There are 5 oceans on Earth, which occupy a significant part of the land. Having conquered space and landed a man on the Moon, sending autonomous spacecraft to the most distant planets solar system, people know negligibly little about what is hidden in the depths of the sea on their home planet.

What is the Mariana Trench?

This is the name of the deepest place in the Pacific Ocean known today. It is a trench formed by the convergence tectonic plates. Maximum depth Mariana Trench is approximately 10,994 meters (2011 data). There are other trenches in all other oceans, but not so deep. Only the Java Trench (7729 meters) can be compared with the Mariana Trench.

Location

The deepest place on Earth is located in the western Pacific Ocean, near the Mariana Islands. The trench stretches along them for one and a half thousand kilometers. The bottom of the depression is flat, its width ranges from 1 to 5 kilometers. The trench got its name in honor of the islands next to which it is located.

"Challenger Deep"

This is the name given to the deepest place (10,994 meters) of the Mariana Trench. Here it is necessary to explain that it is not yet possible to obtain the exact dimensions of this gigantic trough of the ocean floor. The speed of sound at different depths varies greatly, and the Mariana Trench has a very complex structure, so the data obtained using an echo sounder is always slightly different.

History of discovery

People have long known that deep-sea places exist in the seas and oceans. In 1875, the English corvette Challenger opened one of these points. What depth of the Mariana Trench was recorded then? It was 8367 meters. The measuring instruments at that time were far from ideal, but even this result made a stunning impression - it became clear that the deepest point of the ocean floor on the planet had been found.

Gutter studies

In the 19th century, it was simply impossible to explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench. At that time, there was no technology that would allow one to descend to such a depth. Without modern means diving was tantamount to suicide.

The trench was re-examined many years later, in the next century. Measurements taken in 1951 showed a depth of 10,863 meters. Then, in 1957, members of the Soviet scientific vessel Vityaz studied the depression. According to their measurements, the depth of the Mariana Trench was 11,023 meters.

The last study of the trench was carried out in 2011.

Cameron's Great Journey

The Canadian director became the third person in the history of exploration of the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom. He was the first in the world to do it alone. Before its sinking, the trench was explored by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in 1960 using the bathyscaphe Trieste. In addition, Japanese scientists tried to find out the depth of the Mariana Trench using the Kaiko probe. And in 2009, the Nereus apparatus descended to the bottom of the trench.

Descent to such an incredible depth is associated with a huge amount risks. First of all, a person is threatened by a monstrous pressure of 1100 atmospheres. It can damage the body of the device, which will lead to the death of the pilot. One more serious danger, lying in wait when descending to the depths, is the cold that reigns there. It can not only cause equipment failure, but also kill a person. The bathyscaphe may collide with rocks and be damaged.

For many years, James Cameron dreamed of visiting the deepest point of the Mariana Trench - the Challenger Deep. In order to carry out his plans, he equipped his own expedition. Especially for this, an underwater vehicle was developed and built in Sydney - a single-seat bathyscaphe Deepsea Challenger, equipped with scientific equipment, as well as photo and video cameras. In it, Cameron sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This event occurred on March 26, 2012.

In addition to photographs and video footage, the Deepsea Challenger bathyscaphe had to take new measurements of the trench and try to provide accurate data on its dimensions. Everyone was worried about one question: “How much?” The depth of the Mariana Trench, according to the apparatus, was 10,908 meters.

The director was impressed by what he saw below. Most of all, the bottom of the depression reminded him of a lifeless lunar landscape. He did not meet the terrible inhabitants of the abyss. The only creature he saw through the submersible's porthole was a small shrimp.

After a successful voyage, James Cameron decided to donate his bathyscaphe to the Oceanographic Institute so that it could continue to be used to explore the depths of the sea.

