Deepsea Challenger: Cameron at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Depth of the Mariana Trench
Neil Shusterman
Challenger Deep
Illustrations by Brendan Shusterman
Translation of Catherine de Froid
Editing: Anna Bulycheva, sonate10
Dedicated to Dr. Robert Woods
1. Fi-fi-fo-fam
You know two things. First, you were there. And secondly, you couldn’t be there.
To keep these two incompatible facts in your head, you need to be good at juggling. Of course, to make it look nice, the juggler needs three balls. The third is time, which jumps higher than we would all like.
It's five in the morning. There's a battery-powered clock on your bedroom wall that ticks so loudly that you sometimes have to smother it with a pillow. And yet, somewhere in China it is not five in the morning, but five in the evening - on a global scale, incompatible facts get along well with each other. But you already remember that directing your thoughts to China is not always wise.
Your sister is sleeping behind the wall, next is your parents’ room. Dad snores. When mom gets tired of it, she will push him until he rolls over on his side. Then the snoring will cease, perhaps until dawn. All this is normal and familiar - what a relief!
Across the street on a neighbor's property, the sprinklers have turned on, their hiss drowning out the ticking of the clock. You can smell water dust through the window - a little bleach and a lot of fluoride. How wonderful, your neighbor's lawn will have healthy teeth!
It's the water sprinklers hissing, not the snakes.
And the dolphins painted on my sister’s wall aren’t up to anything.
And the scarecrow is not watching you.
And still, sometimes you can't sleep at night because you're juggling with concentration. What if one of the balls falls? What then? You're afraid to imagine. Because this is just what the Captain is waiting for. He knows how to endure. And he waits. Forever.
Even when there was no ship yet, the Captain was already there.
The journey began with him, and you suspect that it will end with him. And everything in between is nothing more than flour between the millstones. Or are these not mills, but giants grinding bones into flour?
Sneak around on tiptoe, otherwise you will disturb their peace.
2. It takes forever to fly.
“It’s impossible to say how deep it is,” says the captain. His left whisker twitches like a rat's tail. - If you fall into this bottomless abyss, it will be many days before you reach the bottom.
But the depth of the depression has already been measured,” I dare to interject. - We've already gone down there. It so happens that I know its exact depth - six and eight tenths of a mile.
You know? - he mimics. - What can a trembling underfed puppy like you know? You can't see anything beyond the tip of your wet nose! - He laughs at the way he described me. Having spent his entire life at sea, the captain is covered with wrinkles, although most of them are hidden under a dark, tangled beard. Laughter causes wrinkles to tighten, so that muscles and tendons appear on the neck. - That's right: the sailors who swam into the waters of the depression boasted that they saw the bottom, but they are lying. And their lies are spread out like a carpet, and the dust is beaten out of it - and rightly so.
I've stopped trying to understand the captain's speeches, but they still get on my nerves. Maybe I'm missing something. Something very important and so deceptively simple that it will not reach me until it is too late.
This journey takes forever,” the captain continues. - And don't let anyone dissuade you.
3. We will help you
I have a dream like this. I'm lying on the table in a too-brightly lit kitchen, where everything shines white. It's not that the kitchen is new - rather, it pretends to be so. Plastic and a little chrome - but mostly plastic.
I can't move. Or I don't want to. Or I'm afraid. Every time I have this dream, everything is a little different. There are people around me, only they are not people, but disguised monsters. They got into my head, pulled out several images and put on masks of people I love. But I know it's just a hoax.
They laugh and discuss something incomprehensible, and I am frozen among these masks, in the very center of attention. They admire me, but in the same way they usually admire something that will soon disappear.
“In my opinion, you took it out early,” says the monster with the face of a mother. - He's not ready yet.
There is only one way to check,” answers the other, pretending to be my father. I feel everyone around me laughing. The laughter does not come from their mouths because the masks' mouths are motionless. Laughter is in their thoughts, flying at me from the eye slits like poisoned darts.
“We will help you,” says one of the monsters. Their stomachs growl louder than a volcanic eruption. The monsters reach out to me and tear my lunch into pieces with their claws.
4. They will get you
I don't remember when our voyage began. It seems that I have been here forever, although this could not have happened, because before that there was something - on last week, a month ago or even last year. However, I'm pretty sure I'm still fifteen. Even if I have sailed on this ancient wooden vessel for many years, I am still fifteen. Time works differently here. It moves not forward, but sideways, like a crab.
I don't know most of the crew members. Or I just don’t remember them, for me they all look the same. There are old people here, they seem to have been born in the sea. They are ship's officers, so to speak. These are salty pirates like the captain, with black false teeth. They, like the captain, are Halloween pirates with teeth smeared with black paint, knocking on the gates of hell shouting “Trick or Treat!” I would laugh at them if I weren’t afraid deep down that they would gouge out my eyes with their plastic hooks.
There are people like me here - just children, kicked out of warm homes (or from cold houses, or even from the street) for their sins by the secret agreement of their parents, whose watchful eye sees everything no worse than Big Brother.
