The deepest known point on Earth is the Challenger Deep, located at the southern end of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, reaching depths of around 10,984 meters (36,037 feet) below sea level, deeper than Mount Everest is tall. This extreme underwater valley is formed by tectonic plate subduction, where the Pacific Plate slides beneath the Mariana Plate, creating one of the planet's most extreme geological features.
The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point of the seabed of Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, in the ocean territory of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Consider that while the Challenger Deep in Mariana Trench is the deepest spot currently known, other trenches come very close. Challenger Deep is about 36,000 feet, but several trenches have spots over 34,000 feet deep, including the Tonga Trench, the Philippine Trench, the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench.
One-celled organisms called monothalamea have been found in the trench at a record depth of 10.6 km (35,000 ft; 6.6 mi) below the sea surface by researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Data has also suggested that microbial life forms thrive within the trench.
Challenger Deep, at approximately 36,070 feet (10,994 meters). How does it compare to the height of Mount Everest? Mount Everest is 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) tall. Everest would fit completely submerged in the Mariana Trench and still have over a mile (1.6 kilometers) of water above it.
In addition to capturing photos and video, Cameron's equipment also took sediment samples. "We did find 68 new species, most of them bacteria," he tells Melissa, "but some small invertebrates, as well, that were brought back." At the spot Cameron visited, the water pressure is more than 16,000 pounds per square inch.
Most of the ocean remains unexplored due to its immense size, extreme conditions (crushing pressure, total darkness, near-freezing temperatures), and the high cost and technological challenges of developing specialized equipment to withstand these hostile deep-sea environments, making exploration risky, difficult, and expensive. We know more about the surface of Mars than the deep ocean floor because it's an inaccessible, alien world on our own planet.
The notion that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans do not mix is a misconception rooted in visual phenomena rather than scientific reality.
More than 70% of our planet is ocean – and 90% of that ocean is deep sea.
Chris Lemons survived without oxygen for nearly 30 minutes due to a combination of his body being saturated with oxygen from the heliox gas he breathed (a helium-oxygen mix) and the near-freezing North Sea water rapidly cooling his body and brain, drastically slowing his metabolism and oxygen demand, a phenomenon often called "diving stasis," though experts still call it a miracle. His tissues held oxygen reserves, and the cold reduced his body's need for it, allowing him to last until rescue, an event documented in the film Last Breath.
One of the biggest challenges of ocean exploration comes down to physics. Dr. Gene Carl Feldman, an oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, explains that the ocean, at great depths, is characterized by zero visibility, extremely cold temperatures, and crushing amounts of pressure.
Triton launched DSV Limiting Factor to the bottom of the Marianas trench in August 2019. It has made more than 20 successful crewed dives to Challenger Deep.
In areas deeper than 6000m, over half of debris was plastic, almost all of which was single-use. The article also reveals that single-use plastic has reached the world's deepest ocean trench - a plastic bag was found in the Mariana Trench, 10,898m below the surface.
Animals of the Deep
At around 300 feet, no visible light can penetrate the water at all!
But as in weather, where there are areas of high and low pressure, the ocean has areas of high and low salinity. Of the five ocean basins, the Atlantic Ocean is the saltiest.
Gulf of Alaska is the place where two oceans meet, but interestingly, they never mix with each other. The color variations of dark blue and electric blue water in that merging point is clear and stunning.
The mixture of seawater and fresh water in estuaries is called brackish water and its salinity can range from 0.5 to 35 ppt.
Scientists have found a hidden world deep beneath the Arctic Ocean that is changing how we understand life in the deep sea and how carbon moves through the Earth. This newly discovered ecosystem lies far below the ocean surface, in complete darkness and freezing cold, yet it is full of life, reported Newsweek.
Psalm 104:25-26 – “There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.” Psalm 95:5 – “The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.”
We have a great deal more to learn about our ocean and what resides within it, but progress IS being made. We learn more and more each year. We continue to discover new features and creatures, clues to our past, and resources that can improve our future. But the ocean will never be fully explored.
The Barreleye Fish, or Macropinna microstoma, is a bizarre deep-sea fish found in the Mariana Trench. It is known for its transparent head, which allows scientists to see its tubular eyes that can rotate to look upward through its transparent dome.
James Cameron has been to the wreck of the Titanic 33 times, with his first dive in 1995 during the research for his film. He has made these dives using deep-sea submersibles for research and personal exploration, spending a significant amount of time at the wreckage.