Creepy denizens of the deep

The lower the ocean floor, the less sun rays penetrates through the water column. The depth of the Mariana Trench is the reason that impenetrable darkness always reigns in it. But even the absence of light cannot become an obstacle to the emergence of life. Darkness gives birth to creatures that have never seen the sun. And they, in turn, were only recently able to be seen by marine biologists.

This spectacle is not for the faint of heart. Almost all the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench seem to have been born from the imagination of an artist who creates monsters for horror films. Seeing them for the first time, you might think that they do not live next to a person on the same planet, but are alien creatures, they look so alien.

To some extent, this is true - negligible little is known about the oceans and their inhabitants. The bottom of the Mariana Trench has been explored less than the surface of Mars. Therefore, for a long time it was believed that at such a depth without sunlight life is impossible. It turned out that this was not the case. The depth of the Mariana Trench, gigantic pressure and cold are no obstacle to the birth of amazing creatures living in complete darkness.

Most of them have an ugly appearance due to terrible living conditions. The pitch darkness reigning in the depths made the marine inhabitants of these places completely blind. Many fish have huge teeth, such as howliods, which swallow their prey whole.

What can living creatures that are so far from the surface of the ocean eat? At the bottom of the depression, the remains of living organisms accumulate, forming a multi-meter layer of bottom silt. The inhabitants of the depths feed on these deposits. Predatory fish have luminous areas of the body with which they attract small fish.

The gutter is inhabited by bacteria that can only develop when high blood pressure, single-celled organisms, jellyfish, worms, mollusks, sea cucumbers. The depth of the Mariana Trench allows them to reach very large sizes. For example, amphipods found at the bottom of the trench are 17 centimeters long.

Amoebas

Xenophyophores (amoebas) are single-celled organisms that can only be seen with a microscope. But at depth, these inhabitants of the Mariana Trench reach gigantic sizes - up to 10 centimeters. Previously, they were found at a depth of 7500 meters. Interesting feature These organisms, in addition to their size, have the ability to accumulate uranium, lead and mercury. Externally, deep-sea amoebas look different. Some are disc or tetrahedron shaped. Xenophyophores feed on bottom sediments.

Hirondellea gigas

Amphipods (amphipods) large sizes were discovered in the Mariana Trench. These deep-sea crayfish feed on dead organic matter that accumulates at the bottom of the depression and have a keen sense of smell. The largest specimen found was 17 centimeters in length.

Holothurians

Sea cucumbers are another representative of organisms that live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This class of invertebrates feeds on plankton and bottom sediments.

Conclusion

The Mariana Trench has not yet been properly explored. No one knows what creatures inhabit it and how many secrets it holds.

The Mariana Trench, or Mariana Trench, is an oceanic depression in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest geographical feature known on Earth.

Studies of the Mariana Trench were initiated by the expedition (December 1872 - May 1876) of the English ship HMS Challenger, which carried out the first systematic measurements of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. This military three-masted corvette with sail rigging was rebuilt as an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work in 1872.

Also, a significant contribution to the study of the Mariana deep-sea trench was made by Soviet researchers. In 1958, an expedition on the Vityaz established the presence of life at depths of more than 7000 m, thereby refuting the prevailing idea at that time about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6000-7000 m.

“Vityaz” in Kaliningrad on eternal parking

Half a century ago, on January 23, 1960, a significant event took place in the history of the conquest of the world's oceans.

Bathyscaphe Trieste, piloted by French explorer Jacques Piccard (1922–2008) 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 the Challenger ship, from which the first data about it were obtained in 1951. 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 1,100 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure) flattens all living things, the researchers made a major oceanological discovery: they saw two 30-centimeter flounder-like fish swimming past the porthole. Before this, it was believed that no life existed at depths exceeding 6000 m.

Thus, an absolute record for diving depth was set, which cannot be surpassed even theoretically. Picard and Walsh were the only people who visited the bottom of the Challenger Deep. All subsequent dives to the deepest point of the world's oceans, for research purposes, were made by unmanned robotic bathyscaphes. But there were not so many of them, since “visiting” the Challenger Abyss is both labor-intensive and expensive.

