mariana trench tour ocean

Smithsonian Ocean

Mariana trench.

Kmusser, Wikimedia Commons

If you want to explore the depths of the ocean, you may want to go to the deepest part: the Mariana Trench. This trench has a maximum depth of 11 kilometers (around 7 miles) and is almost five times wider than it is deep. The Mariana Trench is deeper than Mount Everest is tall and anything living there has to survive the cold water and extremely high pressure. Some animals, including the deep-sea crustaceans Hirondellea gigas , do live there —and they have recently had a human visitor. James Cameron became the first person to finish a solo submarine dive to Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the trench and consequently the planet, in 2012.

• Marine Mammals
• Sharks & Rays
• Invertebrates
• Plants & Algae
• Coral Reefs
• Coasts & Shallow Water
• Census of Marine Life
• Tides & Currents
• Waves, Storms & Tsunamis
• The Seafloor
• Temperature & Chemistry
• Ancient Seas
• Extinctions
• The Anthropocene
• Habitat Destruction
• Invasive Species
• Acidification
• Climate Change
• Gulf Oil Spill
• Solutions & Success Stories
• Get Involved
• Books, Film & The Arts
• Exploration
• History & Cultures
• At The Museum

Search Smithsonian Ocean

• 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas
• Expeditions

Image and Video Gallery

This page contains photos and videos associated with the 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas expedition. Click on any image or video to view a larger version and for additional information.

Daily Updates

Mission Logs

For Educators

Background Information

Media Resources

Meet the Explorers

Leg 1 Expedition Data

Leg 3 Expedition Data

Related links.

• Live Video Mobile App
• Tweet Chat: June 21
• Reddit Ask Us Anything: June 2
• CAPSTONE Overview
• Benthic Deepwater Animal Identification Guide
• NOAA Ocean Exploration Data Atlas 
• OER Video Portal
• NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer

• US +1 772 770 1995
• EU +34 937 034 470
• [email protected]

Ever consider a deep dive to the Mariana trench?

Journey to the deepest point on the planet in the most high-tech submarine ever built.

Take a TRITON 36000/2 submersible to the Challenger Deep— the hadal zone, that is at a depth of 35,850ft/10,927m.

Roman Chiporukha and Erica Jackowitz—husband-and-wife cofounders of New York-based Roman & Erica, Inc— run a full service lifestyle management service. They are luxury travel advisors who curate incredible (and not inexpensive) experiences for their clientele. They can also help you get a jet card membership at Jettly if you want to fly private.

Here is their latest offering—the Mariana Trench—the deepest oceanic trench on Earth

•  Day 1: Arrive in Guam, board the expedition ship and sail out to the dive site, Challenger Deep. The distance is 210 nautical miles and takes about 20-22 hours in relatively calm waters.
• Day 2: Board the submarine, sit back, relax and be prepared to be piloted down to the depths of the earth’s oceans and into the history books. 4.5 hours to get down, 2-3 hours at the bottom of the ocean floor, and approximately 4 hours back up.
• Day 3: Return to Guam

Offered from June 20, 2021 to July 31, 2021. Cost : $750,000 per person, per dive (1 person per dive + pilot)

Images: Caladan Oceanic

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Leisure submersibles.

• Triton for Leisure
• TRITON 660/2 SPII
• TRITON 1650/3 LP

Commercial Submersibles

• Triton for Cruise & Tour Operators
• TRITON 660/9 AVA
• TRITON DeepView
• TRITON 1650/7 Configurable

Professional Submersibles

• Triton for Professionals
• TRITON 3300/3 MKII
• TRITON 3300/1 MD
• TRITON 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer

Ultra-Deep Submersibles

• Triton for Hadal Explorers
• TRITON 7500/3
• TRITON 36000/2 Full Ocean Depth
• Bespoke Projects
• Refits & Upgrades
• Vessel Integration
• Equipment Integration
• Personnel Services
• Expedition Support
• Spares & Consumables
• Maintenance & Technical
• Notable Dives
• Making History
• Made with Triton

News & Media

• Latest News
• Favorite Image Gallery

Contact Triton

• Triton Submarines LLC
• 10055 102 nd Terrace
• Florida 32958
• +1 772 770 1995

Privacy & Cookies

® TRITON and the Triton Logo are the registered trademarks of Triton Submarines LLC. © Triton Submarines LLC. All rights reserved. 10055 102 nd Terrace, Sebastian, Florida 32958, USA.

You cannot copy content of this page

May 29, 2020

The Mariana Trench Is 7 Miles Deep: What’s Down There?

The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is so deep your bones would literally dissolve. What's down there in its black, crushing depths?

By Everyday Einstein Sabrina Stierwalt

Getty Images

Somewhere between Hawaii and the Philippines near the small island of Guam, far below the surface of the water, sits the Mariana Trench, the deepest spot in the ocean. What’s down there?

