How many people were at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Depth of the Mariana Trench. Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

A half-century-old black and white photograph shows the legendary Trieste bathyscaphe in preparation for a dive. The crew of two was in a spherical steel gondola. It was attached to a float filled with gasoline to provide positive buoyancy.

The deepest depression

The Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) is an oceanic trench, the deepest in the World Ocean. According to measurements in 2011, the bottom of the trough drops to a maximum of 10920 m. This is the data of organizations associated with UNESCO, and it approximately corresponds to the measurements made by landers, which showed a maximum depth of 10916 m. This place is called the Challenger Deep - after the English ship, who discovered the depression in the 19th century.

The depression is a tectonic fault.

In 2012, an American oceanographic expedition discovered four ridges up to 2.5 km high at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to the University of New Hampshire, they formed about 180 million years ago in the process of constant movement of lithospheric plates. The marginal part of the Pacific plate is gradually "leaving" under the Philippine one. And then folding is formed in the form of mountains near the boundary of the lithospheric plates.

In section, the Mariana Trench has a characteristic V-shaped profile with very steep slopes. The bottom is flat, several tens of kilometers wide, divided by ridges into several almost closed sections. The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is more than 1100 times higher than normal atmospheric pressure, reaching 3150 kg / cm 2.

The temperature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) is surprisingly high thanks to hydrothermal vents, nicknamed "black smokers". They constantly heat the water and maintain the overall temperature in the cavity at around 3°C.

The first attempt to measure the depth of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) was made in 1875 by the crew of the English oceanographic vessel Challenger during a scientific expedition across the World Ocean. The British discovered the Mariana Trench quite by accident, during the duty sounding of the bottom with the help of a lot (Italian hemp rope and lead weight). Despite the inaccuracy of such a measurement, the result was amazing: 8367 m. In 1877, a map was published in Germany, on which this place was marked as the Challenger Abyss.

A measurement made in 1899 from the American collier Nero showed already great depth: 9636 m.

In 1951, the bottom of the depression was measured by the English hydrographic vessel Challenger, named after its predecessor, unofficially referred to as the Challenger II. Now, with the help of an echo sounder, a depth of 10899 m was recorded.

The maximum depth indicator was obtained in 1957 by the Soviet research vessel "Vityaz": 11,034 ± 50 m. However, when taking readings, the change in environmental conditions at different depths was not taken into account. This erroneous figure is still present on many physical and geographical maps published in the USSR and Russia.

In 1959, the American research ship Stranger measured the depth of the trench in a rather unusual way for science - using depth charges. Result: 10915 m.

The last known measurements were made in 2010 by the American ship Sumner, they showed a depth of 10994 ± 40 m.

It is not yet possible to obtain absolutely accurate readings even with the help of the most modern equipment. The work of the echo sounder is hindered by the fact that the speed of sound in water depends on its properties, which manifest themselves differently depending on depth.

Dive into the Mariana Trench

The existence of the Mariana Trench has been known for quite some time, and there are technical possibilities for descending to the bottom, but in the last 60 years only three people have been able to do this: a scientist, a military man and a film director.

For the entire time of the study of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench), vehicles with people on board fell to its bottom twice and automatic vehicles fell four times (as of April 2017).

On January 23, 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste sank to the bottom of the abyss of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench). On board were the Swiss oceanographer Jacques Picard (1922-2008) and the US Navy lieutenant, explorer Don Walsh (born in 1931). The bathyscaphe was designed by the father of Jacques Picard - physicist, inventor of the stratospheric balloon and bathyscaphe Auguste Picard (1884-1962).

The descent of the Trieste lasted 4 hours 48 minutes, the crew periodically interrupted it. At a depth of 9 km, the plexiglass cracked, but the descent continued until the Trieste sank to the bottom, where the crew saw a 30-centimeter flat fish and some kind of crustacean creature. Having stayed at a depth of 10912 m for about 20 minutes, the crew began the ascent, which took 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Man made another attempt to descend to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench) in 2012, when American film director James Cameron (born 1954) became the third to reach the bottom of the Challenger Abyss. Previously, he repeatedly dived on Russian Mir submersibles in Atlantic Ocean to a depth of more than 4 km during the filming of the movie "Titanic". Now, on the Dipsy Challenger bathyscaphe, he descended into the abyss in 2 hours and 37 minutes - almost a widow faster than the Trieste - and spent 2 hours and 36 minutes at a depth of 10898 m. After which he rose to the surface in just an hour and a half. At the bottom, Cameron saw only creatures that looked like shrimp.

The fauna and flora of the Mariana Trench are poorly studied.

In the 1950s Soviet scientists during the expedition of the ship "Vityaz" discovered life at depths of more than 7 thousand meters. Before that, it was believed that there was nothing alive there. Pogonophores were discovered - a new family of marine invertebrates that live in chitinous tubes. Disputes about their scientific classification are still going on.

The main inhabitants of the Mariana Trench (Marian Trench), living at the very bottom, are barophilic (developing only at high pressure) bacteria, the simplest creatures of foraminifera - unicellular in shells and xenophyophores - amoeba, reaching 20 cm in diameter and living by shoveling silt.

Foraminifera managed to get the Japanese automatic deep-sea probe "Kaiko" in 1995, plunged to 10911.4 m and took soil samples.

