MarianaTrench

Mariana Trench, also called Marianas Trench, is a deep-sea trench in the floor of

the western North Pacific Ocean. It is located just east of the 14 Mariana Islands near Japan. It is the deepest of the Earth's

oceans, and the deepest location on the Earth itself. The very deepest reaches of the

sea are one of the planet's last true frontiers. The challenger deep is the

deepest part of the Mariana Trench that measures at a depth of 36,070 feet below sea level. If Mt. Everest were placed at this

location it would be covered by overone mile of water!

The deepest part of the World's ocean

The Mariana Trench is located at a convergent plate boundary. Here two converging plates of oceanic lithosphere collide with one another. At this collision point, one of the plates descends into the mantle. At the line of

contact between the two plates, the downward flexure forms a trough known as an ocean trench. An example of an ocean trench is shown in the diagram. Ocean trenches form some of the deepest locations in Earth's oceans.The first depth measurements in the Mariana Trench were made by the British survey ship HMS Challenger, which was used by the Royal Navy in 1875 to conduct research in the trench. The greatest depth that they recorded was 26,850 feet. In 1951, another Royal Navy vessel returned to the area for additional measurements and by using echo sounding, they determined it to be 35,760 feet. The most recent measurement done in 2010 by the United States Center for Coastal & Oceanic Mapping, determined 36,070 feet (6.83 miles).

Why is the ocean so deep here?

Only twice has man reached the depths of the Mariana Trench. The first time humans descended into the Challenger Deep was in 1960 by Jacques Piccard and Navy Lt. Don Walsh in a U.S. Navy submersible called the 'Trieste'. After a five hour descent, the pair spent a short 20 minutes at the bottom and were unable to take any photographs due to

clouds of silt stirred up by their passage. It was on this trip when they finally realized that life could exist in the greatest depths of the ocean! Piccard believed he saw a flatfish, resembling a Sole. It was always thought the pressure was so great that calcium can't exist except in solution, so the bones of vertebrates would literally dissolve. No bones, no fish. But nature proved scientist wrong with its remarkable capacity for adaption.

Travel to the depths of the ocean

What do you think exists at the bottom of the Ocean?

The Majority of the Mariana Trench is now a U.S. protected zone

as part of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument,

established by President George W. Bush in 2009. Permits for

research in the monument have been secured from the U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service. Permits for research in the Challenger Deep

have been secured from the Federated States of Micronesia.

The pressure exerted by the water column at the bottom of the trench is over thousand times greater than the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level!

Facts!

The temperature of water at the

Mariana Trench varies between 1

degree Celcius to 4 degrees

Celcius. Meaning it is near the

freezing point and is constant

contact could be unbearable for

humans.

According to the findings of research, the trench is regarded as one of the world's oldest seabeds, and it is about 180 million years old.

Very hot water is being emitted by the vents at a temperature of 450 degrees Cecius. At this temperature it does not boil because of the very high pressure exerted by the water column above.

Located at the depth of about 1358 feet on the way to the Mariana Trench, there is Daikoku volcano which is the source of one of the rarest phenomena on the planet. In the pit, called "pot", there is a lake of pure molten sulfur, a seething black emulsion that is boiling at 187 degrees Celcius.

Discovered in 2005, the Champagne

Vent was initially regarded as the

source of harmless water, but closer

inspection revealed that is was

emitting pure carbon dioxide. Owing

to the presence of bubbles, it was

named as the Champagne Vent.

Humans can't survive at this depth because of the pressure and temperature. How do you think sea animals

are surviving at this depth?

The water pressure of 8 tons per square inch at the bottom of the trench equals as many as 50 jumbo jets placed on top of a person!

If you had a chance, would you travel to the Mariana Trench?

Creatures of the Mariana TrenchDumbo OctopusThis octopus has dumbo-the-elephant -like ears atop its 12-inch body. It has wiggly eyes and a puckered mouth that only adds to its cartoonish look. It may look dainty, but its acutally durable enough to make it to the deepest part of the ocean. It has webbed tentacles that give them an umbrella appearance. The effect is something like a starfish with a balloon head. This species does not chomp and grind its food, instead it simply swallows it's prey whole.

Deep-Sea DragonfishThe dragonflish is an assassin of the unfathomable deep. It is a fish with oversized teeth, hideous face, no scales, but instead a slippery, slimy skin that resembles an eel's. They are about 6 inches long and prefer to swim where the waters are lightless and cold. This fish relies primarily on bioluminescent body parts, which leverage internal

chemical reactions to produce an eerie glo. The fish may use this glow to communicate with other fish or to provide camouflage. It also dangles a lighted barbel , and other fish mistake it for an easy meal. But in a flash, the dragonfish gets lunch instead. Some dragonflish also have evolved the abiltiy to produce a red glow. which may be used to signal their family, but it's more likely they're using the red light to illuminate prey just before an attack.

Barreleye FishThe Barreleye Fish has a transparent head. Inside that head are two sensitive barrel-shaped eyes which are most frequently pointed upwards, allowing the fish to see silhouettes of its prey. As for the clear head, scientists think this feature may simply allow the fish to collect just a little more light, which may give this strange animal a bit more of an advantage over its competition. The barreleye was not discovered until 1939, when it was pulled from its habitat 2,500 feet below the surface. Specimens were not ideal because the body collapsed in the pressure change from deep to shallow. Scientists now have access to deep-diving remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) equipped with light and cameras that can withstand the pressure, they're able to observe the barreleye fish more closely. This odd fish still holds many secrets, leaving scientists puzzling over its lifecycle and reproductive patterns.

Which animal would you like to come across swimming in the ocean?

BenthocodonThe Benthocodon is an unusual type of jellyfish that prefers an environment far out at sea at depths of more than 2,500 feet, often right on the seafloor. They are compact jellyfish with a rounded top, called the bell. The bell is typically smaller than three-quarters of an inch to 1.2 inches in diameter. It is laced with an estimaed 1,500 wispy red tentacles, which it uses to whisk itself through the water. The benthocodon dines on small crustaceans and tiny unicellular organisms.

This jellyfish has an opaque reddish coloring on its bell. Scientists believe that this hue may help mask the bioluminescent glow of the tiny animals that the jellyfish eats, hiding the benthocodon from danger.

Seadevil AnglerfishThe seadevil has the most unusual looks! It is a fish that could've swum up straight from hell, with its misshapen body, razorlike teeth and cold death stare. Although they are bizarre and scary looking, at least they're not huge. Females generally get about 8 inches long. The males are much smaller, at maybe an inch long. During reproduction, the males actually fuse themselves to the females. Their fins, teeth and eyes disappear, along with a few internal organs, ultimatley turning the two individuals into one. What's left of the male's body essentially becomes a storage tank for sperm that will help fertilize the female's eggs when the time is right. When hunting for food, it has a protrusion from it's forehead that dangles a glowing lure to attract starstruck, luckless animals. With its huge, gaping jaws, the seadevil can actually devour creatures larger then itself.

Goblin SharkGoblin sharks have a protruding snout that looks like a pointy sword. Just below the snout are a set of protruding jaws that appear to be mismatched for the shark's face, as if evolution spun the wheel of ugly and the goblin shark lost in the worst possible way. But

what is interesting is that their skin has a distinct pink hue. They can grow as big as 18 feet in length! They typically cruise at a depth of 3,000 feet, and the older they get, the deeper they dive. Very little is known about the goblin sharks or how they reproduce, because a pregnant female has never been captured.

There is no light deep in the ocean, how do you think they get around?

Deep Sea HatchetfishThe deep-sea hatchetfish resembles a silvery swimming hatchet! There are more than 40 species of hatchetfish. They have ridiculously skinny bodies, and many of them have shiny scales too, which adds to the metallic, hatchetlike appearance. They're small fish, and even the biggest types grow only to about 6 inches. The hatchetfish have bioluminescent bodies, and they can alter the brightness of their glow depending on how much light is filtering from above. In doing so, they're conterilluminating their bodies in a clever camouflage technique. Thier dim, self-produced light reduces their silhouettes, making it much more difficult for predators to spot them from below.

Frilled SharkFrilled sharks look like a mix-and-match in the evolutionary store. They have the rounded body of an eel paired with a flattened head that would look like it came from a terrestrial dinosaur. This shark has six rows of frilly gills that grace its body, which grows up to 6 feet long. The shark yields more than 20 rows of wicked, trident-shaped teeth that will tear into any bit of flesh that passes near them.

They spend most of their life near the ocean's bottom, and they like waters more than 4,000 feet deep. Scientists think that these sharks may actually strike their prey with the action of a land-based snake, making them even wierder.

Telescope OctopusTelescope octopuses float and dangle in the deepest currents of Earth's ocean. It likes to drift at depths greater than 6,500 feet. It does not swim horizontally, but rather suspends itself vertically, perhaps to make it harder for deeper predators to see its shape. It's body is so clear that it's nearly transparent, and between each of its eight tentacles is a delicate webbing that lends this species a ghostly shape. The octopus has two protruding eyeballs that provide wider peripheral vision so that the octopus can see predators and prey alike. These eyes also rotate, perhaps offering the creature an even better way to see through the darkness of its deep haven.

Zombie WormIt's official name is called the osedax, named for its feather appearance. But don't let the soft feathery appearance fool you, it can consume the rock-hard bones of some of Earth's biggest animals, including whales. The zombie worm secretes acids to help it access the inner contents of those dead whale bones. Then, it uses symbiotic bacteria to convert the bone's protiens and fats into nutrients that serve as its food. Its feathery "branches" wiggle in the water, pulling in oxygen to keep the worm alive.

"Extraordinary" levels of pollutants found in the deep Mariana Trench

Scientists have discovered "extraordinary" levels of toxic pollution in the most remote and inaccessible place on the planet. Small crustaceans that live in the pitch-black waters of the trench, captured by a robotic submarine, were contaminated with 50 times more toxic chemicals than crabs that survive in heavily polluted rivers in China.

Scientists found two key types of severely toxic industrial chemicals that were banned in the late 1970's, but do not break down in the environment. So how do the chemicals get so far deep into the ocean? Scientists suggest that the chemicals infiltrate the deep part of the oceans as dead animals and particles of plastic fall downwards. The chemicals accumulate in fat and are therefore concentrated in creatures up the food chain. (as they are eaten by other animals) They are also water-repellent and so stick to plastic waste. Then the scavenging animals consume any little bit of organic material on the bottom....making the contamination levels very high. What is amazing is that the trenches are miles away from any industrial sources and this suggests that the delivery of these pollutants occurs over long distances despite regulation since the 1970's. These chemicals cause a wide range of damage to life, particularly reproductive success. Scientists are also studying deep sea animals for evidence of plastic pollution, which presents a new concern for

1. Do you think it is important to continue research in the Mariana Trench?2. How do you think the animals have adjusted to living so deep in the ocean waters?3. How do you think the pollution from humans will affect the animals deep in the Mariana Trench?4. What are ways we can prevent the polluting of the oceans?5. Why do you think the animals deep in the Mariana Trench are so different than the animals we have seen in the shallower oceans?6. Do you think science will advance to the point where humans will be able to explore deep in the ocean trenches?

ENGAGING QUESTIONS

Curious Dragonfly LLCTrina Terrellwww.curiousdragonfly.com303.903.5319