My comrades, boys and girls, go about their business and only turn to me with phrases like: “Move aside!” or: “Get your hands off my things!” As if any of us had anything worth stealing. Sometimes I try to help them with something, but they turn away or push me away, offended by the very fact that I offered to help.
I always imagine that mine is floating on the ship too. younger sister, although I know that she is not here. Shouldn't I help her with math now? In my thoughts I see that she has been waiting for me for an eternity, but I don’t know where she is. I understand that I won’t get to it today. How can I do this to her?
Everyone who sails with us is closely watched by the captain, whose face is partly familiar, partly not. It seems he knows everything about me, although I know nothing about him.
My job is to run my fingers into the heart yours business,” he once said.
The captain has an eye patch and a parrot. The parrot also has an eyepatch and an intelligence officer badge on its neck.
I shouldn't be here! - I appeal to the captain, wondering if I’ve said this before. “I have tests coming up, essays haven’t been submitted, and dirty clothes are lying on the floor. And I also have friends waiting for me, many friends.
The captain's jaw does not move - he does not answer, but the parrot says:
Here you will also have many, many friends.
Some guy whispers in my ear:
Don't tell the parrot anything! Otherwise they will get to you.
5. I am a compass
What I feel cannot be expressed in words - or these words will belong to a language that no one will understand. My subconscious speaks in its own dialect. Joy turns into anger, which flows into fear, which becomes ironic surprise. The feeling as if you are jumping out of an airplane, with your arms outstretched wide, without a shadow of a doubt that you can fly, then you realize that you still can’t, and you are flying not only without a parachute, but also completely naked, and below you there is a huge a crowd with binoculars, and everyone laughs while you fly like a bullet towards your shameful fate.
The navigator advises me not to worry. He points to the parchment paper pad where I often draw to pass the time:
“Pour your feelings into patterns and colors,” he says. - Pattern-shame-scared-rich, your real wealth is in your drawings - they grab me, shout to me, force me to look. My maps show the way, but your vision gives the direction. You are the compass, Caden Bosch. You are a compass!
If I’m a compass, then I’m of little use,” I notice. - I don’t even know where north is.
How do you know? - the navigator answers. - Only in these waters does the north constantly chase its own tail.
I remember a friend of mine who believed that north is wherever he faces. Perhaps there was something in this.
The navigator has been sharing a cabin with me since my former neighbor, whom I can barely remember, disappeared in an unknown direction. There is not enough room here even for one, but there are two of us.
The Mariana Trench, or Mariana Trench, is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest geographical feature known on Earth.
Studies of the Mariana Trench were initiated by the expedition (December 1872 - May 1876) of the English ship HMS Challenger, which carried out the first systematic measurements of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. This military three-masted corvette with sail rigging was rebuilt as an oceanographic vessel for hydrological, geological, chemical, biological and meteorological work in 1872.
Also, a significant contribution to the study of the Mariana deep-sea trench was made by Soviet researchers. In 1958, an expedition on the Vityaz established the presence of life at depths of more than 7000 m, thereby refuting the prevailing idea at that time about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6000-7000 m.
“Vityaz” in Kaliningrad on eternal parking
Half a century ago, on January 23, 1960, it happened significant event in the history of the conquest of the world's oceans.
Bathyscaphe Trieste, piloted by French explorer Jacques Piccard (1922–2008) and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh, reached its deepest point ocean floor- the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench and named after the English ship Challenger, from which the first data about it were obtained in 1951. The dive lasted 4 hours 48 minutes and ended at 10911 m relative to sea level. In this terrible depths, where a monstrous pressure of 108.6 MPa (which is more than 1,100 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure) flattens all living things, the researchers made a major oceanological discovery: they saw two 30-centimeter fish similar to flounder swim past the porthole. Before this, it was believed that no life existed at depths exceeding 6000 m.
Thus, an absolute record for diving depth was set, which cannot be surpassed even theoretically. Picard and Walsh were the only people who visited the bottom of the Challenger Deep. All subsequent dives to the deepest point of the world's oceans, for research purposes, were made by unmanned robotic bathyscaphes. But there were not so many of them, since “visiting” the Challenger Abyss is both labor-intensive and expensive.
One of the achievements of this immersion, which had a beneficial effect on the ecological future of the planet, was the refusal nuclear powers from burial radioactive waste at the bottom Mariana Trench. The fact is that Jacques Picard experimentally refuted the prevailing opinion at that time that at depths above 6000 m there is no upward movement of water masses.
In the 90s, three dives were made by the Japanese Kaiko device, controlled remotely from the “mother” ship via a fiber-optic cable. However, in 2003, while exploring another part of the ocean, the towing steel cable broke during a storm and the robot was lost.
The underwater catamaran Nereus became the third deep-sea vehicle to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
On May 31, 2009, humanity again reached the deepest point of the Pacific, and indeed the entire world ocean - the American deep-sea vehicle Nereus sank into the Challenger failure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The device took soil samples and carried out underwater photo and video shooting on maximum depth, illuminated only by its LED spotlight.
