The Mariana Trench is the deepest place on Earth. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, near Guam and east of the Philippines. Its total depth is approximately 11 kilometers (7 miles). Sunlight never reaches this depth, so it remains completely dark.
The temperature and pressure here are extremely extreme. The temperature ranges from 2 to 4 degrees Celsius, which is close to freezing. The pressure is so high that a square inch exerts a weight of approximately 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg). This is approximately 1,000 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure, which would instantly destroy most machines and living organisms.
The very bottom of the Mariana Trench is called Challenger Deep. It is named after the British ship HMS Challenger, which measured its depth with a rope and weight in 1875. At that time, this place seemed more impossible to humans than the moon.
Humans reached this place for the first time in 1960. US Navy officer Don Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard descended from a round, steel submarine named Trieste. During the journey, a window panel of the submarine broke, allowing them to stay at the bottom for only a few minutes before they had to return immediately.
No one has since ventured there again in 52 years. In 2012, film director and explorer James Cameron reached Challenger Deep alone in his special submarine, Deepsea Challenger. He described the world there as completely different, quiet, and terrifying, as if he had landed on another planet.
In 2019 and 2020, Victor Vescovo set a record for reaching the deepest point by diving multiple times. He proved that with technology and courage, humans can reach even the most difficult places. Even today, very few submarines in the world can withstand such deep pressure.
The most surprising thing is that life exists even in such harsh conditions. Giant single-celled organisms called xenophyophores are found here. Amphipods resembling glowing shrimp are also found swimming here. The world's deepest-dwelling fish, the snailfish, is found here, surviving in conditions that would break human bones.
These creatures are unique in that they obtain energy through chemosynthesis without sunlight. Their body cells contain special molecules that do not break even under extreme pressure. Scientists believe that such organisms can be of great help in understanding the origin of life.
Human waste has reached even this remote and dark place. Victor Vescovo found plastic bags and candy wrappers at the bottom, which shows that pollution has reached the deepest point on Earth.
The Mariana Trench is extremely important for scientists. The subduction zones here help understand the causes of earthquakes and tsunamis. Studying the movement of oceanic plates, the recycling of the Earth's crust, and the survival of deep-sea creatures provides new answers to modern science.
Even today, we know the surface of the Moon better than we know our own oceans. The Mariana Trench reminds us that our Earth remains full of mysteries, and that vast parts of it remain undiscovered and unknown.
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