Mysterious and unusual places on the planet ... These, of course, include the Mariana Trench ... The Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) is the deepest
place in the oceans. Moreover, the so-called
Challenger Deep, located in the southwest of the basin. its depth
over 11 kilometers. The depression has always attracted the attention of scientists. Beginning with
the middle of the last century, several international scientific expeditions
explored its depths, wondering if fish could live there,
being under the pressure of ocean waters of 1100 atmospheres, at low
temperature and in complete darkness? But even modern technology is not
allow scientists to study the Mariana Trench in its entirety. A little
the bottom was explored, and previously unknown marine life was discovered
The Mariana Trench are deep-sea monster fish that live in the depths.

The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean
from the Mariana Islands (they gave the name to the depression), at the junction of two
tectonic plates. Its length is 1500 kilometers, in shape it
resembles the letter "V". Its bottom is flat, with a width of one to five
kilometers.

Soviet scientists were the first to measure the depth of the gutter in
1957, they also proved that even with such enormous pressure there
living organisms live.

In 1960, the bathyscaphe "Trieste" with scientists from the United States on board sank to
bottom and stayed there for twelve minutes. Repeat to this day
nobody succeeded. The researchers were able to see some strange
large fish.

In the 1990s, Japanese scientists were able to
take soil samples from the bottom of the Mariana Trench, they found several
species of simple organisms previously unknown to science. Awesome but
they have been around for billions of years!

The hollow repeatedly frightened expedition members
monsters living in its waters. In 2009, an American robot
"Nerei" in pitch darkness was able to take several photos and videos
amazing fish that emit light.

In 2003, the expedition of the vessel "Glomar Challenger"
began the descent of the apparatus to study the depths of the depression. Suddenly appliances
began to record some strange sounds, reminiscent of grinding during
sawing iron, and on the monitor screen people saw the shadows of some
huge monsters. An hour later, the sounds did not stop, and the scientists began
raise the apparatus to the surface, fearing that it is expensive
equipment will perish in the depths of the waters. After 8 hours of rising, everyone came to
horror at what he saw. The metal parts of the instruments are mangled, and
a twenty-centimeter cable, on which the equipment was lowered, almost
completely screwed up! What monster could do that!?

Another strange case occurred with the German
scientific apparatus "Highfish". Descending to a depth of 7 kilometers, he
suddenly stopped. The scientists thought that there were some malfunctions,
and turned on the infrared camera ... The picture they saw
seemed to them a scene from a fantastic horror movie. huge
a prehistoric lizard grabbed the apparatus with its teeth and ruffled it with
all strength. After recovering from their horror, the scientists turned on the electric gun - and
the monster, having received a blow from the discharge, quickly swam into the abyss.

Modern equipment made it possible to see some
of the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench. They live in pitch darkness, some
of them are deprived of sight, others have huge eyes that catch
the slightest glimmer of light. Individual animals of the depths of the Mariana Trench have
"lanterns" on the head, radiating different colour. There are fish in whose body
luminous liquid accumulates. When an animal senses danger,
then splashes this liquid towards the enemy and hides behind it
"curtain of light" Many deep-sea dwellers have special
organs that pick up the smallest sound waves. But, of course, distinctive
a feature of the deep-sea inhabitants of the basin is a huge mouth and
many teeth. Many can open their jaws very wide, so
even a small predator can completely devour an animal larger than itself.

Scientists are also interested in the question: what part of the ocean
depressions take in shaping the climate on the planet? Research
showed that depressions, in fact, act like woodlands - actively
absorb a huge amount of CO2 and release a lot of oxygen into the atmosphere.