One of the achievements of this dive, which had a beneficial effect on the environmental 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 prevailing opinion at that time that at depths above 6000 m there is no upward movement of water masses.

In the 90s, three dives were made by the Japanese Kaiko device, controlled remotely from the “mother” ship via a fiber-optic cable. However, in 2003, while exploring another part of the ocean, the towing steel cable broke during a storm and the robot was lost.

The underwater catamaran Nereus became the third deep-sea vehicle to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

On May 31, 2009, humanity again reached the deepest point of the Pacific, and indeed the entire world ocean - the American deep-sea vehicle Nereus sank into the Challenger failure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The device took soil samples and took underwater photos and videos at maximum depth, illuminated only by its LED spotlight.

In the hands of student Eleanor Bors is a sea cucumber that lives in the very abyss and was picked up by the Nereus apparatus.

During the current dive, Nereus' instruments recorded a depth of 10,902 meters. The indicator of “Kayko”, which first landed here in 1995, was 10,911 meters, and Picard and Walsh measured a value of 10,912 meters. Many Russian maps still show the value of 11,022 meters obtained by the Soviet oceanographic vessel Vityaz during the 1957 expedition. Of course, all this indicates the inaccuracy of the measurements, and not 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 an extremely high zone seismic activity, 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 trench is the Challenger Deep, named after the English ship.

The depression stretches along the Mariana Islands for 1500 km; she has V-profile, steep (7-9°) slopes, flat bottom 1-5 km wide, which is divided by rapids into several closed depressions. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is more than 1100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean. 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 inexplicable and incomprehensible have always attracted people, which is why scientists around 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 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 as madness. 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). IN lately The veil of secrecy was 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);

Of the 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);

Multicellular organisms include polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, sea cucumbers, bivalves and gastropods.

At depths there is no sunlight, no algae, constant salinity, low temperatures, 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 reveal them in the near future?

—> Satellite view of the depression <—

Excellent students at school firmly understood: the highest point on earth is Mount Everest (8848 m), the deepest trench is the Mariana Trench. However, if we know a lot of interesting facts about Everest, then most people know nothing about the trench in the Pacific Ocean, besides the fact that it is the deepest.

Five hours down, three hours up

Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the mountain peaks and even more so the distant planets of the solar system, people have explored only five percent of the seabed, which still remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet.

With an average width of 69 km, the Mariana Trench was formed several million years ago due to shifts of tectonic plates and stretches in a crescent shape for 2.5 thousand km along the Mariana Islands.

Its depth, according to recent research, is 10,994 m (± 40 m). For comparison: the equatorial diameter of the Earth is 12,756 km. The water pressure at the bottom reaches 108.6 MPa - this is more than 1100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure!

The Mariana Trench, also called the Earth's fourth pole, was discovered in 1872 by the crew of the British research vessel Challenger. The crew took measurements of the bottom at various points in the Pacific Ocean.

Another measurement was made in the area of ​​​​the Mariana Islands, but the kilometer-long rope was not enough, and then the captain ordered two more kilometer sections to be added to it. Then again and again...

Almost 100 years later, the echo sounder of another English, but under the same name, scientific vessel recorded a depth of 10,863 m in the Mariana Trench area. After that, the deepest point of the ocean floor began to be called the “Challenger Deep”.

In 1957, Soviet researchers established the presence of life at depths of more than 7 thousand m, thereby refuting the prevailing opinion at that time about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6-7 thousand m, and also clarified the British data, recording a depth of 11,023 m.

The first human dive to the bottom of the depression took place in 1960. It was carried out on the Trieste bathyscaphe by the American Don Walsh and the Swiss oceanographer Jacques Picard.

The descent into the abyss took them almost 5 hours, and the ascent took about three hours; the researchers spent only 20 minutes at the bottom. But even this time was enough for them to make a sensational discovery - in the bottom waters they discovered flat fish up to 30 cm in size, similar to flounder, unknown to science.

