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The deepest trench in the world, the Mariana Trench located near the Mariana Islands, is 1,580 miles long and averages just 43 miles wide. It is home to the Challenger Deep, which, at 10,911 meters (35,797 feet), is the deepest part of the ocean. The Tonga, Kuril-Kamatcha, Philippine, and Kermadec Trenches all contain depths greater than 10,000 ...
Nereus Soars to the Ocean’s Deepest Trench. It took a village of engineers to build a completely new type of unmanned deep-sea robot that can reach the deepest part of the ocean. On May 31, 2009, a….
The ocean water column is made up of five zones: the sunlight zone (epipelagic), the twilight zone (mesopelagic), the midnight zone (bathypelagic), the abyssal zone (abyssopelagic) and the hadal zone (trenches). Sunlit Zone. The upper layer of the ocean is known as the sunlit, or euphotic, zone. Because water strongly absorbs light, sunlight ...
The region extending from 6,000 to 11,000 meters is called the hadal, or hadalpelagic, zone after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. This zone occurs only in trenches; combined across all oceans, they make up an area about the size of Australia. The hadal zone is characterized by extreme depth and pressure, temperatures that hover just ...
What is the abyssal zone? Earth’s vast oceans run deep, bottoming out around 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) in most places, although trenches can form underwater canyons extending another 7,000 meters (22,965 feet). The seafloor and water column from 3,000 to 6,500 meters (9,842 to 21,325 feet) depth is known as the abyssal zone, or the abyss.
At nearly 60,000 kilometers (37,000 miles) long, the mid-ocean is the longest mountain range on Earth. It formed and evolves as a result of spreading in Earth’s lithosphere—the crust and upper mantle—at the divergent boundaries between tectonic plates. The vast majority of volcanic activity on the planet occurs along the mid-ocean ridge ...
If we want to learn more about the limits of life in our solar system, the ocean’s deep trenches and troughs are a great place to start. Known as the hadal zone, a depth ranging from 6,000 meters (19,000 feet) and deeper, this ecosystem is home to animal life that is specially adapted to crushing pressure, inky blackness, and island-like ...
Seamounts are underwater mountains that rise hundreds or thousands of feet from the seafloor. They are generally extinct volcanoes that, while active, created piles of lava that sometimes break the ocean surface. In fact, the highest mountain on Earth is actually a seamount—Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is more than 30,000 feet ...
Seafloor & Below. From plate tectonics to underwater mountain ranges spanning the globe, the seafloor and below encompasses a large field. Hydrothermal Vents. Mid-ocean Ridges. Natural Oil Seeps. Ocean Trenches. Seamounts. Underwater Volcanoes. Although the oceans cover most of Earth, the the tiny sliver of the coastal ocean greatly influences ...
Hydrostatic pressure, which at depths found in ocean trenches can be up to 1,100 times that at the surface, is known to inhibit the activity of certain proteins. Paul Yancey from Whitman College will be investigating the role that piezolytes—small molecules that protect proteins from pressure— play in the adaptation of trench animals.