But it is obvious that all the mysteries of the Mariana Trench are still
not unraveled. Some strange beast lives in the depths. Not by chance,
sometimes on the shore, not far from the Mariana Trench, people find bodies
dead eighty-meter monsters. Also in those places were found
giant teeth. Scientists have proven that they belong to a huge
prehistoric shark. Its weight is more than a hundred tons, its length is 25 meters, and its scope
pasture - 2 meters. These sharks were thought to have gone extinct around three
million years ago, but the teeth found are much younger! So have they disappeared
monsters for real or waiting to meet us at the bottom of the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench is the deepest place on our planet. I think almost everyone heard about it or studied it at school, but I myself, for example, have long forgotten both its depth and the facts about how it was measured and studied. So I decided to “refresh” my and your memory

This absolute depth got its name thanks to the nearby Mariana Islands. The entire depression stretched along the islands for one and a half thousand kilometers and has a characteristic V-shaped profile. In fact, this is an ordinary tectonic fault, the place where the Pacific plate comes under the Philippine, just Mariana Trench- this is the deepest place of this kind) Its slopes are steep, on average about 7-9 °, and the bottom is flat, from 1 to 5 kilometers wide, and divided by rapids into several closed sections. The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench reaches 108.6 MPa - this is more than 1100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure!

The first who dared to challenge the abyss were the British - the military three-masted corvette "Challenger" with sailing equipment was rebuilt into an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work in 1872. But the first data on the depth of the Mariana Trench were obtained only in 1951 - according to measurements, the depth of the trench was declared equal to 10,863 m. After that, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench was called the “Challenger Deep”. It is hard to imagine that the highest mountain of our planet, Everest, can easily fit in the depths of the Mariana Trench, and more than a kilometer of water will remain above it to the surface ... Of course, it will fit not in area, but only in height, but the numbers are still amazing ...

The next explorers of the Mariana Trench were already Soviet scientists - in 1957, during the 25th voyage of the Soviet research vessel Vityaz, they not only announced the maximum depth of the trench equal to 11,022 meters, but also established the presence of life at depths of more than 7,000 meters , thus refuting the then prevailing idea that life was impossible at depths of more than 6000-7000 meters. In 1992, the Vityaz was handed over to the newly formed Museum of the World Ocean. For two years, the ship was being repaired at the plant, and on July 12, 1994, it was permanently moored at the museum pier in the very center of Kaliningrad

On January 23, 1960, the first and only human dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was carried out. Thus, the only people who have been “at the bottom of the Earth” were US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Picard.

During the dive, they were protected by armored, 127 millimeter thick, walls of a bathyscaphe called “Trieste”

Bathyscaphe was named after the Italian city of Trieste, in which the main work on its creation was carried out. According to the instruments on board the Trieste, Walsh and Picard dived to a depth of 11,521 meters, but this figure was later slightly corrected - 10,918 meters.

The dive took about five, and the rise - about three hours, the researchers spent only 12 minutes at the bottom. But even this time was enough for them to make sensational discovery- at the bottom they found flat fish up to 30 cm in size, similar to flounder !

Studies in 1995 showed that the depth of the Mariana Trench is about 10,920 m, and the Japanese probe "Kaik?", descended into the Challenger Deep on March 24, 1997, recorded a depth of 10,911.4 meters. Below is a diagram of the cavity - when clicked, it will open in a new window in normal size

The Mariana Trench has repeatedly frightened researchers with monsters lurking in its depths. For the first time, the expedition of the American research vessel Glomar Challenger encountered the unknown. Some time after the start of the descent of the apparatus, the sound-recording device began to transmit some kind of metallic rattle to the surface, reminiscent of the sound of sawn metal. At this time, some indistinct shadows appeared on the monitor, similar to giant fairy-tale dragons with several heads and tails. An hour later, scientists became worried that the unique equipment, made in the NASA laboratory from beams of ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel, having a spherical structure, the so-called “hedgehog” with a diameter of about 9 m, could remain in the abyss of the Mariana Trench forever - so it was decided to immediately raise apparatus on board the ship. The “Hedgehog” was retrieved from the depths for more than eight hours, and as soon as it appeared on the surface, they immediately put it on a special raft. The TV camera and echo sounder were raised on the deck of the Glomar Challenger. The researchers were horrified when they saw how deformed the strongest steel beams of the structure were, as for the 20-cm steel cable on which the “hedgehog” was lowered, the scientists were not mistaken in the nature of the sounds transmitted from the abyss of water - the cable was half sawn. Who tried to leave the device at a depth and why - will forever remain a mystery. Details of this incident were published in 1996 by the New York Times.

