Where is the deepest part of the ocean?
The answer is the Mariana Trench also called the Marianas Trench.
Depth: 7 miles or 11 kilometres
Length: 1500 miles or 2400 kilometres
Width: 43 miles or 64 kilometres
Location: The Mariana trench is located 200km East of the Mariana Island, and sits roughly between Guam to the north and Palau to the south (see picture below)
This area of ocean is known as the western pacific.
The Mariana trench was formed when tectonic plates collided, and the trench forms part of a global network of under-water trenches.
Currently a majority of the trench is a protected zone as part of the; United States Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.
The depth of the trench was measured in 1951 by British vessel H.M.S Challenger, which recorded its 7 mile depth with an echo-sounder. This depth has since been measured again multiple times by multiple nationalities, with a complete and accurate depth of the trench not yet fully known.
The trench was first descended into in 1960 by a United States navy submersible. The decent took 5 hours, and the sub was able to stay for a bottom time of 20 minutes. Since then other countries have deployed science equipment such as hydrophones, and even autonomous underwater vehicles to study the bottom of the trench.
At such depths the water pressure is 1086 bars (15,570 psi) more than 1071 times standard atmospheric pressure at the sea level, or on the earths surface.
In 2021 a Chinese submersible broke the previous world record for the deepest dive within the Trench, reaching 10,900metres (10.9km or 6.77 miles respectively)
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