The Mariana Trench- Environmental Science

The Mariana Trench is a deep-sea trench located on the floor of the western North Pacific Ocean. This trench is regarded as the deepest point on Earth. It is part of the western Pacific system of oceanic trenches coinciding with nearby subduction zones. 

The Mariana Trench stretches for more than 1,580 miles (2,540 km) with a mean width of 43 miles (69 km) The trench’s deepest points are reached in Challenger Deep, on the floor of the main trench southwest of Guam. Nobody has ever made it to the bottom of the trench, but the greatest depths were reached by Victor Vescovo in 2019 at 35,853 feet or 6.7 miles.

Due to the deep depths, there is very little to no sunlight in parts of The Mariana Trench and there is extreme pressure the deeper you go, life is still very much present and interesting. The trench is home to many deep-sea creatures such as the Seadevil Anglerfish, Goblin Shark, and Zombie Worms to name a few.  Sadly there are also many signs of plastic debris floating around deep in the trench, with some even being found inside of certain species’.

The pressure at Mariana Trench is 1000 times greater than the sea level's atmospheric pressure.

Mariana Trench's ocean floor has a yellowish color to it due to all of the decaying plants and animals.

If you could place the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, at Challenger Deep of Mariana Trench, its peak would still be over 2 kilometers below sea level. As many as 200 microorganisms have been identified at Mariana Trench.