Another collision with the inexplicable in the depths of the Mariana Trench occurred with the German research apparatus "Highfish" with a crew on board. At a depth of 7 km, the device suddenly stopped moving. To find out the cause of the malfunctions, the hydronauts turned on the infrared camera ... What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, sinking its teeth into the bathyscaphe, tried to crack it like a nut. Recovering from the shock, the crew activated a device called an "electric gun", and the monster, struck by a powerful discharge, disappeared into the abyss ...

On May 31, 2009, the Nereus automatic underwater vehicle sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to measurements, he sank 10,902 meters below sea level.

At the bottom, Nereus filmed a video, took some photos, and even collected sediment samples from the bottom.

Thanks to modern technologies, the researchers managed to capture a few representatives Mariana Trench I invite you to get to know them :)

So, now we know that different octopuses live in the Marianas Depths

Scary and not so scary fish)

And various other obscure creatures :)

Perhaps not much time is left before the moment when technology will allow you to get to know the inhabitants in all their diversity. Mariana Trench and other ocean depths, but so far we have what we have

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.

The sensational discovery of 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 point is hidden under the waters Pacific Ocean and is located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (10994 m). We know quite a lot about Everest, climbers have conquered its peak more than once, there are enough photographs of this mountain, taken both from the earth and from space. If Everest is all in sight and does not present any mystery to scientists, then the depths of the Mariana Trench hold many secrets, because getting to its bottom on this moment only three daredevils succeeded.

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 unique in depth on the seabed has received the status of a national monument of the United States, it is forbidden to fish and mine minerals 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 the Challenger Abyss 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 was in the area of ​​the Mariana Islands, during the next measurement of the depth, a hitch arose: the kilometer-long rope went overboard, but it was not possible to reach the bottom. At the direction of the captain, a couple more kilometer sections were added to the rope, but, to everyone's surprise, they were not enough, they 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, even an underestimated value was quite enough to understand: the deepest place was 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 came out more significant - 10,863 meters. Six years later, Soviet scientists began to study the Mariana Trench, who arrived in this region of the Pacific Ocean on the Vityaz research vessel. 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, in scientific world then there was an opinion that due to the monstrous pressure and lack of light at such depths, there are no manifestations of life.

Dive into the world of silence and darkness

In 1960, people first visited the bottom of the depression. 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 the average atmospheric pressure. The dive to the bottom of the trench with the help of the Trieste bathyscaphe was made by US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and explorer 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 bathyscaphe to the bottom for five long hours; despite such a long descent, the researchers stayed at the bottom at a depth of 10911 meters for only 20 minutes, 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 that looked like a flounder that swam past their porthole. Their presence at such a depth has become a real scientific sensation!

In addition to discovering the existence of life at such a breathtaking depth, Jacques Picard managed 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 going to carry out burial in the Mariana Trench radioactive waste. It turns out that Picard prevented a large-scale radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean!

After the dive of Walsh and Picard for a long period, only unmanned submachine guns 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 probe Nereus reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He not only conducted underwater photo and video shooting at an incredible depth, but also took soil samples. The instruments of the deep-sea vehicle recorded the depth reached by it at 10,902 meters.

On March 26, 2012, a man again appeared 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, the bosses prefer to send people circling the Earth, and send machine guns to other planets. For the joys of discovering the unknown, one field of activity remains - the ocean. Only about 3% of its water volume has been explored, and what’s next is unknown.”

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

It is worth noting that during his stay at the bottom of the deepest cavity 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 trip, 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 mankind." True, the malfunctions that arose with the equipment of the bathyscaphe, perhaps, interrupted the "hypnotic" effect of the abyss on the famous director in time, and he rose to the surface to the people.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

Behind last years During the study of the Mariana Trench, many discoveries were made. For example, in samples of the bottom soil taken by Cameron, scientists found more than 20 thousand of a wide variety of microorganisms. There are among the inhabitants of the depression and giant 10-centimeter amoeba, called xenophyophores. According to scientists, single-celled amoeba most likely reached such an incredible size due to the rather hostile environment at a depth of 10.6 km in which they are forced to live. High pressure, cold water and lack of light for some reason clearly benefited them, contributing to their gigantism.

