The Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench is the deepest point on the surface of the Earth. The trench is located under the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Philippines.

It is part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc which is the boundary between two tectonic plates. The deepest point of the 1,580 mile long trench is 7 miles deep. The pressure of the water at the bottom of the trench is 15,000 psi which is 1,000 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level.

The first expedition to reach the bottom of the trench was in January 1960 by United States Navy Lieutenants Piccard and Walsh using a United States Navy submersible named Trieste.

Although it is super-pressured, there are still life-forms that can survive the bottom of the trench. Among the organisms that can be found here are soft-shelled creatures, scale worms, shrimps, microorganisms and algae.