How deep is the Mariana Trench?

The Trench sits like a crescent-shaped dent in the floor of the Pacific Ocean, extending over 1500 miles long with an average width around 43 miles and a depth of almost 7 miles (or just under 36,201 feet). At that depth, the weight of all that water above makes the pressure in the Trench around  1000 times higher  than it would be in, say, Miami or New York. Floor vents release bubbles of liquid sulfur and carbon dioxide. Temperatures are just above freezing, and everything is drowning in darkness. 

For comparison, most ocean life lives above a depth  of 660 feet . Nuclear submarines hover around 850 feet below the surface as they travel through the ocean waters. Whales aren’t usually seen below about 8,200 feet. The site of Jack and Rose’s true (albeit fictional) love, the sunken Titanic, can be found at 12,467 feet.

According to National Geographic, if you were to put Mount Everest at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, its peak would still sit around  7,000 feet below sea level . 

Toward the southern end of the Mariana Trench lies the Challenger Deep. It sits 36,070 feet below sea level, making it the point most distant from the water’s surface and the deepest part of the Trench.

While the number of people that have climbed to the top of Mount Everest, the Earth’s  highest  point, holds somewhere in the thousands,  only 3 divers  have ever explored the Challenger Deep. The first expedition happened in 1960 when Jacques Piccard and Navy Lt. Don Walsh reached the Challenger Deep in a U.S. Navy submersible. They were only able to spend 20 minutes there due to the extreme pressures, and their arrival stirred up too much dust from the seafloor for them to take any pictures. 

The next visitor didn’t arrive until over 50 years later in 2012, when filmmaker and science fiction aficionado James Cameron solo dived to the Challenger Deep in a submarine he designed himself. Cameron was able to spend three hours there. And, of course, he captured video and took many photos—he is a Hollywood filmmaker, after all.

The extreme pressures took a toll on his equipment, though. Batteries drained, sonar died, and some of his vessel’s thrusters to malfunctioned, making it hard to maneuver. 

»Continue reading “The Mariana Trench is 7 Miles Deep—What’s Down There?” on QuickAndDirtyTips.com

Mariana Trench: The deepest depths

The Mariana Trench reaches more than 7 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

• Who owns it?
• How did it form?
• Are there volcanoes?
• What lives there?
• Is it polluted?
• Has anyone dived into it?

Additional resources

Bibliography.

The Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth and home to the two lowest points on the planet. 

The crescent-shaped trench is in the Western Pacific, just east of the Mariana Islands near Guam. The region surrounding the trench is noteworthy for many unique environments, including vents bubbling up liquid sulfur and carbon dioxide, active mud volcanoes and marine life adapted to pressures 1,000 times that at sea level.

The Challenger Deep, in the southern end of the Mariana Trench (sometimes called the Marianas Trench), is the deepest spot in the ocean. Its depth is difficult to measure from the surface, but in 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used sound pulses sent through the ocean and pegged the Challenger Deep d at 36,070 feet (10,994 meters). A 2021 estimate using pressure sensors found the deepest spot in Challenger Deep was 35,876 feet (10,935 m). Other modern estimates vary by less than 1,000 feet (305 m).

The ocean's second-deepest place is also in the Mariana Trench. The Sirena Deep, which lies 124 miles (200 kilometers) to the east of Challenger Deep, is a crushing 35,462 feet deep (10,809 m).

By comparison, Mount Everest stands at 29,026 feet (8,848 m) above sea level, meaning the deepest part of the Mariana Trench is 7,044 feet (2,147 m) deeper than Everest is tall.

Who owns the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench is 1,580 miles (2,542 km) long — more than five times the length of the Grand Canyon. However, the narrow trench averages only 43 miles (69 km) wide.

Because Guam is a United States territory and the 15 Northern Mariana Islands are governed by a U.S. Commonwealth, the U.S. has jurisdiction over the Mariana Trench. In 2009, former President George W. Bush established the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, which created a protected marine reserve for the approximately 195,000 square miles (506,000 square km) of seafloor and waters surrounding the remote islands. The monument includes most of the Mariana Trench, 21 underwater volcanoes and areas around three islands.

How did the Mariana Trench form?

The Mariana Trench was created by the process that occurs in a subduction zone, where two massive slabs of oceanic crust, known as tectonic plates, collide. At a subduction zone, one piece of oceanic crust is pushed and pulled underneath the other, sinking into the Earth's mantle, the layer under the crust. Where the two pieces of crust intersect, a deep trench forms above the bend in the sinking crust. In this case, the Pacific Ocean crust is bending below the Philippine crust.

The Pacific crust is about 180 million years old where it dives into the trench. The Philippine plate is younger and smaller than the Pacific plate.