Living in pitch darkness

In the course of further research using unmanned deep-sea vehicles, it turned out that at the bottom of the depression, despite the terrifying water pressure, a wide variety of species of living organisms live. Giant 10-centimeter amoebas - xenophyophores, which under normal terrestrial conditions can only be seen with a microscope, amazing two-meter worms, no less huge starfish, mutant octopuses and, naturally, fish.

The latter amaze with their terrifying appearance. Their distinctive feature is a huge mouth and many teeth. Many spread their jaws so wide that even a small predator can swallow whole an animal larger than itself.

There are also quite unusual creatures, reaching two meters in size with a soft jelly-like body, which have no analogues in nature.

It would seem that at such a depth the temperature should be at Antarctic levels. However, the Challenger Deep contains hydrothermal vents called “black smokers.” They constantly heat the water and thereby maintain the overall temperature in the cavity at 1-4 °C.

The inhabitants of the Mariana Trench live in pitch darkness, some of them are blind, others have huge telescopic eyes that catch the slightest glare of light. Some individuals have “lanterns” on their heads that emit different colors.

There are fish in whose bodies a luminous liquid accumulates. When they sense danger, they splash this liquid towards the enemy and hide behind this “curtain of light.” The appearance of such animals is very unusual for our perception and can cause disgust and even inspire a feeling of fear.

But it is obvious that not all the mysteries of the Mariana Trench have yet been solved. Some strange animals of truly incredible size live in the depths!

Something tried to chew the submersible like a nut

Sometimes on the shore, not far from the Mariana Trench, people find the bodies of dead 40-meter monsters. Giant teeth were also discovered in those places. Scientists have proven that they belong to a multi-ton prehistoric megalodon shark, the span of which reached two meters.

These sharks were thought to have gone extinct about three million years ago, but the teeth found are much younger. So have the ancient monsters really disappeared?

In 2003, another sensational results of research into the Mariana Trench were published in the United States. Scientists have submerged an unmanned platform equipped with searchlights, sensitive video systems and microphones in the deepest part of the world's oceans.

The platform was lowered on 6 inch-section steel cables. At first, the technology did not provide any unusual information. But a few hours after the dive, the silhouettes of strange large objects (at least 12-16 m) began to flash on the monitor screens in the light of powerful spotlights, and at that time the microphones transmitted sharp sounds to the recording devices - the grinding of iron and dull, uniform blows on metal.

When the platform was raised (never lowered to the bottom due to incomprehensible obstacles that prevented the descent), it was discovered that the powerful steel structures were bent, and the steel cables seemed to have been sawed off. A little more - and the platform would forever remain the Challenger Abyss.

Previously, something similar happened to the German device “Hayfish”. Having descended to a depth of 7 km, he suddenly refused to emerge. To find out what was wrong, the researchers turned on an infrared camera.

What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, clinging its teeth to the bathyscaphe, tried to chew it like a nut.

Having recovered from the shock, the scientists activated the so-called electric gun, and the monster, struck by a powerful discharge, hastened to retreat.

Who is the boss on Earth?

But it's not just fantastic monsters that are captured by deep-sea cameras. In the summer of 2012, the Titan unmanned deep-sea vehicle, launched from the research vessel Rick Mesenger, was located in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 10,000 m. Its main purpose was to videotape and photograph various underwater objects.

Suddenly the cameras recorded a strange multiple shine of a material very similar to metal. And then, several tens of meters from the device, several large objects appeared in the light of the spotlight.

Having approached these objects to the maximum allowable distance, the Titan displayed a very unusual picture on the monitors of the scientists on the Rick Mesenger. On an area of ​​approximately a square kilometer there were about 50 large cylindrical objects, very similar to... flying saucers!

A few minutes after the “UFO airfield” was recorded, the Titan stopped communicating and never surfaced.

