The depth of the Mariana Trench is about 11 kilometers. The pressure at this depth is enormous, a thousand times greater than the pressure on the surface of the Earth. Because of this, only three researchers managed to sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the entire history.
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 Abyss").
The Mariana Trench has an elongated appearance, and in vertical section it is a V-shaped canyon, tapering to the bottom. The bottom of the depression is flat, several kilometers wide.
Start of research
The first exploration of the Mariana Trench began in the 19th century, when the crew of the Challenger sailing ship managed to measure its depth using a deep-sea lot. According to the results of measurements, the depth of the depression was slightly more than eight kilometers. A hundred years later, a research vessel of the same name conducted repeated measurements of the depth of the depression using an echo sounder. The maximum depth was almost eleven kilometers.
Diving with human participation
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 plunge to the bottom of the Mariana Trench - US Army Lieutenant Don Walsh, scientist Jacques Picard and film director James Cameron.
The first attempt to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was made by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. On a specially designed bathyscaphe, they sank to a depth of 10,918 meters. To the surprise of the researchers, at the bottom of the hollow, they saw fish resembling flounder in appearance. How they manage to survive under such tremendous pressure is still a mystery.
The third and currently the last person who managed to sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was director James Cameron. He did this alone, descending to the deepest point in the depression in the Deepsea Challenger. This significant event took place in March 2012. Cameron sank into the Challenger Abyss, took soil samples and filmed the diving process. National Geographic released a film based on footage shot by James Cameron.
Diving without human participation
In addition to people, "unmanned" research vehicles also descended into the Mariana Trench. In 1995, the Japanese Kaiko probe studied the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and in 2009 the Nereus device sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