As deep as the trench is, it is not the spot closest to the center of Earth. Because the planet bulges at the equator, the radius at the poles is about 16 miles (25 km) less than the radius at the equator. So, parts of the Arctic Ocean seabed are closer to the Earth's center than the Challenger Deep.

The crushing water pressure on the floor of the trench is more than 8 tons per square inch (703 kilograms per square meter). This is more than 1,000 times the pressure felt at sea level, or the equivalent of having 50 jumbo jets piled on top of a person.

Are there volcanoes in the Mariana Trench?

A chain of volcanoes that rise above the ocean waves to form the Mariana Islands mirrors the crescent-shaped arc of the Mariana Trench. Interspersed with the islands are many strange undersea volcanoes.

For example, the Eifuku submarine volcano spews liquid carbon dioxide from hydrothermal vents similar to chimneys. The liquid coming out of these chimneys is 217 degrees Fahrenheit (103 degrees Celsius). At the nearby Daikoku submarine volcano, scientists discovered a pool of molten sulfur 1,345 feet (410 m) below the ocean surface, something seen nowhere else on Earth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

What lives in the Mariana Trench?

Recent scientific expeditions have discovered surprisingly diverse life in these harsh conditions. Animals living in the deepest parts of the Mariana Trench survive in complete darkness and extreme pressure, said Natasha Gallo, a doctoral student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who has studied video footage from filmmaker James Cameron's 2012 expedition into the trench.

Food in the Mariana Trench is extremely limited, because the deep gorge is far from land. Terrestrial plant material rarely finds its way into the bottom of the trench, Gallo told Live Science, and dead plankton sinking from the surface must drop thousands of feet to reach Challenger Deep. Instead, some microbes rely on chemicals, such as methane or sulfur, while other creatures gobble marine life that’s below them on the food chain.

The three most common organisms at the bottom of the Mariana Trench are xenophyophores, amphipods and small sea cucumbers (holothurians), Gallo said.

"These are some of the deepest holothurians ever observed, and they were relatively abundant," Gallo said.

The single-celled xenophyophores resemble giant amoebas, and they eat by surrounding and absorbing their food. Amphipods are shiny, shrimplike scavengers commonly found in deep-sea trenches; how they survived down there was a bit of a mystery, because amphipod shells dissolve easily in the high pressures of the Mariana Trench. But in 2019, Japanese researchers found that at least one species of the Mariana Trench dwellers uses aluminum , extracted from seawater, to shore up its shell. 

During Cameron's 2012 expedition, scientists also spotted microbial mats in the Sirena Deep, the zone east of the Challenger Deep. These clumps of microbes feed on hydrogen and methane released by chemical reactions between seawater and rocks.

One of the region's top predators is a deceptively vulnerable-looking fish. In 2017, scientists reported they had collected specimens of an unusual creature, dubbed the Mariana snailfish , which lives at a depth of about 26,200 feet (8,000 m). The snailfish's small, pink and scaleless body hardly seems capable of surviving in such a punishing environment, but this fish is full of surprises, researchers reported in a study published that year in the journal Zootaxa . The animal appears to dominate in this ecosystem, going deeper than any other fish and exploiting the absence of competitors by gobbling up the plentiful invertebrate prey that inhabit the trench, the study authors wrote.

Is the Mariana Trench polluted?

Unfortunately, the deep ocean can act as a potential sink for discarded pollutants and litter. In a study published in 2017 in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution , a research team led by scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom showed that human-made chemicals that were banned in the 1970s are still lurking in the deepest parts of the ocean.

While sampling amphipods (shrimp-like crustaceans) from the Mariana and Kermadec trenches, the researchers discovered extremely high levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the organisms’ fatty tissues. These included polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), chemicals commonly used as electrical insulators and flame retardants, according to a study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. These POPs were released into the environment through industrial accidents and landfill leakages from the 1930s until the 1970s when they were finally banned.

"We still think of the deep ocean as being this remote and pristine realm, safe from human impact, but our research shows that, sadly, this could not be further from the truth,” lead study author Alan Jamieson, a senior lecturer in Marine Ecology at Newcastle University, said in a statement .

In fact, the amphipods in the study contained levels of contamination similar to that found in Suruga Bay, one of the most polluted industrial zones of the northwest Pacific.

Since POPs cannot degrade naturally, they persist in the environment for decades, reaching the bottom of the ocean by way of contaminated plastic debris and dead animals. The pollutants are then carried from creature to creature through the ocean’s food chain, eventually resulting in chemical concentrations far higher than surface level pollution.

"The fact that we found such extraordinary levels of these pollutants in one of the most remote and inaccessible habitats on Earth really brings home the long term, devastating impact that humankind is having on the planet," Jamieson said in the statement.