In the hands of student Eleanor Bors - sea cucumber, living in the abyss itself and picked up by the Nereus apparatus.
During the current dive, Nereus' instruments recorded a depth of 10,902 meters. The indicator of “Kayko”, which first landed here in 1995, was 10,911 meters, and Picard and Walsh measured a value of 10,912 meters. Many Russian maps still show the value of 11,022 meters obtained by the Soviet oceanographic vessel Vityaz during the 1957 expedition. Of course, all this indicates the inaccuracy of the measurements, and not a real change in depth: no one carried out cross-calibration of the measuring equipment that gave the given values.
The Mariana Trench is formed by the boundaries of two tectonic plates: The colossal Pacific plate is moving under the not so large Philippine plate. This is a zone of extremely high seismic activity, part of the so-called Pacific volcanic fire ring, stretching for 40 thousand km, an area with the most frequent eruptions and earthquakes in the world. Most deep point The trench is the Challenger Deep, named after the English ship.
The depression stretches along the Mariana Islands for 1500 km; it has a V-shaped profile, steep (7-9°) slopes, flat bottom 1-5 km wide, which is divided by rapids into several closed depressions. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is more than 1100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean. The depression is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, in the zone of movement along faults, where the Pacific plate goes under the Philippine plate.
The inexplicable and incomprehensible have always attracted people, which is why scientists around the world want to answer the question: “What does the Mariana Trench hide in its depths?”
Can living organisms live at such great depths, and what should they look like, given the fact that they are pressed by huge masses of ocean waters, the pressure of which exceeds 1100 atmospheres? The challenges associated with exploring and understanding the creatures that live at these unimaginable depths are numerous, but human ingenuity knows no bounds. For a long time Oceanologists considered the hypothesis that at depths of more than 6000 m in impenetrable darkness, under monstrous pressure and at temperatures close to zero, life could exist as madness. However, the results of research by scientists in Pacific Ocean showed that in these depths, much below the 6000-meter mark, there are huge colonies of living organisms pogonophora (pogonophora; from the Greek pogon - beard and phoros - bearing), a type of marine invertebrate animals living in long chitinous, open on both sides ends of the tubes). IN Lately The veil of secrecy was lifted by manned and automatic underwater vehicles made of heavy-duty materials, equipped with video cameras. The result was the discovery of a rich animal community consisting of both familiar and less familiar marine groups.
Thus, at depths of 6000 - 11000 km, the following were discovered:
Barophilic bacteria (developing only at high pressure);
Of the protozoa - foraminifera (an order of protozoa of the subclass of rhizomes with a cytoplasmic body covered with a shell) and xenophyophores (barophilic bacteria from protozoa);
From multicellular - polychaete worms, isopods, amphipods, sea cucumbers, bivalves and gastropods.
At the depths no sunlight, no algae, constant salinity, low temperatures, abundance of carbon dioxide, enormous hydrostatic pressure(increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters). What do the inhabitants of the abyss eat?
The food sources of deep animals are bacteria, as well as the rain of “corpses” and organic detritus coming from above; deep animals or blind, or with very developed eyes, often telescopic; many fish and cephalopods with photofluoride; in other forms the surface of the body or parts of it glow. Therefore, the appearance of these animals is as terrible and incredible as the conditions in which they live. Among them are frightening-looking worms 1.5 meters long, without a mouth or anus, mutant octopuses, extraordinary sea stars and some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified at all.
Despite the fact that scientists have made a huge step in researching the Mariana Trench, the questions have not decreased, and new mysteries have appeared that have yet to be solved. And the ocean abyss knows how to keep its secrets. Will people be able to reveal them in the near future?
—> Satellite view of the depression <—
The Mariana Trench is the deepest place on Earth known to date, located in the western Pacific Ocean near the Mariana Islands. According to measurements in 2011, its depth is 10,994 ± 40 m below sea level.
Coordinates: The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep. It is located in the southwestern part of the depression, 340 km southwest of the island of Guam (point coordinates: 11°22′N 142°35′E (G) (O)).
The first exploration of the Mariana Trench was carried out by the British ship Challenger in 1875, but the first to find life at a depth of 6,000 meters were Russian researchers aboard the ship Vityaz in 1957.
The first deep-sea dive on Earth: the bathyscaphe "Century of Progress" in 1934 with Americans on board W. Beebe and O. Barton descended to a record depth for that time - 923 meters.
In 1953, Auguste Piccard dived on the bathyscaphe Trieste to a depth of 3154 meters, this was the maximum depth to which the device could dive before it was purchased by the US Navy in 1958 and was converted in 2 years in Germany into a device capable of diving to a depth of 11 km?! Maybe?!
Then, on January 23, 1960, oceanographer and designer Jacques Picard, together with Don Walsh and a US Air Force lieutenant, first sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
And this despite the fact that Jacques Piccard managed to dive to a depth of 11 km. back in 1960. The only thing that can be said here is how much technology has advanced in 2 years, incredible craftsmen.