There are a lot of well-known facts that, if they do not confirm the possibility of the existence of intelligent creatures in the depths of the sea, then, in any case, fully explain why modern science still knows nothing about them.

Firstly, man's native habitat - the earth's surface - occupies only a little more than a quarter of the land surface. So our planet could well be called the Ocean planet rather than the Earth.

Secondly, as everyone knows, life originated in water, so marine intelligence (if it exists) is about one and a half million years older than humans.

That is why, according to some experts, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, thanks to the presence of active hydrothermal springs, not only entire colonies of prehistoric animals that have survived to this day can exist, but also an underwater civilization of intelligent creatures unknown to earthlings! The “fourth pole” of the Earth, in the opinion of scientists, is the most suitable place for them to live.

And once again the question arises: is man the only “master” of planet Earth?

Field research is planned for the summer of 2015

The third person in the entire history of exploration of the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom was James Cameron exactly three years ago.

“Almost everything on land has been explored,” he explained his decision. - In space, bosses prefer to send people circling around the Earth, and send machine guns to other planets. For the joys of discovering the unknown, there is only one field of activity left - the ocean. Only about 3% of its water volume has been studied, and what’s next is unknown.”

On the DeepSes Challenge bathyscaphe, being in a half-bent state, since the internal diameter of the device did not exceed 109 cm, the famous film director observed everything that was happening in this place until mechanical problems forced him to rise to the surface.

Cameron managed to take samples of rocks and living organisms from the bottom, and also filmed with 3D cameras. Subsequently, these shots formed the basis of a documentary film.

However, he never saw any of the terrible sea monsters. According to him, the very bottom of the ocean was “lunar... empty... lonely,” and he felt “complete isolation from all humanity.”

Meanwhile, in the telecommunications laboratory of Tomsk Polytechnic University, together with the Institute of Marine Technology Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the development of a domestic device for deep-sea research, which can descend to a depth of 12 km, is in full swing.

Specialists working on the bathyscaphe declare that there are no analogues to the equipment they are developing in the world, and “field” studies of the sample in the waters of the Pacific Ocean are planned for the summer of 2015.

The famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov also began working on the project “Diving into the Mariana Trench in a Bathyscaphe.” According to him, his goal is not just to touch the bottom of the deepest depression of the World Ocean, but also to spend two whole days there, conducting unique research.

The bathyscaphe is designed to accommodate two people and will be designed and built by an Australian company.

The Mariana Trench is the deepest place in the world's oceans. It is located between Japan and Papua New Guinea, near the island of Guam. Its maximum depth is about 11 thousand meters (this place in the Mariana Trench is called the “Challenger Deep”).

The Mariana Trench has an elongated appearance, and in vertical section it is a V-shaped canyon, tapering towards the bottom. The bottom of the depression is flat, several kilometers wide.

Start of research

The first explorations of the Mariana Trench began in the 19th century, when the crew of the sailing ship Challenger managed to measure its depth using a deep-sea survey. According to the measurement results, the depth of the depression was slightly more than eight kilometers. A hundred years later, a research vessel of the same name re-measured the depth of the depression using an echo sounder. The maximum depth was almost eleven kilometers.

Human dives

Only scientists in a special research apparatus can dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The pressure at the bottom of the depression is enormous - more than one hundred megapascals. This is enough to crush an ordinary bathyscaphe like an eggshell. In the entire history of mankind, only three researchers managed to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench - US Army Lieutenant Don Walsh, scientist Jacques Piccard and film director James Cameron.

The first attempt to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was made by Jacques Picard and Don Walsh. On a specially designed submersible they plunged to a depth of 10,918 meters. To the surprise of the researchers, at the bottom of the depression they saw fish that looked like flounder. How they manage to exist under such enormous pressure is still a mystery.

The third and currently last person who managed to sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was director James Cameron. He did it alone, descending to the deepest point of the depression in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. This significant event occurred in 2012. Cameron descended into the Challenger Deep, took soil samples and filmed the diving process. Based on footage shot by James Cameron, the National Geographic Channel released a film.

