and trenches created by nature itself are amazing, the deepest place is still the work of man. And these are wells.

This is what KS-3 looks like from the outside. And under the cover - 12 kilometers of puncture

If a fault is an open wound on the body of the planet, then a well is more like a trace of an injection from the thinnest needle, but sometimes they can bring no less surprises and unexpected data. And the following wells boast the most impressive depth:

1. Kola superdeep well. Its total depth is 12263 meters. At the same time, the diameter of the outer part of the well is only about half a meter. The purpose of creating this well was to obtain new data on the structure of the earth's crust. And scientists received them in full. The study of this place brought them an incredible amount of new and unexpected information, which significantly influenced people’s ideas about the structure of our planet.
2. OR-11. Another well created by Russian engineers. It belongs to the Sakhalin-1 project, within the framework of which the field was studied. Its depth is 11,345 meters, a very impressive achievement. In total, 10 wells were drilled as part of this project.
3. BD-04A. This well, located in Qatar, was created with one very specific purpose - to study the oil field. Exploration required some effort, first of all, the creation of one of the deepest wells - 10,092 meters.

It turns out that the deepest place on the planet is still the fruit of human hands. And even if this mistake is infinitely small, the achievement cannot but rejoice.

The deepest place on Earth is an oceanic trench located near the Mariana Islands.

The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean, east of the 14 Mariana Islands near Japan. As you probably already know, this is the deepest ocean trench and also the deepest place on Earth. It was created as a result of the opposition of two tectonic plates.

The deepest point in the Mariana Trench is considered to be the Challenger Deep point (which means “Challenging”), it is also the deepest point of the world’s oceans. According to various deep-sea research vehicles, the maximum recorded depth is 11,521 m.

The Mariana Trench was first explored in 1951 by the British naval vessel Challenger II, hence the name of the deepest point on Earth.

The first people to personally dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench were Swiss oceanographer Jacques Picard and US soldier Don Walsh. This happened in January 1960 on a special round submersible called Trieste. The scientists were greatly surprised when, at such a great depth, they encountered flat fish and other living organisms. Later in 1995, a Japanese deep-sea vehicle dived to the point of maximum depth and recorded a distance from the bottom to the surface of 10,911.4 meters. According to the most recent studies in 2011, using the newest locators, the depth was named 10,994 meters. website - interesting facts about everything, read on and learn something new.

The size of the Mariana Trench is enormous; it extends along 1500 km. The width at the very bottom is only 1-5 km, the bottom is flat and surrounded by steep cliffs. The water pressure at the very bottom of the depression is 108.6 MPa, which in turn is 11,074 tons/m2, or 1,107 kg/cm2.
For comparison, here are some facts.

123 meters. The record maximum diving depth for a person without scuba gear and breathing apparatus is 123 m. This record was achieved by a diver from Monaco and is officially registered.

100 m. The blue whale is the largest animal on earth and has a diving depth of no more than 100 meters.

1000 m. Below this mark no sunlight penetrates.

2000 m. The sperm whale is the only mammal that is capable of diving to a depth of two kilometers.

4000 m. Water pressure reaches 402 kg per cm2. The ambient temperature is not higher than +2 degrees. Fish are blind or have underdeveloped eyes.

6000 m. The pressure is 584 times greater than the pressure on the Earth's surface. Despite this, life exists here.

10994 m. Bottom of the Mariana Trench. There is a complete absence of light, water pressure is 1072 times higher than the surface pressure, 1 ton 74 kilograms presses per 1 square centimeter. Hellish conditions. But there is life here. Small fish similar to flounder up to 30 centimeters long.

Below we provide photographs of deep-sea fish. Most of these creatures live at depths between 500 and 6,500 meters.

Do you think this monkfish fish has legs? I hasten to disappoint you. These are not legs at all, but two males that are stuck to the female. The fact is that at great depths and in the complete absence of light it is very difficult to find a partner. Therefore, as soon as a male monkfish finds a female, he immediately bites into her side. This hug will never be broken. Later, it fuses with the female’s body, loses all unnecessary organs, merges with her circulatory system and becomes only a source of sperm. Below is another photo of this fish.

This is a deep-sea octopus measuring only 20 cm. Its habitat depth is from 500 to 5000 meters.

This is a fish with a transparent head. For what? At depth, as we know, there is very little light. The fish has developed a defense mechanism; its eyes are located in the center of the head so that they cannot be injured. In order to see, evolution has awarded this fish with a transparent head. The two green spheres are the eyes.

We hope you liked the photos of fish living in the depths of the Mariana Trench.

Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the distant planets of the solar system, people have explored only five percent of the ocean floor, which remains one of our planet's greatest mysteries. The deepest part of the ocean - the Mariana Trench or Mariana Trench is one of the most famous places, about which we still do not know very much. With water pressure that is a thousand times greater than at sea level, diving into this place is akin to suicide. But thanks to modern technology and a few brave souls who risked their lives and went down there, we learned a lot of interesting things about this amazing place.

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

The coordinates of the Mariana Trench are 11°22′ north latitude and 142°35′ east longitude.

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

Here are other interesting facts about what you can find along the way and at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench.

1. Very hot water

Going down to such depths, we expect it to be very cold. Temperatures here reach just above zero, varying from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius. However, at a depth of about 1.6 km from the surface of the Pacific Ocean there are hydrothermal vents called “black smokers”. They shoot water that heats up to 450 degrees Celsius.

This water is rich in minerals that help support life in the area. Despite the water temperature being hundreds of degrees above the boiling point, the water here does not boil due to the incredible water pressure, 155 times higher than on the surface.