All this also happened during the era of crushing victories of the United States in the technological sphere, for example, the flight to the Moon took place in the 60s, although the first man landed on the Moon in 69, and the flight was planned for September 61, i.e. they wanted to do everything at once and in almost one year.
Although until now, officially known vehicles involved in real dives and rescue operations, even in the filming of Hollywood films and in the filming of National Geographic films, were accepted only by the Mir deep-sea vehicles, owned by Russia, which have an official maximum diving depth of 6500 meters . As we see, this is not enough to sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. These devices were developed starting in 1980 by Russian and Finnish scientists; the body was based on marragen steel (cobalt, nickel, chromium, titanium). They managed to get a deep-sea vehicle only in 1987, but this device cannot dive below 7000 meters.
By the way, all dives to the bottom of the Mariana Trench were never official and were poorly covered because... took place under the control of the US Navy and under the cameras of the initiators of these dives.
Including the little-publicized dive of James Cameron (a Hollywood director), who supposedly sank alone to the bottom of the Mariana Trench on March 26, 2012, in the Deepsea Challenger bathyscaphe, which was developed in Australia and was strictly classified, even the name of the submarine was not disclosed until dives. Let us remind you who supported the last immersion project:
- American national the National Geographic company and the Swiss company Rolex. For those in the know, nothing needs to be explained.
Another strange point today is that little is known about any deep-sea vehicles that sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, although drawings and the devices themselves can be seen, for example, the bathyscaphe "Trieste" is a museum exhibit.
But everything is known about the bathyscaphes "Mir-1" and "Mir-2" and their real dives, including official, well-known video footage. These manned vehicles belong to the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh.
Here are quotes that speak about the political nature of this project; we recall that after the creation of the Worlds, the Finnish enterprise was closed.
“Under pressure from the CIA and the Pentagon, Rauma-Repola was forced to abandon the creation of deep-sea vehicles and the promising development of marine technologies. Such devices are needed in the construction and maintenance of oil platforms. One of the abandoned projects was the development of fuel cells. The Rauma-Repola company abandoned the production of oil platforms and is now mainly engaged in wood processing. Rauma-Repola was then the sixth largest concern in Finland and employed 18,000 people. Now its business in the field of metalworking is continued by the Metso concern.
“The company’s reputation as a manufacturer of “Worlds” is still at its best. According to Tauno Matomäki, international concerns are interested in deep-sea vehicles capable of diving to 12,000 meters and this is technically possible. Such a device is technically possible, but not politically. It can be bought, but it’s problematic to sell - the United States, after the mistake with the Mirs, is carefully monitoring this area, and all American deep-sea vehicles belong to the military department."
Judging by these quotes, it is clear that any approach to deep-sea research is fraught with danger for any companies that are not acceptable to the United States. Therefore, the conclusion about diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench can be made far from ambiguous.
There were also unmanned dives that were initiated by Japan and the United States.
- On March 24, 1995, the Kaiko probe (Japan) was lowered to the bottom
- On May 31, 2009, the automatic underwater vehicle "Nereus" (USA) sank to the bottom, by the way, it took all the official photographs and videos from the bottom of the depression and took soil samples.
The last dive to a depth of 9977 meters, which took place on May 9, 2014, sadly ended the automatic underwater vehicle "Nereus" (USA), which made a successful dive to greater depths in 2009, exploded some time after diving off the coast of New Zealand in the Kermadec Trench.
It’s strange that, seeing how dangerous and almost impossible it is for pilots to work at such a depth, they previously succeeded.
Quote from the US scientific community about what happened:
"The loss of the device was a huge loss for the US scientific community, because the device was the only one of its kind. For comparison, the DeepSea Challenger bathyscaphe, owned by film director James Cameron, is capable of diving to a depth of 10 thousand meters, but it cannot dive like that often as required for research."
The statement of the scientific community does not correspond to reality, according to National Geographic, the bathyscaphe "DeepSea Challenger" before plunging into the abyss, Challenger made 4 test dives almost in a row, one of them to a depth of 8 km (By the way, according to the research group, the device allegedly did not reach the bottom at 8 km dive because many devices failed, which they managed to restore in a matter of days by adding one line of code to the software). The question arises: who to believe? Some say that he cannot dive often, while others report that he can even do so. And another interesting fact: before Cameron dives to the bottom, 2 developers of this bathyscaphe die.
From this it should be concluded that the director plunged to a critical depth, risking his life for no reason. If it was possible to simply lower the device without a pilot and the value of the dive would not change, as was proven by the Nereus dive in 2009, the second dive of which ended sadly. If Cameron’s bathyscaphe is so vulnerable, how could he dive on it without risk? Human? If a subsequent dive is impossible, then the bathyscaphe was already on the verge of safety. It should be noted that Cameron is truly an obsessed person and his tenacity leaves no doubt.
Immediately after returning from another solo voyage (Chile - Australia) - 06/01/2014, Fedor Konyukhov said that he was ready to go to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and spend several days. And here are Fedor’s words during his last journey, when he sailed over the deepest place in the Southern Hemisphere, the Tongo Trench:
“By the way, yesterday I crossed the Tonga Trench - the deepest place in the South Pacific Ocean. There were more than ten kilometers of ocean water under the bottom. It’s such a big scale that takes your breath away! Not long ago I dived into the ocean to clean algae from the water intake system of a desalination plant. Then The depth was half as big, but when I looked down, I felt awe. A completely empty, endless black abyss lay beneath my feet. That’s where you really feel all your insignificance! When you look down, fear suddenly rises in your soul. I realized that in the ocean and in life it is better to always look forward than down. Another lesson from the Lord...”
Here's another confirmation Despite the fact that there were no dives into the Mariana Trench, the best minds have been fighting for several decades to break through the depth level, first at 5 km, then at 6 km (by the way, it was Cameron who invited Mira to star in Titanic, at that time their maximum diving depth was only 6 km no more), today, as you will see from the article They were able to descend to a depth of just over 6 km, but how much time had passed, 17 years. You understand how difficult this technological breakthrough is.
A little mysticism and other points of view can be seen in this film
Cameron's controversial dive. National Geographic film "Journey to the Center of the Earth or the Magnificent Lie from the Director."
There is such a film, we deliberately removed it from the article because... The deceitfulness of this video has no limits, but people willingly believe it.
Not only is there almost not a single real photograph from the bottom, the video mainly shows the director himself, plus all these people
they brazenly decided to laugh and showed the call of the director’s wife to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Well, this is generally beyond the bounds because... Not only does this violate safety regulations, but what state must a person be in in order to calmly talk to his wife and even be able to make a joke? Another indirect evidence that Cameron did not sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench is the fact that he was unable to take soil and water samples from the bottom; the hydraulics allegedly failed. The obvious desire to shoot blockbusters does not leave him for a second, he could not resist this time either, he had to make a film about the Hero of Reality, and no Hollywood films there, but only this time the leading role was not Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the director himself .
Here's a theatrical dive from a 1960 Rolex
a manned dive to such a depth is impossible today, and this video from Rolex shows that 2 volunteers were able to do this in 1960, let me remind you that before that the bathyscaphe "Trieste" was able to dive to a maximum of 3154 meters and here is a miracle in just 2 year they decided to plunge almost 11 km into the abyss.
In the film below you will hear with your own ears that American researchers claim that to this day this depth remains unconquered by man.
At the same time, truly adequate people do not dive pilots to such depths, but only the apparatus and that which is tested for several years before the dive.
In fact, basically everything is kept silent about real diving to great depths because... Most of them end with the disappearance of unmanned underwater vehicles.
In this film you can see footage of animals living at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, as well as some fragments of the bottom of the Mariana Trench
Photos:
Research vessel "Vityaz"
Bathyscaphe "Trieste"
Bathyscaphe "Trieste"
Bathyscaphe "Kaiko"
Bathyscaphe "Nereus" last dive May 09, 2014 New Zealand Kermadec Trench, last dive not because I haven't dived again yet, but because this deep-sea descent (naturally not manned) vehicle disappeared into the Kerbedek abyss (this is in the northeast of New Zealand ), at a depth of 9977 m (this is almost the bottom of the Kerbedek trench), communication with the device was interrupted, and the cables on which it descended were simply torn off. Moreover, it was the only one of its kind; the cost of this device was $8 million. The device made test dives to shallow depths almost every year, and deep-sea dives only once 4-5 years. It should be noted that the connection suddenly disappeared, the operator simply saw that the image on the monitor had disappeared, control was lost.
The researchers sailed to a safe distance and waited for the device to surface. Yes, indeed, the wreckage of the device surfaced, but only the next day. There are many assumptions, but the main version, as always, is a common failure - pressure in the ocean.
"Nereus" was the property of WHOI (Woods Knole Oceanographic Institution). Let me remind you that this is the only device that, as stated, visited the bottom of the Mariana Trench and provided scientific evidence of being at the bottom, including photos and videos (this video is present in the article) materials.
This apparatus, according to many oceanologists, was the only one of its kind, as if hinting, but not saying out loud, that no apparatus could actually dive to such depths.
Cameron before diving into the Mariana Trench, we advertise a Rolex with supposedly the first person to visit the bottom of the trench.
It’s a strange feeling that before such a serious task, a dive that in almost 50% of cases will be unsuccessful, as unofficial statistics of deep-sea diving say
the person who is going to do this is advertising a watch. Even the word “nonsense” is a stretch.
Cameron's bathyscaphe DeepSea Challenger
The Kaiko probe left evidence of its arrival at the bottom of the depression.
Deep-sea manned vehicle "Mir-1"
The Mariana Trench is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, not far from the Mariana Islands, just two hundred kilometers away, thanks to its proximity to which it received its name. It is a huge marine reserve with the status of a US national monument, and therefore is under state protection. Fishing and mining are strictly prohibited here, but you can swim and admire the beauty.
The shape of the Mariana Trench resembles a colossal crescent - 2550 km long and 69 km wide. The deepest point - 10,994 m below sea level - is called the Challenger Deep.
Discovery and first observations
The British began to explore the Mariana Trench. In 1872, the sailing corvette Challenger entered the waters of the Pacific Ocean with scientists and the most advanced equipment of those times. After taking measurements, we established the maximum depth - 8367 m. The value, of course, is noticeably different from the correct result. But this was enough to understand: the deepest point on the globe had been discovered. Thus, another mystery of nature was “challenged” (translated from English as “Challenger” - “challenger”). Years passed, and in 1951 the British carried out “work on the mistakes.” Namely: the deep-sea echo sounder recorded a maximum depth of 10,863 meters.
Then the baton was intercepted by Russian researchers, who sent the research vessel Vityaz to the Mariana Trench area. In 1957, with the help of special equipment, they were not only able to record the depth of the depression as 11,022 m, but also established the presence of life at a depth of more than seven kilometers. Thus, making a small revolution in the scientific world of the mid-20th century, where there was a strong opinion that there are no and cannot be such deeply living creatures. This is where the fun begins... Many stories about underwater monsters, huge octopuses, unprecedented bathyscaphes crushed into a cake by the huge paws of animals... Where is the truth and where is the lie - let's try to figure it out.
Secrets, riddles and legends
The first daredevils who dared to dive to the “bottom of the Earth” were US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and explorer Jacques Picard. They dived on the bathyscaphe "Trieste", which was built in the Italian city of the same name. A very heavy structure with thick 13-centimeter walls was immersed in the bottom for five hours. Having reached the lowest point, the researchers stayed there for 12 minutes, after which an ascent was immediately begun, which took approximately 3 hours. At the bottom, fish were found - flat, flounder-like, about 30 centimeters long.
Research continued, and in 1995 the Japanese descended into the “abyss”. Another “breakthrough” was made in 2009 with the help of the automatic underwater vehicle “Nereus”: this miracle of technology not only took several photographs at the deepest point of the Earth, but also took soil samples.
In 1996, the New York Times published shocking material about the diving of equipment from the American scientific vessel Glomar Challenger into the Mariana Trench. The team affectionately nicknamed the spherical apparatus for deep-sea travel “the hedgehog.” Some time after the start of the dive, the instruments recorded terrifying sounds reminiscent of the grinding of metal on metal. “The Hedgehog” was immediately raised to the surface, and they were horrified: the huge steel structure was crushed, and the strongest and thickest (20 cm in diameter!) cable seemed to have been sawed off. Many explanations were immediately found. Some said that these were the “tricks” of the monsters inhabiting the natural object, others were inclined to the version of the presence of an alien intelligence, and still others believed that it could not have happened without mutated octopuses! True, there was no evidence, and all assumptions remained at the level of conjecture and conjecture...
The same mysterious incident occurred with a German research team that decided to lower the Haifish apparatus into the waters of the abyss. But for some reason he stopped moving, and the cameras impartially displayed on the monitor screens an image of the shocking size of a lizard that was trying to chew through the steel “thing.” The team was not at a loss and “scared away” the unknown beast with an electric discharge from the device. He swam away and never appeared again... One can only regret that for some reason those who came across such unique inhabitants of the Mariana Trench did not have the equipment that would allow them to photograph them.
At the end of the 90s of the last century, at the time of the “discovery” of the monsters of the Mariana Trench by the Americans, this geographical object began to become “overgrown” with legends. Fishermen (poachers) talked about glows from its depths, lights running back and forth, and various unidentified flying objects floating up from there. Crews of small ships reported that ships in the area were being “towed at great speed” by a monster possessing incredible strength.
Confirmed evidence
Depth of the Mariana TrenchAlong with many legends associated with the Mariana Trench, there are also incredible facts supported by irrefutable evidence.
Found a giant shark toothIn 1918, Australian lobster fishermen reported seeing a transparent white fish about 30 meters long in the sea. According to the description, it is similar to the ancient shark of the species Carcharodon megalodon, which lived in the seas 2 million years ago. Scientists from the surviving remains were able to recreate the appearance of a shark - a monstrous creature 25 meters long, weighing 100 tons and an impressive two-meter mouth with teeth 10 cm each. Can you imagine such “teeth”! And it was they who were recently found by oceanologists at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean! The “youngest” of the discovered artifacts… is “only” 11 thousand years old!
This find allows us to be sure that not all megalodons went extinct two million years ago. Perhaps the waters of the Mariana Trench hide these incredible predators from human eyes? Research continues; the depths still conceal many unsolved secrets.
Features of the deep sea world
The water pressure at the lowest point of the Mariana Trench is 108.6 MPa, that is, 1072 times higher than normal atmospheric pressure. A vertebrate animal simply cannot survive in such monstrous conditions. But, oddly enough, mollusks have taken root here. How their shells withstand such colossal water pressure is unclear. The discovered mollusks are an incredible example of “survival”. They exist next to serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which not only do not pose a threat to the “population” found here, but also contribute to the formation of living organisms in such a seemingly aggressive environment. But hydrothermal springs also emit gas that is lethal to shellfish - hydrogen sulfide. But “cunning” and life-hungry mollusks have learned to process hydrogen sulfide into protein, and continue, as they say, to live happily in the Mariana Trench.
Another incredible mystery of a deep-sea object is the Champagne hydrothermal spring, named after the famous French (and not only) alcoholic drink. It's all about the bubbles that “bubble” in the waters of the source. Of course, these are by no means bubbles of your favorite champagne - these are liquid carbon dioxide. Thus, the only underwater source of liquid carbon dioxide in the whole world is located precisely in the Mariana Trench. Such sources are called “white smokers”; their temperature is lower than the ambient temperature, and there is always vapor around them, similar to white smoke. Thanks to these sources, hypotheses were born about the origin of all life on earth in water. Low temperature, abundance of chemicals, colossal energy - all this created excellent conditions for ancient representatives of flora and fauna.
The temperature in the Mariana Trench is also very favorable - from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius. “Black smokers” took care of this. Hydrothermal springs, the antipode of “white smokers,” contain a large amount of ore substances, and therefore they are dark in color. These springs are located here at a depth of about 2 kilometers and spew out water whose temperature is about 450 degrees Celsius. I immediately remember a school physics course, from which we know that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. So what's going on? Is the spring spewing boiling water? Fortunately, no. It's all about the colossal water pressure - it is 155 times higher than on the surface of the Earth, so H 2 O does not boil, but it significantly “heats up” the waters of the Mariana Trench. The water of these hydrothermal springs is incredibly rich in various minerals, which also contributes to the comfortable habitat of living creatures.
Incredible facts
How many more mysteries and incredible wonders does this incredible place conceal? A bunch of. At a depth of 414 meters, the Daikoku volcano is located here, which served as further evidence that life originated here, at the deepest point of the globe. In the crater of the volcano, underwater, there is a lake of pure molten sulfur. In this “boiler”, sulfur bubbles at a temperature of 187 degrees Celsius. The only known analogue of such a lake is located on Jupiter’s satellite Io. There is nothing else like it on Earth. Only in space. It is no wonder that most hypotheses about the origin of life from water are associated precisely with this mysterious deep-sea object in the vast Pacific Ocean.
Let's remember a little school biology course. The simplest living creatures are amoebas. Tiny, single-celled, they can only be seen through a microscope. They reach, as it is written in textbooks, a length of half a millimeter. Giant toxic amoebas 10 centimeters long were discovered in the Mariana Trench. Can you imagine this? Ten centimeters! That is, this single-celled living creature can be clearly seen with the naked eye. Isn't this a miracle? As a result of scientific research, it was established that amoebas acquired such gigantic sizes for their class of single-celled organisms by adapting to the “unsweetened” life at the bottom of the sea. Cold water, coupled with its colossal pressure and the absence of sunlight, contributed to the “growth” of amoebae, which are called xenophyophores. The incredible abilities of xenophyophores are quite surprising: they have adapted to the effects of most destructive substances - uranium, mercury, lead. And they live in this environment, just like mollusks. In general, the Mariana Trench is a miracle of miracles, where everything living and nonliving is perfectly combined, and the most harmful chemical elements that can kill any organism not only do not harm living things, but, on the contrary, promote survival.
The local bottom has been studied in some detail and is not of particular interest - it is covered with a layer of viscous mucus. There is no sand there, there are only the remains of crushed shells and plankton that have been lying there for thousands of years, and due to water pressure have long since turned into thick grayish-yellow mud. And the calm and measured life of the seabed is disturbed only by the bathyscaphes of researchers that descend here from time to time.
Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench
Research continues
Everything secret and unknown has always attracted man. And with each secret revealed, new mysteries on our planet did not become fewer. All this fully applies to the Mariana Trench.
At the end of 2011, researchers discovered unique natural stone formations in it, shaped like bridges. Each of them stretched from one end to the other for as much as 69 km. Scientists had no doubt: this is where the tectonic plates – the Pacific and the Philippine – come into contact, and stone bridges (four in total) were formed at their junction. True, the very first of the bridges - Dutton Ridge - was opened in the late 80s of the last century. He impressed then with his size and height, which were the size of a small mountain. At its highest point, located just above the Challenger Deep, this deep-sea “ridge” reaches two and a half kilometers.
Why did nature need to build such bridges, and even in such a mysterious and inaccessible place for people? The purpose of these objects still remains unclear. In 2012, James Cameron, the creator of the legendary film Titanic, dived into the Mariana Trench. Unique equipment and powerful cameras installed on his DeepSea Challenge bathyscaphe made it possible to film the majestic and deserted “bottom of the Earth.” It is unknown how long he would have been observing local landscapes if some problems had not arisen on the device. In order not to risk his life, the researcher was forced to rise to the surface.
Together with The National Geographic, the talented director created the documentary film “Challenging the Abyss.” In his story about the dive, he called the bottom of the depression “the border of life.” Emptiness, silence, and nothing, not the slightest movement or disturbance of the water. No sunlight, no shellfish, no algae, much less sea monsters. But this is only at first glance. Over twenty thousand different microorganisms were found in the bottom soil samples taken by Cameron. Great amount. How do they survive under such incredible water pressure? Still a mystery. Among the inhabitants of the depression, a shrimp-like amphipod was also discovered that produces a unique chemical substance that scientists are testing as a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease.