Unmanned diving

In addition to people, “unmanned” research vehicles also descended into the Mariana Trench. In 1995, the bottom of the Mariana Trench was studied by the Japanese Kaiko probe, and in 2009, the Nereus apparatus descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Now anyone can watch the fantastic underwater world of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on our planet, captured on video, or even enjoy a live video broadcast from an 11-kilometer depth. But until relatively recently, the Mariana Trench was considered the most unexplored point on the map of the Earth.

Sensational discovery by the Challenger team

We also know from the school curriculum that the highest point on the earth’s surface is the top of Mount Everest (8848 m), but the lowest is hidden under the waters of the Pacific Ocean and is located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (10994 m). We know quite a lot about Everest, its peak has been conquered more than once by climbers, there are enough photographs of this mountain taken both from the ground and from space. If Everest is in plain sight and does not pose any mystery to scientists, then the depths of the Mariana Trench keep many secrets, because so far only three daredevils have managed to reach its bottom.

The Mariana Trench is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean; it got its name from the Mariana Islands, which are located next to it. A place on the seabed that is unique in depth has received the status of a US national monument; fishing and mining are prohibited here; in fact, it is a huge marine reserve. The shape of the depression is similar to a huge crescent, reaching 2550 km in length and 69 km in width. The bottom of the depression has a width of 1 to 5 km. The deepest point of the depression (10,994 m below sea level) was named “Challenger Deep” in honor of the British ship of the same name.

The honor of discovering the Mariana Trench belongs to the team of the British research vessel Challenger, which in 1872 carried out depth measurements at a number of points in the Pacific Ocean. When the ship found itself in the area of ​​​​the Mariana Islands, during the next depth measurement a hitch arose: the kilometer-long rope all went overboard, but it was not possible to reach the bottom. At the captain’s direction, a couple more kilometer sections were added to the rope, but, to everyone’s surprise, they were not enough and had to be added again and again. Then it was possible to establish a depth of 8367 meters, which, as it became known later, was significantly different from the real one. However, the underestimated value was quite enough to understand: the deepest place has been discovered in the World Ocean.

It is amazing that already in the 20th century, in 1951, it was the British who, using a deep-sea echo sounder, clarified the data of their compatriots; this time the maximum depth of the depression was more significant - 10,863 meters. Six years later, Soviet scientists began studying the Mariana Trench, arriving in this area of ​​the Pacific Ocean on the research vessel Vityaz. Using special equipment, they recorded the maximum depth of the depression at 11,022 meters, and most importantly, they were able to establish the presence of life at a depth of about 7,000 meters. It is worth noting that in the scientific world at that time there was an opinion that due to the monstrous pressure and lack of light at such depths, there were no manifestations of life.

Dive into the world of silence and darkness

In 1960, people visited the bottom of the depression for the first time. How difficult and dangerous such a dive was can be judged by the colossal water pressure, which at the lowest point of the depression is 1072 times higher than the average atmospheric pressure. The dive to the bottom of the depression using the Trieste bathyscaphe was carried out by US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Picard. Bathyscaphe "Trieste" with walls 13 cm thick was created in the Italian city of the same name and was a rather massive structure.

They lowered the submersible to the bottom for five long hours; Despite such a long descent, the researchers spent only 20 minutes at the bottom at a depth of 10,911 meters; it took them about 3 hours to rise. Within minutes of being in the abyss, Walsh and Picard were able to make a very impressive discovery: they saw two 30-centimeter flat fish, similar to flounder, that swam past their porthole. Their presence at such a depth became a real scientific sensation!

In addition to the discovery of the presence of life at such a mind-boggling depth, Jacques Piccard was able to experimentally refute the then prevailing opinion that at depths of more than 6000 m there is no upward movement of water masses. In terms of ecology, this was a major discovery, because some nuclear powers were planning to bury radioactive waste in the Mariana Trench. It turns out that Picard prevented large-scale radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean!

