The Mariana Trench Free Essay Example
Have you ever looked down in deep water? Do you wonder how deep it goes? Well off the coast of Guam there is an area called the Mariana Trench. It is the deepest point on our planet and throughout many years of research and explorations, we have discovered the depths of the Mariana Trench and the organisms that inhabit this area.
The Mariana Trench is known for being the deepest area on Earth. The trench is an oceanic trench that was formed around 180 million years ago. It was formed by the process of subduction which is caused by the Earth's mantle colliding with each other and one plate going under another forming a trench. The trench measures 36,201 feet or 7 miles deep and can drop off at an angle of 45 degrees in some areas. There are many different trenches similar to the Mariana such as the Tonga Trench and the Japan Trench, although this trench is the deepest out of them all. The lowest point that has been discovered is around 36,201 feet deep. It may be hard to picture how deep this trench is but one way to see how deep it is is to compare it to something that holds another record. Mount Everest (the tallest point on Earth) stands at 29,032 feet. Which means if you turn Mount Everest upside down the Mariana Trench would still be 7,169 feet deeper. Another way to visualize this depth is what you can see from the surface. Picture you in a boat that took you out to above the Mariana Trench. You get in the water with a snorkel on and you take a glimpse down into the dark abyss. You see the blueness of the water for a while but then it all fades black. It’s an empty space of nothingness. If that doesn’t already make your skin crawl, keep in mind that “blackness” you see really isn’t deep. Light only penetrates into the water around 1000 feet. Which means that what you see is only 1000 feet deep but what's below is another 35,201 feet of an endless void. (Britannica School 2).
We started exploring the Mariana Trench in 1875, when we couldn’t dive down into the trench itself. We used sound that would go down into the trench and hit the floor and bounce back up to us. This is called sonar. The first depth that we recorded was 26,850 feet. Little did we know that we had another 10,000 feet to discover. Another sonar occurred in 1957 by a Soviet research ship. It recorded a depth of 36,201 feet in an area called Challenger Deep and held the new record for its depth. The first dive wouldn’t occur until 1960. Jacques Piccard, a French man aboard a U.S. naval ship, and U.S. Naval Officer Don Walsh was the first to do so. They were aboard a submersible that could withstand the pressure of the Marianas deepest points. If it wasn’t built strong enough the whole thing would implode due to pressure and the men inside would be crushed to death. When they made a dive to 35,814 feet they hit the floor of the trench and only stayed for a little bit of time. When they were at the bottom they had a little peak hole window inside the submersible to peer out of. As they were looking, their window started to crack and they knew they did not have much time before they would be crushed to death. Luckily they managed to make it back to the surface and survived the expedition. The next dive down was 50 years later by a Canadian filmmaker by the name of James Cameron. He piloted a submersible that he designed to go in the trench. He set a record for “Deepest Solo Dive” at a depth of 35,756 feet. While down there he said “There have been more people on the surface of the moon than the bottom of the Mariana Trench” (Trevor Thieme 1). James Cameron paved the way for oceanic exploration and developed revolutionary equipment for future research.
People may wonder what lurks in the dark of the deepest point on Earth? Is there something massive that prowls in darkness? Well the answer to that question is no. The organisms down there are really not intimidating, but more small and fascinating. Down there you will find many of these complex, and interesting creatures. At first scientists believed that fish down there would not be able to survive due to immense pressure and it would dissolve the bones of vertebrates. Although scientists have discovered that some species of fish are able to extract minerals at the bottom of the ocean floor to make some sort of an aluminum armor which protects them from the deep trench bottom. One of these organisms is an “Amphipod Hirondellea Gigas” that sifts through the bottom in search of food. However the deepest known organism is called the Mariana Snailfish. It was found at a depth of 26,722 feet. This creature is a small, fragile vertebrate that has gel like skin. Scientists said “It is unbelievably fragile, and when it swims, it looks like it has wet tissue paper floating behind it. And it has a weird snout -- it looks like a cartoon dog snout."(Johnthan Pearlman 2). Even though we have only found small, harmless creatures in the Mariana Trench, who says that we can't find something of enormous size and so complex that scientists can’t even wrap their heads around what they just found.
We have been researching the Mariana Trench for almost 100 years and we have discovered a lot. From reaching its bottom to discovering its small, but captivating creatures. There are still many mysteries about the Mariana Trench and more to be uncovered. Does it go deeper? Is there something big down there? Note that only 20% of the ocean has been discovered, so what else could be down in the Mariana Trench?