2. Giant toxic amoebas

A few years ago, giant 10-centimeter amoebae called xenophyophores were discovered at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. These single-celled organisms likely became so large because of the environment they live in at a depth of 10.6 km. Cold temperatures, high pressure and lack of sunlight likely contributed to the enormous size of these amoebas.

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

3. Shellfish

The intense water pressure in the Mariana Trench does not give any animal with a shell or bones a chance of survival. However, in 2012, shellfish were discovered in a trench near serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which allows living organisms to form. How the mollusks preserved their shells under such pressure remains unknown.

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

4. Pure liquid carbon dioxide

The Champagne Mariana Trench hydrothermal vent, which lies outside the Okinawa Trench near Taiwan, is the only known underwater area where liquid carbon dioxide can be found. The spring, discovered in 2005, was named after the bubbles that turned out to be carbon dioxide.

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

5. Slime

If we had the opportunity to swim to the very depths of the Mariana Trench, we would feel that it was covered with a layer of viscous mucus. Sand, in its familiar form, does not exist there. The bottom of the depression is mainly made up of crushed shells and remains of plankton that have sunk to the bottom over the years. Due to the incredible water pressure, almost everything there turns into fine grayish-yellow thick mud.

6. Liquid sulfur

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

In this pit, called the "cauldron", the bubbling black emulsion boils at 187 degrees Celsius. Although scientists have not been able to explore this site in detail, it is possible that even more liquid sulfur is contained deeper. This could reveal the secret of the origin of life on Earth.

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

7. Bridges

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

One of the Dutton Ridge bridges, which was opened in the 1980s, turned out to be incredibly high, like a small mountain. At its highest point, the ridge reaches 2.5 km above the Challenger Deep. Like many aspects of the Mariana Trench, the purpose of these bridges remains unclear. However, the very fact that these formations were discovered in one of the most mysterious and unexplored places is surprising.

8. James Cameron's Dive into the Mariana Trench

Since the discovery of the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, the Challenger Deep, in 1875, only three people have visited it. The first were American Lieutenant Don Walsh and explorer Jacques Piccard, who dived on January 23, 1960 on the Challenger.

52 years later, another person dared to dive here - the famous film director James Cameron. So on March 26, 2012, Cameron went down to the bottom and took several photographs. During James Cameron's 2012 dive into the Challenger Deep on the DeepSea Challenge submersible, he attempted to observe everything that was happening in the area until mechanical problems forced him to the surface.

While he was at the deepest point of the world's oceans, he came to the shocking conclusion that he was completely alone. There were no scary sea monsters or any miracles in the Mariana Trench. According to Cameron, the very bottom of the ocean was "lunar...empty...lonely" and he felt "complete isolation from all humanity."

9. Mariana Trench

10. The Mariana Trench in the ocean is the largest nature reserve

The Mariana Trench is a US national monument and the largest marine sanctuary in the world. Since it is a monument, there are a number of rules for those who want to visit this place. Within its borders, fishing and mining are strictly prohibited. However, swimming is allowed here, so you could be the next one to venture into the deepest place in the ocean.

Not far from Japan, in the depths of the sea, the deepest depression in the world's oceans is hidden - the Mariana Trench. This geographical object received its name thanks 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, widened at the top and narrowed at the bottom. This formation resulted from the influence of tectonic plate boundaries. The maximum depth of the world's oceans in this place is 10994 (plus or minus 40 m).

Rice. 1. Mariana Trench on the map

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

The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep point, which in English means “Challenger Deep”. 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 world's oceans was conquered only in 1960 by two daredevils: Don Walsh and Jacques Picard. They dived on the bathyscaphe Trieste and became the first people in the world to dive first to a depth of 3,000 meters, and then to 10,000 meters. The bottom mark was recorded 30 minutes after the dive. In total, they spent about 3 hours at depth and froze significantly. Indeed, in addition to the enormous pressure, there is also a low water temperature - about 2 degrees Celsius.

Rice. 2. Mariana Trench in section

In 2012, the famous director James Cammeron (“Titanic”) conquered the deepest cavity, becoming the third person on Earth to descend so far. This was the most important expedition, during which unique photographic and video materials were obtained, as well as bottom samples were taken. Contrary to popular belief, at the bottom there 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 was possible in 1950. Then Soviet scientists suggested that some simple creatures were able to adapt to chitinous pipes. The new family was named pogonophorans.

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At the very bottom live various bacteria and single-celled organisms. For example, the amoeba here grows with a diameter of 20 cm.

The largest number of inhabitants is in the thickness of the trench at a depth of 500 to 6500 meters. Many of the fish species that live in the gutter are blind, others have special luminous organs for illumination in the dark. The pressure and lack of sun made their bodies flat and their skin transparent. Many have eyes on their backs and look like small telescopes rotating in all directions.

Rice. 3. Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

In addition to the fact that there is no sun and heat, various toxic gases are released from the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Hydrothermal geysers are sources of hydrogen sulfide. It became the basis for the development of Mariana mollusks, despite the fact that this gas is destructive for this type of marine life. How these protozoa managed to survive, and even preserve their shells under enormous pressure, remains a mystery.

There is another unique area at depth. This is the Champagne spring, where liquid carbon dioxide comes from.

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 Deep (11,521 m). The first expedition to the bottom was completed successfully in 1960. In conditions of pitch darkness, pressure and constant toxic fumes, a special world with its own unique animals and simple organisms was formed here. It’s very difficult to say what the world of the Mariana Trench really is, because it’s only 5% studied.

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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.

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 with 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 the Eiksund road tunnel, 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 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.

The North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York 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 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 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 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. 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

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.


At the 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...