Challenger Deep Ocean Floor

Darker blues represent deeper spots.

Challenger deep ocean floor. Challenger deep the deepest point in the mariana trench which is itself the deepest part of the ocean is therefore the deepest point on earth more than 36 000 feet below the ocean s surface. The name challenger deep is often used synonymously with earth s deepest point but challenger deep isn t a sounding or a single spot on the ocean floor. The challenger deep consists of three basins each 6 to 10 km 3 7 to 6 2 mi long 2 km 1 2 mi wide and over 10 850 m 35 597 ft in depth oriented in echelon from west to east separated by. Check out the amphipods at.

The challenger deep in the mariana trench is the deepest point in the ocean. For scale if mount everest the highest point on earth were dropped into challenger deep its summit would still not breach the surface. It s a deep more on this in a moment. If you inverted everest and plunged it into the mariana it highest craggy peak would fall short of the bottom by more than 7 000 feet 2 134 meters.

Estimates vary a little but at its blackest depths a crease called the challenger deep this abyss is close to 36 037 feet 10 984 meters or about 6 8 miles 10 9 kilometers deep. The challenger deep is the lowest point in the mariana trench a gap between tectonic plates that stretches 1 500 miles along the western pacific and is thought to be the deepest chasm in all the. On january 28 1986 america watched on television as the space shuttle challenger carrying six astronauts and one schoolteacher disappeared in a twisting cloud of smoke nine miles above the. The challenger deep is a relatively small slot shaped depression in the bottom of a considerably larger crescent shaped oceanic trench which itself is an unusually deep feature in the ocean floor.