Mollusks have also been found in the Mariana Trench. It is not clear how their shells withstand the enormous pressure of water, but they feel very comfortable at depth, and are located near hydrothermal springs that emit hydrogen sulfide, which is deadly for ordinary mollusks. However, local mollusks, having shown 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 inhabitants of the Mariana Trench are rather unusual. For example, scientists have found here a fish with a transparent head, in the center of which are its eyes. Thus, in the course of evolution, the eyes of fish received reliable protection from possible injury. At a great depth there are many bizarre and sometimes even scary fish, here we managed to capture on video a fantastically beautiful jellyfish. Of course, we still do not know all the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench, in this regard, scientists still have many discoveries.

There are many interesting things in this mysterious place for geologists. So, in a depression at a depth of 414 meters, the Daikoku volcano was discovered, in the crater of which there is a lake of bubbling molten sulfur right under the water. As scientists say, the only analogue of such a lake known to them is only on the satellite of Jupiter - 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 that function 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.

At the end of 2011, scientists discovered very mysterious structures in the Mariana Trench, these are four stone “bridges” stretching from one end of the trench to the other for 69 kilometers. Scientists still find it difficult to explain how these "bridges" arose, they believe that they were formed at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates.

The study of the Mariana Trench continues. This year, scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration worked here from April to July on board the Okeanos Explorer. Their ship was equipped with a remotely controlled vehicle, which was used for video filming. underwater world the deepest place in the oceans. The video broadcast from the bottom of the depression could be seen not only by scientists, but also by Internet users.

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There are 5 oceans on Earth, which occupy a significant part of the land. By conquering space and landing a man on the moon, sending autonomous spacecraft to the most distant planets solar system, people know very little about what is hidden in sea ​​depths on your home planet.

What is the Mariana Trench?

This is the name of the deepest known place in the Pacific Ocean today. It is a trough formed by the convergence of tectonic plates. Max Depth The Mariana Trench is approximately 10,994 meters (data for 2011). There are other trenches in all the other oceans, but not as 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, off the Mariana Islands. The gutter stretches along them for one and a half thousand kilometers. The bottom of the depression is flat, its width is from 1 to 5 kilometers. The gutter got its name in honor of the islands next to which it is located.

"Challenger Abyss"

This name has the deepest place (10,994 meters) of the Mariana Trench. It must be clarified here 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 is very different, and the Mariana Trench has a very complex structure, so the data obtained using the echo sounder is always slightly different.

Discovery history

People have long known that deep seas 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 measurement 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 to descend to such a depth. Without modern means diving was tantamount to suicide.

A re-examination of the trench took place many years later, in the next century. Measurements made in 1951 showed a depth of 10,863 meters. Then, in 1957, members of the Soviet scientific vessel "Vityaz" were engaged in the study of the depression. According to their measurements, the depth of the Mariana Trench was 11,023 meters.

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

Cameron's Great Journey

The Canadian director became the third person in the history of the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom. He was the first in the world to do it alone. Prior to its sinking, the trough was explored by Don Walsh and Jacques Picard in 1960 using the Trieste submersible. In addition, Japanese scientists tried to find out what is the depth of the Mariana Trench, using the Kaiko probe for this. And in 2009, the Nereus apparatus descended to the bottom of the gutter.

Descent to such an incredible depth is associated with a huge number of risks. First of all, a man 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. Another serious danger that awaits when descending to a depth is the cold that reigns there. It can not only lead to equipment failure, but also kill a person. The bathyscaphe can collide with rocks and get damaged.

For many years, James Cameron dreamed of visiting the deepest point of the Mariana Trench - the "Challenger Abyss". In order to carry out his plan, he equipped his own expedition. Especially for this, an underwater vehicle was designed 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 took place on March 26, 2012.

In addition to photographs and video filming, the Deepsea Challenger bathyscaphe had to take new measurements of the chute and try to give accurate data on its dimensions. Everyone was worried about one question: "How much?" The depth of the Mariana Trench, according to the readings of 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 porthole of the bathyscaphe 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 Dwellers of the Deep

The lower the bottom of the ocean, the less sunlight 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 origin of life. Darkness gives birth to beings who have never seen the sun. And they, in turn, have only recently been able to see marine biologists.