Nor is the Mariana Trench immune from the plastic pollution that invades the world's oceans. A 2018 paper in the journal Geochemical Perspectives found that microplastics were alarmingly common in the lowest waters of the Mariana Trench, indicating that these plastics filter through the ocean to concentrate at its deepest points.

Has anyone ever dived into the Mariana Trench?

People have been exploring the Mariana Trench for more than a century.

• In 1875, the trench was discovered by the HMS Challenger using recently-invented sounding equipment during a global circumnavigation, according to the website for DeepSea Challenge , Cameron’s 2012 solo expedition into the trench. In 1951, the trench was sounded again by HMS Challenger II. Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the trench, was named after the two vessels.
• The first crewed vessel to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep was a "deep boat" named Trieste, which made the journey in 1960. Crewed by U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard, the submersible reached a depth of 35,797 feet (10,911 m).
• In 2012, James Cameron became the pilot of the second mission to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep. The filmmaker solo-piloted the submersible the Deepsea Challenger, filming footage for National Geographic . He dove just shy of the original record, reaching a depth of 35,787 feet (10,908 m).
• In 2019, explorer and businessman Victor Vescovo piloted the DSV Limiting Factor, breaking the record for deepest dive into Challenger Deep . He descended 35,853 feet (10,927 m).
• Uncrewed journeys into the trench by robotic submersibles have also expanded human knowledge of this deep ocean frontier. In 1995, the Japanese uncrewed submarine Kaiko gathered samples and data from the trench. In 2009, the U.S. hybrid remotely operated vehicle Nereus traveled to the floor of Challenger Deep and remained there for 10 hours, recording video. (Nereus would later implode in 2014 while exploring another deep-sea trench, the Kermadec Trench, according to the BBC .)
• In 2021, a Spanish expedition, Caladan Oceanic's Ring of Fire Expedition , Part II, collected mantle rocks from the bottom of the Marianas Trench that contained microbial mats.

This article was updated on May 16, 2022, by Live Science contributor Stephanie Pappas, with additional reporting by Elizabeth Dohrer and Traci Pedersen, Live Science contributors.

• For more on how to measure the depth of the deepest place on Earth, see So, How Deep Is the Mariana Trench? (PDF) , a paper in the journal Marine Geodesy that discusses the methods and variations between estimates.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument , and their webpage contains the latest news on conservation and discovery in the monument.
• Finally, NASA maps of the trench reveal the graceful crescent swoop of the landform.

Amos, J. (2014, May 12). Nereus deep sea sub 'implodes' 10km-down. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27374326 . Retrieved May 10, 2022. 

Carolwicz, M. (2012, April 14). New View of the Deepest Trench. NASA Earth Observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/77640/new-view-of-the-deepest-trench . Retrieved May 10, 2022. 

Embley, B. (2006, May 4). Discovery of the Sulfur Cauldron at Daikoku Volcano: A Window into an Active Volcano . NOAA Ocean Explorer. https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06fire/logs/may4/may4.html .

Gardner, J. V., Armstrong, A. A., Calder, B. R., & Beaudoin, J. (2014). So, how deep is the mariana trench? Marine Geodesy, 37(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490419.2013.837849

Greenaway, S. F., Sullivan, K. D., Umfress, S. H., Beittel, A. B., & Wagner, K. D. (2021). Revised depth of the Challenger Deep from submersible transects; including a general method for precise, pressure-derived depths in the Ocean. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 178, 103644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2021.103644

Jamieson, A. J., Malkocs, T., Piertney, S. B., Fujii, T., & Zhang, Z. (2017). Bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the deepest ocean fauna. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-016-0051

Jamieson, A.J. (2017, February 14). Comment: How we discovered pollution-poisoned crustaceans. Newcastle University Press Office. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/archive/2017/02/marianatrenchpollution/

Mariana Trench: Challenger Deep and Sirena Deep dives . https://caladanoceanic.com/expeditions/mariana/ . Retrieved May 10, 2022. 

Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. https://www.fws.gov/national-monument/marianas-trench-marine . Retrieved May 10, 2022.

Peng, X., Chen, M., Chen, S., Dasgupta, S., Xu, H., Ta, K., Du, M., Li, J., Guo, Z., & Bai, S. (2018). Microplastics contaminate the deepest part of the world’s Ocean. Geochemical Perspectives Letters, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.7185/geochemlet.1829

The Mariana Trench. http://www.deepseachallenge.com/the-expedition/mariana-trench/ Retrieved May 10, 2022.

Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now

Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

• Stephanie Pappas Live Science Contributor
• Traci Pedersen Live Science Contributor
• Elizabeth Dohrer Live Science Contributor

'Golden spike' showing the moment Earth turned into a giant snowball discovered in ancient Scottish rocks

Yarlung Tsangpo: The deepest canyon on land hides a tree taller than the Statue of Liberty

Dodos were fast and powerful, not slow and inept, definitive preserved specimen suggests

Most Popular

• 2 How will the trapped Boeing Starliner astronauts perceive time after 6 months in space?
• 3 Auroras headed to the US again in aftermath of gargantuan 'X-class' solar flare
• 4 Scientists finally explain MIS-C, the rare post-COVID sydrome seen in kids
• 5 Largest animal genome sequenced — and just 1 chromosome is the size of the entire human genome

• The Magazine
• Stay Curious
• The Sciences
• Environment
• Planet Earth

How Deep Is the Mariana Trench and What Have We Found in its Depths?

How deep is the mariana trench shrouded in complete darkness, this extreme environment is surprisingly full of marine life and has even been explored by humans..

The ocean is unfathomably deep. So deep that the Mariana Trench, hidden beneath the ocean’s waves, would surpass Mount Everest in height, if our planet's tallest mountain were placed inside it upside down.

Remarkably, a host of unique sea creatures survive and thrive in the Mariana Trench and a handful of humans in submersibles have also endured daunting expeditions to its floor. Their journeys continue to unravel the mysteries of this hidden underwater world.

What Is the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans, located in the western Pacific Ocean. The weight of the ocean above it creates pressure around 15,750 pounds per square inch (more than 1,000 times what we experience on land) and the alien world is devoid of light. 

Where Is the Mariana Trench?

It is located to the east of the Mariana Islands, a chain of volcanic islands, where it gets its name. Typical water temperatures hover just a few degrees above freezing. Despite the extreme pressure, lack of light, and frigid temperatures, the Mariana Trench hosts a variety of life forms. These include microorganisms, as well as larger organisms like amphipods, and possibly even fish, adapted to the extreme conditions.

How Was the Mariana Trench Formed?

The Mariana Trench was formed by a process known as subduction, where the Pacific Plate is being subducted under the smaller Mariana Plate. It first appeared on the radar of science in the 1870s during the multi-year Challenger Expedition, a monumental landmark in the history of undersea exploration, and has continued to be a significant point of interest in oceanography and marine biology.

Read More: H.M.S. Challenger: Humanity's First Real Glimpse of the Deep Oceans

How Deep Is the Mariana Trench?

Some measurements in the Mariana Trench have charted depths exceeding 6.5 miles (or 36,000 feet) in the deepest spot, dubbed Challenger Deep. The average depth of the world’s oceans comes in around 12,000 feet, or 2.3 miles, according to a comprehensive research effort with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2010.

But this encompasses a seafloor that, similar to dry land, is rife with mountainous peaks, cavernous valleys and other dynamic topographic features.

Plenty of the rocky trenches and caves plunge many miles deeper, such as Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench.

The regions that exceed roughly 3.5 miles, or 20,000 feet, are known as the hadal zone, named after Hades, Greek god of the underworld. Fitting right, given their abyss-like nature and mystery?

Read More: The Ocean Twilight Zone’s Mysterious 'False Bottom'

What Lives in the Mariana Trench?

Such an extreme world holds a roundup of animals with extraordinary adaptations for survival.

The snailfish is the most dominant family of fish spotted within the hadal zone.

These creatures, which have been recorded at nearly 27,000 feet deep, possess a skeleton made of cartilage — likely to help sustain such high pressure — and a translucent exterior that reveals all their inner organs.

Cusk-eels have been recorded even deeper, just beyond 27,000 feet. Though they resemble an eel, they are actually fish closely related to tuna and seahorses.

Impressively, the cusk-eel can also be found in the shallowest parts of the ocean as well as the deepest, spanning an extraordinary range of viable conditions for survival.

Along with sea cucumbers, tiny flea-like crustaceans known as amphipods are the most abundant animal in the hadal zone. Research indicates they scavenge on debris floating down from upper ocean zones.

One unusually large species of amphipods, Alicella gigantea , can reach up to 13 inches in length.

Read More: How These 4 Deep Sea Sharks Lurk in the Ocean

Has Anyone Been to the Bottom of the Mariana Trench?

Yes, people have been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The two most well known expeditions include Don Walsh and 

Who Went to the Bottom of the Mariana Trench First?

After its discovery, nearly 100 years passed before a human, U.S. naval officer Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard, in 1960 reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep canyon inside a deep-sea vessel.

Did James Cameron Go to the Mariana Trench?

Yes, Canadian filmmaker and ocean explorer James Cameron made a similar solo journey into the abyss in 2012. Since then, roughly half a dozen ocean explorers have successfully reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench — and many more remotely operated vehicles have completed expeditions.

One crew recently acquired water samples from the depths for the Natural History Museum in Washington D.C.

Read More: What It's Like to Dive to the Titanic in a Submersible

What Is at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench?