While staying at the deepest point not only of the world's oceans, but of the entire Earth, James Cameron did not encounter any terrible monsters, or representatives of extinct animal species, or an alien base, not to mention any incredible miracles. The feeling that he was completely alone here was a real shock. The ocean floor seemed deserted and, as the director himself said, “lunar... lonely.” The feeling of complete isolation from all humanity was such that it cannot be expressed in words. However, he still tried to do this in his documentary. Well, you probably shouldn’t be surprised that the Mariana Trench is silent and shocking with its desolation. After all, she simply sacredly guards the secret of the origin of all life on Earth...
Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the distant planets of the solar system, people Only five percent of the ocean floor has been explored, which remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet.
Here are other interesting facts about what you can find along the way and at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench
1. Very hot water
Going down to such depths, we expect it to be very cold. The temperature here reaches just above zero, varying 1 to 4 degrees Celsius.
However, at a depth of about 1.6 km from the surface of the Pacific Ocean there are hydrothermal vents called “black smokers”. They shoot water that heats up to 450 degrees Celsius.
This water is rich in minerals that help support life in the area. Despite the water temperature being hundreds of degrees above boiling point, she doesn't boil here due to incredible pressure, 155 times higher than on the surface.
Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench
2. Giant toxic amoebas
A few years ago, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, giant 10-centimeter amoebas called xenophyophores.
These single-celled organisms likely became so large because of the environment they live in at a depth of 10.6 km. Cold temperatures, high pressure and lack of sunlight likely contributed to these amoebas have acquired enormous dimensions.
In addition, xenophyophores have incredible abilities. They are resistant to many elements and chemicals, including uranium, mercury and lead,which would kill other animals and people.
3. Shellfish
The intense water pressure in the Mariana Trench does not give any animal with a shell or bones a chance of survival. However, in 2012, shellfish were discovered in a trench near serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which allows living organisms to form.
TO How did mollusks preserve their shells under such pressure?, remains unknown.
In addition, hydrothermal vents emit another gas, hydrogen sulfide, which is lethal to shellfish. However, they learned to bind the sulfur compound into a safe protein, which allowed the population of these mollusks to survive.
At the bottom of the Mariana Trench
4. Pure liquid carbon dioxide
Hydrothermal source of Champagne The Mariana Trench, which lies outside the Okinawa Trench near Taiwan, is the only known underwater area where liquid carbon dioxide can be found. The spring, discovered in 2005, was named after the bubbles that turned out to be carbon dioxide.
Many believe these springs, called "white smokers" due to their lower temperatures, may be the source of life. It was in the depths of the oceans, with low temperatures and an abundance of chemicals and energy, that life could begin.
5. Slime
If we had the opportunity to swim to the very depths of the Mariana Trench, we would feel that it covered with a layer of viscous mucus. Sand, in its familiar form, does not exist there.
The bottom of the depression mainly consists of crushed shells and plankton remains that have accumulated at the bottom of the depression for many years. Due to the incredible water pressure, almost everything there turns into fine grayish-yellow thick mud.
Mariana Trench
6. Liquid sulfur
Daikoku Volcano, which lies at a depth of about 414 meters on the way to the Mariana Trench, is the source of one of the rarest phenomena on our planet. Here is lake of pure molten sulfur. The only place where liquid sulfur can be found is Jupiter's moon Io.
In this pit, called the "cauldron", there is a bubbling black emulsion boils at 187 degrees Celsius. Although scientists have not been able to explore this site in detail, it is possible that even more liquid sulfur is contained deeper. It may reveal the secret of the origin of life on Earth.
According to the Gaia hypothesis, our planet is one self-governing organism in which everything living and nonliving is connected to support its life. If this hypothesis is correct, then a number of signals can be observed in the natural cycles and systems of the Earth. So the sulfur compounds created by organisms in the ocean must be stable enough in the water to allow them to move into the air and return to land.
7. Bridges
At the end of 2011, it was discovered in the Mariana Trench four stone bridges, which extended from one end to the other for 69 km. They appear to have formed at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates.
One of the bridges Dutton Ridge, which was discovered back in the 1980s, turned out to be incredibly high, like a small mountain. At the highest point the ridge reaches 2.5 km over the Challenger Deep.
Like many aspects of the Mariana Trench, the purpose of these bridges remains unclear. However, the very fact that these formations were discovered in one of the most mysterious and unexplored places is surprising.
8. James Cameron's Dive into the Mariana Trench
Since opening the deepest part of the Mariana Trench - the Challenger Deep in 1875, only three people visited here. The first were American Lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Picard, who dived on January 23, 1960 on the ship Trieste.
52 years later, another person dared to dive here - a famous film director. James Cameron. So On March 26, 2012, Cameron sank to the bottom and took some photos.