The sight is not for the faint of heart. Almost all the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench seem to be 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 - very little is known about the oceans and their inhabitants. The bottom of the Mariana Trench has been explored to date less than the surface of Mars. That's why 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 not an 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 beings eat so far from the surface of the ocean? 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 parts of the body with which they attract small fish.

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

Amoeba

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

Hirondellea gigas

Large amphipods (amphipods) have been found 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 long.

Holothurians

Sea cucumbers are another representatives 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 keeps.

Not far from the east coast of the Philippine Islands is an underwater canyon. It is so deep that you can place Mount Everest in it and still have about three kilometers left. There is impenetrable darkness and an incredible pressure force, so one can easily imagine the Mariana Trench as one of the most unfriendly places in the world. However, despite all this, life still somehow continues to exist there - and not just barely survive, but actually thrive, thanks to which a full-fledged ecosystem has appeared there.

How to survive at the bottom of the Mariana Trench?

Life at such a depth is extremely difficult - eternal cold, impenetrable darkness and enormous pressure will not let you exist in peace. Some creatures, such as the anglerfish, create their own light to attract prey or mates. Others, such as the hammerhead fish, have evolved huge eyes to capture as much light as possible reaching incredible depths. Other creatures are just trying to hide from everyone, and in order to achieve this, they become translucent or red (the red color absorbs all the blue light that manages to make it to the bottom of the cavity).

Cold protection

It is also worth noting that all creatures that live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench need to cope with cold and pressure. Protection from the cold is provided by the fats that form the shell of the creature's body cells. If this process is not followed, the membranes can crack and stop protecting the body. To combat this, these creatures have acquired an impressive supply of unsaturated fats in their membranes. With the help of these fats, the membranes always remain in a liquid state and do not crack. But is that enough to survive in one of the deepest places on the planet?

What is the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench has the shape of a horseshoe, and its length is 2550 kilometers. It is located in the east of the Pacific Ocean, and its width is about 69 kilometers. The deepest point of the depression was discovered near the southern tip of the canyon in 1875 - the depth there was 8184 meters. A lot of time has passed since then, and with the help of an echo sounder, more accurate data were obtained: it turns out that the deepest point has an even greater depth, 10994 meters. It was named "Challenger Depth" in honor of the vessel that made the very first measurement.

Human immersion

However, about 100 years have passed since that moment - and only then for the first time a person plunged to such a depth. In 1960, Jacques Picard and Don Walsh set off in the Trieste bathyscaphe to conquer the depths of the Mariana Trench. Trieste used gasoline as fuel and iron structures as ballast. Bathyscaphe took 4 hours and 47 minutes to reach a depth of 10916 meters. It was then that the fact that life still exists at such a depth was first confirmed. Picard reported that he saw "flat fish" then, although in fact it turned out that he saw only a sea cucumber.

Who lives at the bottom of the ocean?

However, not only sea cucumbers are at the bottom of the depression. Along with them live large single-celled organisms known as foraminifera - they are giant amoeba that can grow up to 10 centimeters in length. Under normal conditions, these organisms create shells of calcium carbonate, but at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where the pressure is a thousand times greater than at the surface, the calcium carbonate dissolves. This means that these organisms have to use proteins, organic polymers and sand to build their shells. Shrimps and other crustaceans known as amphipods also live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The largest amphipods look like giant albino woodlice - they can be found at the depths of the Challenger.

Nutrition at the bottom

Given that sunlight does not reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench, another question arises: what do these organisms feed on? Bacteria manage to survive at this depth because they feed on methane and sulfur that come from the earth's crust, and some organisms feed on these bacteria. But many rely on what's called "sea snow," tiny bits of detritus that reach the bottom from the surface. One of the most striking examples and richest sources of food are the carcasses of dead whales, which as a result end up on the ocean floor.

Fish in the hollow

But what about fish? The most deep sea fish The Mariana Trench was discovered only in 2014 at a depth of 8143 meters. An unknown ghostly white subspecies of Liparidae with broad pterygoid fins and an eel-like tail has been recorded several times by cameras that plunged into the depths of the depression. However, scientists believe that this depth is most likely the limit where the fish can survive. This means that there can be no fish at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, since the conditions there do not correspond to the structure of the body of vertebrate species.