Just last year, Dawn Wright, an oceanographer who specializes in marine geology, became the first Black researcher to descend to the bottom of Challenger Deep.

Alongside submersible pilot Victor Vescovo, the team successfully tested a side-scan sonar technology capable of taking detailed images of the seafloor at 36,000 feet.

Read More: We’ve Only Explored Less Than 5 Percent of the Ocean Floor

They also made a more unsettling discovery, captured on camera as one of the first objects in view after touching down roughly 6.7 miles below the ocean’s surface: a beer bottle.

Wright later shared the image on Twitter , with a sobering message for all to consider: “[It’s] further evidence that we must as humanity do better by the ocean and for the health of habitats that we ourselves share and ultimately depend on.”

Mariana Trench Frequently Asked Questions

Is the mariana trench the deepest part of the ocean.

Yes, the Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean. Its deepest point, known as the Challenger Deep, reaches approximately 10,984 meters (36,037 feet) below sea level, making it the deepest known point on Earth.

When Was the Mariana Trench Discovered?

The Mariana Trench was first discovered and identified in 1875 during the Challenger expedition, a pioneering oceanographic expedition led by the British Royal Navy. This expedition, which lasted from 1872 to 1876, was aimed at exploring the depths of the world's oceans.

Is the Titanic in the Mariana Trench?

No, the Titanic is not located in the Mariana Trench. The wreck of the Titanic lies in the North Atlantic Ocean, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at a depth of about 3,800 meters (12,500 feet).

How Wide Is the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench is about 2,550 kilometers (1,580 miles) long and averages 69 kilometers (43 miles) in width. The trench forms a crescent-shaped scar in the Earth's crust.

How Many People Have Been to the Mariana Trench?

Very few people have descended to the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. This includes the historic trip by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in the Trieste in 1960, James Cameron's solo dive in 2012, and several dives by Victor Vescovo and his team in 2019.

What Does the Mariana Trench Look Like?

The Mariana Trench is a dark, remote, and largely unexplored area. Its terrain features steep, rocky walls and a sediment-covered floor. The conditions are extreme, with immense pressure, near-freezing temperatures, and complete darkness, except for bioluminescent organisms.

What Type of Plate Boundary Is the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench is an oceanic-oceanic convergent plate boundary. It forms where the Pacific Plate is subducting beneath the smaller Mariana Plate.

How Can Fish Survive in the Mariana Trench?

Fish and other organisms in the Mariana Trench have adapted to survive the extreme conditions of high pressure, low temperature, and lack of light. These adaptations include specialized body structures, slow metabolism, and the ability to withstand high pressure. 

Read More: The Search For Earth's Underground Oceans

This article was originally published on June 27, 2023 and has since been updated by the Discover staff.

• marine biology
• animal behavior

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

Keep reading for as low as $1.99!

Sign up for our weekly science updates.

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

You can take a submarine ride in a 'cocoon of titanium' to the deepest point on Earth

Looking for a way to get away? Look down. Deep, deep, deep down — all the way to Challenger Deep.

Come mid-May, EYOS Expeditions will launch submarine expeditions to Challenger Deep, a location in the Mariana Trench that, at 38,583 feet, holds the title of the lowest point on Earth. The trip will take up to 14 hours — over four hours to descend; four on the seafloor where divers can explore and film from the comfort of the submarine; and another four to get back up to the surface.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter .

The ship, known as the Limiting Factor, has two seats, three view ports and high-definition "surround" cameras. It's also equipped with 10 sets of LED lighting arrays so you can light up the terrain, Rob McCallum, Expedition Leader at EYOS Expeditions, told The Points Guy.

Limiting Factor has been pressure-tested in a chamber and has already done five practice dives to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. In fact, it's the only vehicle ever constructed that's capable of multiple dives to full ocean depth. In the submarine, you're completely protected by the 3.5-inch titanium sphere. You won't experience any pressure changes or physiological stresses at all.

"It's extremely relaxing, in the sense that you're in this cocoon of titanium. It's silent and there's no perception of movement. So it's very calming and soothing ," McCallum said.

Related: Virgin Galactic inches closer to taking passengers into space

The surrounding environment is pitch black after about 500 feet, but because of the LED lighting arrays, you'll be able to see what's around you — including fish, up to around 26,000 feet, and then hadal-zone creatures after that. Hadal creatures, such as flea-like amphipods, have never known daylight and thrive at the bottom of the ocean.

As McCallum explains it, divers "will feel this passion and expertise flying through the ship," because they'll be accompanied by a really passionate team of sonar operators, scientists, ship crew and more.

The dives cost $750,000 per diver, and there are only three spots on each voyage. The three spots on the maiden voyage sold out very quickly, and the dive is scheduled to continue in May despite the coronavirus outbreak . In fact, divers will be tested for COVID-19 before embarking on the journey, a spokesperson for EYOS Expeditions confirmed.