After the dive of Walsh and Picard, for a long period only unmanned automatic bathyscaphes descended into the Mariana Trench, and there were only a few of them, because they were very expensive. For example, on May 31, 2009, the American deep-sea vehicle Nereus reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He not only took underwater photography and video at incredible depths, but also took soil samples. The instruments of the deep-sea vehicle recorded the depth it reached at 10,902 meters.

On March 26, 2012, a man again found himself at the bottom of the Mariana Trench; it was the famous director, creator of the legendary film “Titanic,” James Cameron.

He explained his decision to make such a dangerous journey to the “bottom of the Earth” as follows: “Almost everything on the earth’s land has been explored. In space, bosses prefer to send people to circle around the Earth, and send machine guns to other planets. For the joys of discovering the unknown, there is only one field of activity left - the ocean. Only about 3% of its water volume has been studied, and what’s next is unknown.”

Cameron made a dive on the DeepSea Challenge bathyscaphe, it was not very comfortable, the researcher was in a half-bent state for a long time, since the diameter of the internal space of the device was only about 109 cm. The bathyscaphe, equipped with powerful cameras and unique equipment, allowed the popular director to film fantastic landscapes of himself deepest place on the planet. Later, together with The National Geographic, James Cameron created the exciting documentary “Challenging the Abyss.”

It is worth noting that during his stay at the bottom of the deepest depression in the world, Cameron did not see any monsters, or representatives of an underwater civilization, or an alien base. However, he literally looked into the eyes of the Challenger Abyss. According to him, during his short journey he experienced sensations indescribable in words. The ocean floor seemed to him not only deserted, but somehow “lunar... lonely.” He experienced a real shock from the feeling of “complete isolation from all humanity.” True, problems with the equipment of the bathyscaphe may have interrupted the “hypnotic” effect of the abyss on the famous director in time, and he rose to the surface among the people.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

In recent years, many discoveries have been made during the study of the Mariana Trench. For example, in bottom soil samples taken by Cameron, scientists found more than 20 thousand of a wide variety of microorganisms. Among the inhabitants of the depression there are also giant 10-centimeter amoebas, called xenophyophores. According to scientists, single-celled amoebas most likely reached such incredible sizes due to the rather hostile environment at a depth of 10.6 km in which they are forced to live. For some reason, high pressure, cold water and lack of light clearly benefited them, contributing to their gigantism.

Mollusks were also discovered in the Mariana Trench. It is unclear how their shells withstand enormous water pressure, but they feel very comfortable at depth, and are located next to hydrothermal vents that emit hydrogen sulfide, which is lethal to ordinary mollusks. However, local mollusks, having demonstrated incredible abilities for chemistry, somehow adapted to process this destructive gas into protein, which allowed them to live where, at first
look, it’s impossible to live.

Many of the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench are quite unusual. For example, scientists discovered here a fish with a transparent head, in the center of which are its eyes. Thus, during the course of evolution, the eyes of the fish received reliable protection from possible injury. At great depths there are many bizarre and sometimes even scary fish; here we managed to capture on video a fantastically beautiful jellyfish. Of course, we don’t yet know all the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench; in this regard, scientists still have many discoveries to make.

There is a lot of interesting things in this mysterious place for geologists. Thus, in a depression at a depth of 414 meters, the Daikoku volcano was discovered, in the crater of which there is a lake of seething molten sulfur right under the water. As scientists say, the only analogue of such a lake known to them is only on Jupiter’s satellite, Io. Also in the Mariana Trench, scientists found the only underwater source of liquid carbon dioxide on earth, called “Champagne” in honor of the famous French
alcoholic drink. There are also so-called black smokers in the depression; these are hydrothermal springs operating at a depth of about 2 kilometers, thanks to which the water temperature in the Mariana Trench is maintained within fairly favorable limits - from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius.