Now anyone can watch the fantastic underwater world captured on video. Mariana Trench, the deepest place on our planet, 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 of the 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 ground 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 extract 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 Mariana Islands, at the next measurement of the depth there was a hitch: 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 was 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 same name. Italian city and was a fairly 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, it was major discovery, after all, some nuclear powers were going to carry out the burial of radioactive waste in the Mariana Trench. 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 submersible, it was not very comfortable, the researcher was in a half-bent state for a long time, since the diameter of the interior of the apparatus was only about 109 cm. The bathyscaphe, equipped with powerful cameras and unique equipment, allowed the popular director to shoot fantastic landscapes of 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 indescribable sensations. 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

In recent years, many discoveries have been made in the study of the Mariana Trench. 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 molluscs. 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 and 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.

All of us in childhood read many legends about incredible sea monsters ah, inhabiting the ocean floor, always knowing that these are just fairy tales. But we were wrong! These incredible creatures can be found even today if you dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth. What hides the Mariana Trench and who are its mysterious inhabitants - read in our article.

The deepest place on the planet is the Mariana Trench or Mariana Trench- is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean near Guam, east of the Mariana Islands, from which its name came. In its shape, the trench resembles a crescent moon, about 2550 km long and 69 km wide on average.

According to the latest data, the depth Mariana Trench is 10,994 meters ± 40 meters, which even exceeds the highest point on the planet - Everest (8,848 meters). So this mountain could well be placed at the bottom of the depression, moreover, about 2,000 meters of water would still remain above the top of the mountain. The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench reaches 108.6 MPa - more than 1,100 times the normal atmospheric pressure.

A man only twice sank to the bottom Mariana Trench. The first dive was made on January 23, 1960 by US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and explorer Jacques Picard in the Trieste submersible. They stayed at the bottom for only 12 minutes, but even during this time they managed to meet flat fish, although according to all possible assumptions, life at such a depth should have been absent.

The second human dive was made on March 26, 2012. The third person who touched the mysteries Mariana Trench, became a film director James Cameron. He dived on the single-seat Deepsea Challenger and spent enough time there to take samples, take pictures and film in 3D. Later, the footage he shot formed the basis of a documentary for the National Geographic Channel.

Due to the strong pressure, the bottom of the depression is covered not with ordinary sand, but with viscous mucus. For many years, the remains of plankton and crushed shells accumulated there, which formed the bottom. And again, due to pressure, almost everything is at the bottom Mariana Trench turns into fine greyish-yellow thick mud.

Sunlight has never reached the bottom of the depression, and we expect the water there to be icy. But its temperature varies from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius. IN Mariana Trench at a depth of about 1.6 km are the so-called "black smokers", hydrothermal vents that shoot water up to 450 degrees Celsius.

Thanks to this water Mariana Trench life is sustained as it is rich in minerals. By the way, despite the fact that the temperature is much higher than the boiling point, water does not boil due to very strong pressure.

Approximately at a depth of 414 meters is the Daikoku volcano, which is the source of one of the rarest phenomena on the planet - a lake of pure molten sulfur. In the solar system, this phenomenon can only be found on Io, a moon of Jupiter. So, in this "cauldron" the seething black emulsion boils at 187 degrees Celsius. So far, scientists have not been able to study it in detail, but if in the future they can advance in their research, they may be able to explain how life appeared on Earth.

But the most interesting thing in Mariana Trench are its inhabitants. After it was determined that there was life in the basin, many expected to find incredible sea monsters there. For the first time, the expedition of the research vessel "Glomar Challenger" encountered something unidentified. They lowered into the cavity a device, the so-called "hedgehog" with a diameter of about 9 m, made in the NASA laboratory from beams of ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel.

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 gnashing of saw teeth on metal. And vague shadows appeared on the monitors, resembling dragons with several heads and tails. Soon, scientists became worried that the valuable device could forever remain in the depths of the Mariana Trench and decided to take it aboard the ship. But when they pulled the hedgehog out of the water, their surprise only intensified: the strongest steel beams of the structure were deformed, and the 20-centimeter steel cable on which it was lowered into the water was half sawn.

However, perhaps this story was too embellished by the newspapermen, since later researchers discovered very unusual creatures there, but not dragons.

Xenophyophores - giant, 10-centimeter amoeba that live at the very bottom Mariana Trench. Most likely due to strong pressure, lack of light and relatively low temperatures these amoebas have acquired enormous dimensions for their species. But in addition to their impressive size, these creatures are also resistant to many chemical elements and substances, including uranium, mercury and lead, which are deadly to other living organisms.

Pressure in M Arian Trench turns glass and wood into powder, so only creatures without bones or shells can live here. But in 2012, scientists discovered a mollusk. How he retained his shell is still not known. In addition, hydrothermal springs emit hydrogen sulfide, which is deadly to shellfish. However, they learned to bind the sulfur compound into a safe protein, which allowed the population of these mollusks to survive.

And that is not all. Below you can see some of the inhabitants Mariana Trench, which scientists have been able to capture.

Mariana Trench and its inhabitants

While our eyes are directed to the sky to the unsolved mysteries of space, an unsolved mystery remains on our planet - the ocean. To date, only 5% of the world's oceans and secrets have been studied Mariana Trench this is only a small part of the secrets that are hidden under the water column.

Excellent students at school firmly learned: the highest point on earth is Mount Everest (8848 m), the deepest depression is the Mariana. However, if we know a lot about Everest interesting facts, then about the depression in pacific ocean, in addition to being the deepest, most people do not know anything.

Five hours down, three hours up

Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the mountain peaks and the more distant planets of the solar system, people have explored only five percent seabed, which is still one of the the greatest mysteries our planet.

An average width of 69 km, the Mariana Trench was formed several million years ago due to shifts in tectonic plates and stretches in the shape of a crescent for 2.5 thousand km along the Mariana Islands.

Its depth, according to the latest research, is 10,994 m (± 40 m). For comparison: the Earth's equatorial diameter is 12,756 km. The water pressure at the bottom reaches 108.6 MPa - this is more than 1100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure!

The Mariana Trench, which is also called the fourth pole of the Earth, was discovered in 1872 by the crew of the British research ship Challenger. The crew measured the bottom at various points in the Pacific Ocean.

In the area of the Mariana Islands, another measurement was made, but a one-kilometer rope was not enough, and then the captain ordered to add two more kilometer segments to it. Then more and more...

Almost 100 years later, the echo sounder of another English, but under the same name, scientific vessel recorded a depth of 10,863 m in the Mariana Trench. After that, the deepest point of the ocean floor was called the "Challenger Abyss".

In 1957, Soviet researchers already established the existence of life at depths of more than 7 thousand meters, thereby refuting the then prevailing opinion about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6-7 thousand meters, and also refined the data of the British, fixing a depth in the Mariana Trench of 11,023 m.

The first human dive to the bottom of the trench took place in 1960. It was carried out on the Trieste bathyscaphe by the American Don Walsh and the Swiss oceanologist Jacques Picard.

The descent into the abyss took them almost 5 hours, and the rise - about three hours, the researchers spent only 20 minutes at the bottom. But even this time was enough for them to make a sensational discovery - in the near-bottom waters they found flat fish up to 30 cm in size, unknown to science, similar to flounder.

Life in pitch darkness

In the course of further research with the help of unmanned deep-sea vehicles, it turned out that at the bottom of the depression, despite the terrifying water pressure, a wide variety of species of living organisms live. Giant 10-centimeter amoeba - xenophyophores, which in normal, terrestrial conditions can only be seen with a microscope, amazing two-meter worms, no less huge starfish, mutant octopuses and, of course, fish.

The latter amaze with their terrifying appearance. Their distinctive feature is a huge mouth and many teeth. Many open their jaws so wide that even a small predator can swallow an animal larger than itself whole.

There are also completely unusual creatures that reach a two-meter size with a soft jelly-like body, which have no analogues in nature.

It would seem that at such a depth the temperature should be at the level of the Antarctic. However, the Challenger Deep contains hydrothermal vents called "black smokers". They constantly heat the water and thus maintain the overall temperature in the cavity at the level of 1-4 °C.

The inhabitants of the Mariana Trench live in pitch darkness, some of them are blind, others have huge telescopic eyes that catch the slightest glare of light. Some individuals have "lanterns" on their heads, emitting a different color.

There are fish in the body of which a luminous liquid accumulates. When they feel danger, they splash this liquid towards the enemy and hide behind this "curtain of light." The appearance of such animals is very unusual for our perception, it can cause disgust and even inspire a sense of fear.

But it is obvious that not all the mysteries of the Mariana Trench have yet been solved. Some strange animals of truly incredible sizes live in the depths!

Something tried to gnaw the bathyscaphe like a nut

Sometimes on the shore, not far from the Mariana Trench, people find bodies of the dead 40 meter monsters. Giant teeth were also found in those places. Scientists have proven that they belong to a multi-ton prehistoric megalodon shark, whose mouth span reached two meters.

These sharks were thought to have died out about three million years ago, but the teeth found are much younger. So did the ancient monsters really disappear?

In 2003, another sensational study of the Mariana Trench was published in the United States. Scientists have loaded an unmanned platform equipped with searchlights, sensitive video systems and microphones in the deepest part of the world's oceans.

The platform descended on 6 steel cables of an inch section. At first, the technique did not give any unusual information. But a few hours after the dive, on the screens of monitors in the light of powerful searchlights, the silhouettes of strange large objects (at least 12-16 m) began to flicker, and at that time the microphones transmitted sharp sounds to the recording devices - the gnashing of iron and dull uniform blows on metal.

When the platform was raised (never lowered to the bottom due to incomprehensible interference that prevented the descent), it was found that the powerful steel structures were bent, and the steel cables seemed to be sawn. A little more - and the platform would forever remain the "Challenger Abyss".

Earlier, something similar happened to the German apparatus "Hyfish". Having descended to a depth of 7 km, he suddenly refused to emerge. To find out what the problem was, the researchers turned on the infrared camera.

What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, clinging its teeth to a bathyscaphe, tried to crack it like a nut.

Recovering from the shock, the scientists activated the so-called electric gun, and the monster, struck by a powerful discharge, hastened to retreat.

Who is the master on earth?

But not only fantastic monsters fall into the field of view of deep-sea cameras. In the summer of 2012, the unmanned deep-sea submersible Titan, launched from the research vessel Rick Mesenger, was in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 10,000 m. Its main purpose was to film and photograph various underwater objects.

Suddenly, the cameras recorded a strange multiple brilliance of a material very similar to metal. And then, a few dozen meters from the device, several large objects lit up in the spotlight.

Approaching these objects at the maximum allowable distance, the Titan gave a very unusual picture to the monitors of the scientists on the Rick Mesenger. About 50 large cylindrical objects, very similar to ... flying saucers, were located on a site of about a square kilometer!

A few minutes after the recorded “UFO airfield”, the Titan stopped communicating and never surfaced.

There are a lot of well-known facts, which, if they do not confirm the possibility of the existence of intelligent beings in the depths of the sea, then, in any case, fully explain why modern science still knows nothing about them.

Firstly, the habitat native to humans - the earth's firmament - occupies only a little more than a quarter of the land surface. So our planet could well be called the Ocean planet, rather than the Earth.

Secondly, as everyone knows, life originated in water, so the marine mind (if it exists) is older than the human one by about one and a half million years.

That is why, according to some experts, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, due to the presence of active hydrothermal springs, not only entire colonies of prehistoric animals that have survived to this day can exist, but also an underwater civilization of intelligent beings unknown to earthlings! The “fourth pole” of the Earth, in the opinion of scientists, is the most suitable place for their habitat.

And once again the question arises: is man the only "owner" of the planet Earth?

"Field" research is planned for the summer of 2015

The third person in the entire history of the study of the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom was exactly three years ago, James Cameron.

Almost everything has been explored on land,” he explained his decision. - 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.”

On the DeepSes Challenge bathyscaphe, being in a half-bent state, since the internal diameter of the device did not exceed 109 cm, the famous film director watched everything that happened in this place until mechanical problems forced him to rise to the surface.

Cameron managed to take samples of rocks and living organisms from the bottom, as well as filming with 3D cameras. Subsequently, these shots formed the basis of a documentary film.

However, he never saw any of the terrible sea monsters. According to him, the very bottom of the ocean was "lunar ... empty ... lonely", and he felt "total isolation from all mankind."

Meanwhile, in the laboratory of telecommunications of Tomsk Polytechnic University, together with the Institute of Marine Technology Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the development of a domestic device for deep-sea research, which can descend to a depth of 12 km, is in full swing.

Specialists working on the bathyscaphe declare that there are no analogues of the equipment they develop in the world, and “field” studies of the sample in the waters of the Pacific Ocean are planned for the summer of 2015.

The famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov also started working on the project “Diving into the Mariana Trench in a bathyscaphe”. According to him, he aims not only to touch the bottom of the deepest depression of the World Ocean, but also to spend two whole days there, conducting unique research.

The bathyscaphe is designed for two people and will be designed and built by one of the Australian companies.

Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the outer planets of the solar system, people have explored only five percent of the ocean floor, which remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet.

The deepest part of the ocean - the Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is one of the most famous places, about which we still do not know very much.

With water pressure that is a thousand times greater than at sea level, diving into this place is akin to suicide.

But thanks to modern technology and a few brave souls who, risking their lives, went down there, we learned a lot of interesting things about this amazing place.

Mariana Trench on the map. Where is she?

The Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean to the east (about 200 km) of the 15 Mariana Islands near Guam. It is a crescent-shaped trench in the earth's crust, about 2550 km long and 69 km wide on average.

The coordinates of the Mariana Trench are 11°22′ north latitude and 142°35′ east longitude.

Depth of the Mariana Trench

According to the latest research in 2011, the depth of the deepest point of the Mariana Trench is about 10,994 meters ± 40 meters. For comparison, the height of high peak world - Everest is 8,848 meters. This means that if Everest were in the Mariana Trench, it would be covered by another 2.1 km of water.

Mariana Trench - the bottom of the world

In 1875, the crew of the British corvette Challenger discovered a place in the Pacific Ocean where there was no bottom. Kilometer after kilometer the rope of the lot went overboard, but there was no bottom! And only at a depth of 8184 meters the descent of the rope stopped. Thus, the deepest underwater crack on Earth was discovered. It was named the Mariana Trench, after the nearby islands. Its shape (in the form of a crescent) and the location of the deepest section, called the "Challenger Abyss", were determined. It is located 340 km. south of the island Guam and has coordinates 11°22′ s. sh., 142°35′ E d.

“The fourth pole”, “the womb of Gaia”, “the bottom of the world” has since been called this deep-water depression. Oceanographic scientists have long tried to find out its true depth. Research different years gave different values. The fact is that at such a colossal depth, the density of water increases as it approaches the bottom, so the properties of the sound from the echo sounder also change in it. Using barometers and thermometers at different levels along with echo sounders, in 2011 the depth value in the Challenger Abyss was set at 10994 ± 40 meters. This is the height of Mount Everest plus another two kilometers from above.

The pressure at the bottom of the underwater crevasse is almost 1100 atmospheres, or 108.6 MPa. Most of the deep-sea vehicles are designed for a maximum depth of 6-7 thousand meters. During the time that has passed since the discovery of the deepest canyon, it was possible to successfully reach its bottom only four times.

In 1960, the Trieste deep-sea bathyscaphe, for the first time in the world, descended to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench in the area of the Challenger Abyss with two passengers on board: US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Picard.

Their observations led to an important conclusion about the presence of life at the bottom of the canyon. The discovery of the upward flow of water was also of great ecological importance: based on it, the nuclear powers refused to bury radioactive waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trough.

In the 90s, the gutter was explored by the Japanese unmanned probe Kaiko, which brought samples of silt from the bottom, in which bacteria, worms, shrimp were found, as well as pictures of a hitherto unknown world.

In 2009, the American robot Nereus conquered the abyss, raising samples of silt, minerals, samples of deep-sea fauna and photos of inhabitants of unknown depths from the bottom.

In 2012, James Cameron, the author of Titanic, Terminator and Avatar, dived into the abyss alone. He spent 6 hours at the bottom, collecting samples of soil, minerals, fauna, as well as taking photographs and 3D video. Based on this material, the film "Challenge to the Abyss" was created.

Amazing discoveries

In a trench at a depth of about 4 kilometers is located active volcano Daikoku spewing liquid sulfur that boils at 187°C in a small depression. The only lake of liquid sulfur was discovered only on Jupiter's moon Io.

At 2 kilometers from the surface, "black smokers" swirl - sources of geothermal water with hydrogen sulfide and other substances that, upon contact with cold water, turn into black sulfides. The movement of sulfide water resembles puffs of black smoke. The water temperature at the point of release reaches 450 ° C. The surrounding sea does not boil only because of the density of the water (150 times greater than at the surface).

In the north of the canyon there are "white smokers" - geysers spewing liquid carbon dioxide at a temperature of 70-80 ° C. Scientists suggest that it is in such geothermal "boilers" that one should look for the origins of life on Earth. Hot springs "warm up" the icy waters, supporting life in the abyss - the temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is in the range of 1-3 ° C.

Life beyond life

It would seem that in an atmosphere of complete darkness, silence, icy cold and unbearable pressure, life in the hollow is simply unthinkable. But studies of the depression prove the opposite: there are living creatures almost 11 kilometers under water!

The bottom of the sinkhole is covered with a thick layer of mucus from organic sediments that have been descending from the upper layers of the ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. Mucus is an excellent nutrient medium for barrophilic bacteria, which form the basis of the nutrition of protozoa and multicellular organisms. Bacteria, in turn, become food for more complex organisms.

The ecosystem of the underwater canyon is truly unique. Living beings have managed to adapt to an aggressive, destructive environment under normal conditions, with high pressure, lack of light, a small amount of oxygen and high concentration toxic substances. Life in such unbearable conditions gave many inhabitants of the abyss a frightening and unattractive look.

Deep-sea fish have incredible mouths, seated with sharp long teeth. High pressure made their bodies small (from 2 to 30 cm). However, there are also large specimens, such as the xenophyophora amoeba, reaching 10 cm in diameter. The frilled shark and goblin shark, living at a depth of 2000 meters, generally reach 5-6 meters in length.

Representatives live at different depths different types living organisms. The deeper the inhabitants of the abyss, the better their organs of vision are, allowing them to catch the slightest glimmer of light on the body of their prey in complete darkness. Some individuals themselves are able to produce directional light. Other creatures are completely devoid of organs of vision, they are replaced by organs of touch and radar. With increasing depth, underwater inhabitants lose their color more and more, the bodies of many of them are almost transparent.

On the slopes where the “black smokers” live, mollusks live, having learned to neutralize the sulfides and hydrogen sulfide that are fatal to them. And, which remains a mystery to scientists so far, under conditions of enormous pressure at the bottom, they somehow miraculously manage to keep their mineral shell intact. Similar abilities are shown by other inhabitants of the Mariana Trench. The study of fauna samples showed a multiple excess of the level of radiation and toxic substances.

Unfortunately, deep sea creatures die due to the change in pressure with any attempt to bring them to the surface. Only thanks to modern deep-sea vehicles it became possible to study the inhabitants of the depression in their natural environment. Representatives of the fauna unknown to science have already been identified.

Secrets and mysteries of the "womb of Gaia"

The mysterious abyss, like any unknown phenomenon, is shrouded in a mass of secrets and mysteries. What does she hide in her depths? Japanese scientists claimed that while feeding goblin sharks, they saw a shark 25 meters long devouring goblins. A monster of this size could only be a megalodon shark, which became extinct almost 2 million years ago! Confirmation is the findings of megalodon teeth in the vicinity of the Mariana Trench, whose age dates back to only 11 thousand years. It can be assumed that specimens of these monsters are still preserved in the depths of the failure.

There are many stories about the corpses of giant monsters thrown ashore. When descending into the abyss of the German bathyscaphe "Highfish", the dive stopped 7 km from the surface. To understand the reason, the passengers of the capsule turned on the lights and were horrified: their bathyscaphe, like a nut, was trying to crack open some prehistoric lizard! Only a pulse of electric current through the outer skin managed to scare away the monster.

On another occasion, when an American submersible was submerging, a scraping of metal began to be heard from under the water. The descent was stopped. When inspecting the lifted equipment, it turned out that the titanium alloy metal cable was half sawn (or gnawed), and the beams of the underwater vehicle were bent.

In 2012, the video camera of the unmanned vehicle "Titan" from a depth of 10 kilometers transmitted a picture of metal objects, presumably UFOs. Soon the connection with the device was interrupted.

Unfortunately, there is no documentary evidence of these interesting facts; they are all based only on eyewitness accounts. Every story has its fans and skeptics, its pros and cons.

Before a risky dive into the trench, James Cameron said that he wanted to see with his own eyes at least some of those secrets of the Mariana Trench, about which there are so many rumors and legends. But he did not see anything that would go beyond the cognizable.

So what do we know about her?

To understand how the Mariana Underwater Gap was formed, it should be remembered that such gaps (troughs) are usually formed along the edges of the oceans under the action of moving lithospheric plates. The oceanic plates, being older and heavier, "creep" under the continental ones, forming deep dips at the junctions. The deepest is the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates near the Mariana Islands (Marian Trench). The Pacific Plate is moving at a speed of 3-4 centimeters per year, resulting in increased volcanic activity along both of its edges.

Throughout the length of this deepest failure, four so-called bridges were found - transverse mountain ranges. The ridges were presumably formed due to the movement of the lithosphere and volcanic activity.

The gutter is V-shaped in cross-section, strongly widening upwards and narrowing downwards. The average width of the canyon in the upper part is 69 kilometers, in the widest part - up to 80 kilometers. The average width of the bottom between the walls is 5 kilometers. The slope of the walls is almost sheer and is only 7-8°. The depression stretches from north to south for 2500 kilometers. The gutter has average depth about 10,000 meters.

Only three people have been to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench to date. In 2018, another manned dive to the “bottom of the world” is planned at its deepest section. This time the well-known will try to conquer the hollow and find out what it hides in its depths Russian traveler Fedor Konyukhov and polar explorer Artur Chilingarov. At present, a deep-sea bathyscaphe is being manufactured and a research program is being drawn up.