Challenger Deep is arguably the most exclusive destination on Earth. Only three manned expeditions have ever been made to the bottom — to put that in perspective, more people have been to the moon than the bottom of the ocean. In fact, 4,000 people have been to Mount Everest, 562 have been to space and only seven have made it to Challenger Deep.

Before even reaching the dive site, travelers will spend a day at sea on a yacht (dubbed the Pressure Drop), which departs from Agat, Guam. So, if you want to pay for at least part of this trip with miles, stock up on United miles (or Chase Ultimate Rewards points which transfer to United at a 1:1 ratio).

The fastest way to get there from the continental U.S. will be on United flights departing from Honolulu (HNL), but you can also have an AvGeek experience worthy of this ultra-exclusive trip by booking United's Island Hopper. This bucket-list itinerary connects the tiny Pacific islands of Majuro (MAJ), Kwajalein (KWA, though not every Island Hopper flight stops here), Kosrae (KSA), Pohnpei (PNI) and Chuuk (TKK) with Honolulu.

Related: 12 things to know before flying the United Island Hopper

Subsequent dives are also going on as scheduled and, if you're interested in joining one, you can email EYOS for more information .

When people envision "the final frontier" most think of traveling through space the way the Starship Enterprise did for many years on Star Trek. But there are virtually unexplored frontiers to be had without leaving Earth. The Marianas Trench in the western Pacific Ocean provides one of the most amazing and unique examples.

The trench is about 1,580 miles long with an average width of 43 miles. It is estimated to run almost seven miles deep – placing it as the deepest part of the ocean. This long and lean drop in the Ocean's floor has a water pressure that runs over 1000 times what we experience at sea level.

Only two other people have dared to explore the Trench: U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh, and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard in 1960 (no relation to Jean-Luc). The two were in the trench for about 20 minutes, but unfortunately the sand on the Trench's floor was disturbed by their vehicle so that they were not able to see anything.

Recently, James Cameron, the noted entrepreneur and explorer, became the third person to explore the Trench with a solo dive in his submarine, The Challenger.

Cameron took numerous photographs, showing that the trench itself is a surprisingly intriguing place despite the incredible water pressure levels. According to Cameron, "It was very lunar, a very desolate place, very isolated." He also gathered samples of sediment from the bottom of the trench, providing a source for study for marine biologists and oceanographers. Cameron's exploration was cut short by three hours due to a hydraulic leak, but he did capture much of the experience on 3-D film. He plans to continue to explore the Marianas Trench in the future.

The United States established the Marianas Trench, also called the Marianas Trench, as The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument in January of 2009. This underwater monument includes over 95,000 square miles. It is protected under the Antiquities Act of 1906, the same law that protects our national parks, and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Although ocean exploration receives limited funding, Cameron's visit to the Marianas Trench may stir up more interest and dollars for the area. Talk includes opportunities for educational projects including a visitor center and guided sea tours.

The only life James Cameron saw in the Trench were a number of one-inch sea creatures, but it still provides an amazing new frontier for humanity. And though most of us will never have the opportunity to explore the trench in person, we can better understand the experience thanks to the 3-D movies of James Cameron.

Internet Explorer lacks support for the features of this website. For the best experience, please use a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.

Virtual and Classroom Activity Featuring the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument

November 09, 2020

Explore the wonders of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument through a hands-on, educational scavenger hunt.

The deepest parts of the ocean are still some of the most unexplored places on Earth. Home to unique habitats and otherworldly marine life, there truly is nowhere quite like the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on the planet. A new activity, designed for middle school students, allows educators, the general public, and students of all ages to expand their knowledge about this mysterious place. 

The activity incorporates two educational posters with beautiful illustrations based on discoveries from the 2016 NOAA Okeanos Explorer Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas Expedition . The detailed infographics provide an underwater view of the Monument, from the surface of the ocean all the way to the seafloor 36,000 feet below. Featuring diverse ecosystems, unique geologic features, and the abundant marine species that live within the Monument, the imagery presents a distinct perspective that highlights what makes this place so special.

In the scavenger hunt activity , students will search for answers in the posters, as well as NOAA Fisheries and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service websites. The accompanying answer key provides a more comprehensive understanding of each question’s topic. 

This scavenger hunt will help familiarize students, teachers, and even families with the wonders of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. They will learn what a Marine National Monument is, understand the scientific and cultural significance of the Monument, and recognize the remarkable habitat and marine life within the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.  

More Information

• Scavenger Hunt Activity
• Marianas Trench Marine National Monument

Recent News

Celebrating national intern day at noaa fisheries.

From Overfished to Sustainable Harvests: Pacific Bluefin Tuna Rebound to New Highs

Meet Josefa Muñoz, Ph.D. Student

Last updated by Pacific Islands Regional Office on May 15, 2024

These are some of the most tough to reach places on earth

D espite the fact that humans have managed to settle vast swaths of our planet, there are vast areas on Earth that mankind has yet to fully explore. To introduce you to those areas, we have gathered here the 10 most mysterious places on earth.

The Kamchatka

The Kamchatka peninsula in northeastern Siberia is considered a mostly untouched region. It contains geological wonders with volcanoes (some of which are active), bays, geysers, and more.

The area is also home to tons of wildlife, including a wide variety of salmon and brown bears. In fact, the peninsula has the highest concentration of brown bears in the entire world.

Being a remote and isolated area in Russia, the peninsula has not yet been explored for the most part, and despite its vast area (12 times larger than Israel), only 400,000 people live there.

Location: Russia

Area: 270,000 square kilometers

Vale Do Javari

Vale Do Javari, located in a remote part of western Brazil, is among the most remote places in the world. This area is also home to thousands of indigenous people who are not recognized by the Brazilian government.

The area is slightly larger than the country of Austria, and the federal agency in Brazil is working to protect this area.

Outsiders are not allowed to enter this part of the rainforest making it less visible to people. In this way, the tribes protect their freedom to live in seclusion and preserve their culture.

Location: Brazil

Area: 85,444.82 square kilometers

Kangkar Punsum 

Kangkay Punsum is actually the name of one of the highest mountains in the world, whose peak reaches 7,570 meters. It is located on the border between Bhutan and Tibet and most of the area is particularly mountainous and high.

This mountain has yet to be fully discovered because in Bhutan it is forbidden to climb mountains higher than 6,000 meters. This rule was established for two main reasons. First, the locals believe that high mountains are the abode of divine spirits, and second, the possibility of rescuing climbers trapped on a mountain at this height becomes particularly complex. The mountain is among the least explored places on earth. 

Altitude: 7,570 meters

The Sahara desert

The Sahara Desert stretches over the northern part of Africa and is considered a particularly challenging place to move around due to the winds, sandstorms, and extreme temperature changes. Although the desert crosses several large countries, many parts of the Sahara remain unexplored, making it a special but dangerous place for those who still want to take risks.

Location: North Africa

Area: 9,200,000 square kilometers

Greenland is the largest island on the planet is still largely undiscovered by the human race. The interior of Greenland is mostly inaccessible and unusable due to a vast ice sheet covering roughly 80% of the island. At the same time, it is not surprising that a vast area covered with ice has an abundance of natural wonders, including special springs, frozen rivers, gems, the northern lights, and many other things.

Location: North America

Area: 2,166,086 square kilometers

The Aleutian Islands 

The Aleutian Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean adjacent to Alaska. Most of the territory of the Aleutian Islands has not yet been discovered due to their remote location and challenging terrain. With their rugged coastlines and mysterious caves, these islands offer adventurers a great opportunity to explore unknown places. In addition, the islands are home to many animals, including rare birds and marine mammals.

Location: North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea

Number of islands: 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller islands belonging to the USA and Russia

The Namib Desert 

The Namib Desert is located in southern Africa and most of it is found, as implied, in the country of Namibia. The entire area is a vast expanse of sand and is considered one of the oldest deserts on Earth. The desert remains mostly an invisible place due to the extreme weather conditions with temperatures that can reach over 50 degrees Celsius in summer. In winter the degrees will drop towards zero at night. The desert is home to various archeological sites and many dinosaur fossils.

Location: Namibia

Area: 160,000 square kilometers

Hang Son Duong Cave

The Hang Son Duong Cave is in Vietnam and it actually serves as a large system of vast underground caves, most of which are still unexplored by humans. The place itself was created inside a mountain several million years ago and, in the more familiar parts, there are guided tours. With its winding passages and eerie underground lake, this cave has a huge potential for many explorers.

Location: Vietnam

Size: 9 km long and 150 meters deep

The vast continent of Antarctica has the most inhospitable climate on Earth, which makes exploring the place particularly challenging. Despite being visited by scientists for many years, many parts of Antarctica are still unknown to mankind. From its frozen glaciers to its massive icebergs, this frozen continent is quite a mysterious place.

Location: Southern Hemisphere

Area: 14,200,000 square kilometers

The Mariana Trench 

The Mariana Trench is in the western Pacific Ocean and in fact, it is an underwater trench that is considered the deepest sea trench on Earth. Despite the insane depth (almost 11 km), only a handful of people have come to the area to try and explore it. In addition, the area is also home to a variety of marine creatures that live somewhere in the depths of the ocean, many of which have not been discovered until today.

Location: Western Pacific Ocean

Area: 2,550 km long and 69 km wide