Larger inhabitants of the gutter live throughout its thickness. Life at depth has made them either blind or with highly developed eyes, often telescopic. Many have photophores - organs of luminescence, a kind of bait for prey: some have long shoots, like an anglerfish, while others have it all right in their mouths. Some accumulate a luminous liquid and, in case of danger, douse it with the enemy in the manner of a "light curtain".

Since 2009, the territory of the depression has been part of the American Marine Conservation Zone. national monument Mariana Trench with an area of 246608 km 2. The zone includes only the underwater part of the trench and the water area. The reason for this action was the fact that the Northern Mariana Islands and the island of Guam - in fact, American territory - are the island boundaries of the water area. The Challenger Deep is not included in this zone, as it is located on the oceanic territory of the Federated States of Micronesia.

general information

Location: west Pacific Ocean.
Origin: tectonic.
Administrative affiliation :

Numbers

Length: 2550 km.
Width: 69 km.
Challenger Abyss : depth - about 11 km, width - 1.6 km.
deepest point : 10 920 ± 10 m (Challenger Deep, 340 km southwest of Guam Island (USA), 2011).
Average steepness of the slope : 7-9°.
bottom pressure: 106.6 megapascals (MPa).
Nearest islands : 287 km southwest of Fais Island (Yap Islands, Federated States Micronesia); 304 km. northeast of the island of Guam (unincorporated organized territory of the United States).
Average water temperature at the bottom : +3.3°С.

Curious facts

To emphasize the dimensions of the depression, its depth is often compared with the high mountain Earth - Everest (8848 m). It is proposed to imagine that if Everest were at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, there would still be more than two kilometers from the top of the mountain to the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The research vessel "Vityaz" is a 109-meter single-screw double-deck motor ship with a displacement of 5710 tons. It was launched in 1939 at the German shipyard "Schihau" in Bremerhaven (Germany). Initially, it was a cargo-passenger ship called "Mars". During the Second World War, it was a military transport, took out more than 20 thousand refugees from East Prussia. After the war, on reparations, he first ended up in England, then in the USSR. Since 1949 - a research vessel of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, named "Vityaz" in memory of the famous Russian corvettes of the 19th century. Depicted on postage stamps of the USSR. Since 1994, it has been permanently moored at the pier of the Museum of the World Ocean in the very center of Kaliningrad. Design feature: winches for anchoring, trawling the bottom and taking soil samples at a depth of 11 thousand meters.
To date, only 5% of the ocean floor has been studied in relatively detail.
In 1951, after the members of the Challenger expedition measured the depth of the chute with an echo sounder (10,899 m), it was decided - just in case - to measure it with a good old rope lot. The measurement showed a slight deviation: 10,863 m.
British writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), describing sinking to the bottom in his novel The Maracot Abyss deep sea basin, predicted future exploration of the Mariana Trench using controlled vehicles. His predictions turned out to be much more realistic than the description given earlier by the French science fiction writer Jules Verne (1828-1905) in the novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, where the Nautilus submarine descends to a depth of 16 thousand meters and rises to the surface, “ emerging from the water like a flying fish”, in just 4 minutes.
■ After descending into the Mariana Trench, the bathyscaphe Trieste was used more than once for deep sea diving. In 1963, with its help, the US Navy found the wreckage of the sunken nuclear submarine Thresher, lying at a depth of 2560 m, along with a crew of 129 people. As a result of numerous modifications, almost nothing from the original apparatus has been preserved. Currently, the bathyscaphe is on display in the hall National Museum US Navy in Washington DC.
Pogonophora underwater creatures are very difficult to explore. These are the thinnest filamentous worms, often only one tenth of a millimeter thick and up to two to three tens of centimeters long, moreover, they are enclosed in fairly strong tubes.

There are 5 oceans on Earth, which occupy a significant part of the land. Having conquered space and landed a man on the moon, sent autonomous spacecraft to the outermost planets of the solar system, people know negligible little about what is hidden in sea depths on your home planet.

What is the Mariana Trench?

This is the name of the deepest known place in the Pacific Ocean today. It is a trough formed by convergence tectonic plates. Max Depth The Mariana Trench is approximately 10,994 meters (data for 2011). There are other trenches in all the other oceans, but not as deep. Only the Java Trench (7729 meters) can be compared with the Mariana Trench.

Location

The deepest place on Earth is in the western Pacific Ocean Mariana Islands. The gutter stretches along them for one and a half thousand kilometers. The bottom of the depression is flat, its width is from 1 to 5 kilometers. The gutter got its name in honor of the islands next to which it is located.

"Challenger Abyss"

This name has the deepest place (10,994 meters) of the Mariana Trench. Here it must be clarified that it is not yet possible to obtain the exact dimensions of this gigantic trough of the ocean floor. The speed of sound at different depths is very different, and the Mariana Trench has a very complex structure, so the data obtained using the echo sounder is always slightly different.

Discovery history

People have long known that deep seas exist in the seas and oceans. In 1875, the English corvette Challenger opened one of these points. What depth of the Mariana Trench was recorded then? It was 8367 meters. The measurement instruments at that time were far from ideal, but even this result made a stunning impression - it became clear that the deepest point of the ocean floor on the planet had been found.

Gutter studies

In the 19th century, it was simply impossible to explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench. At that time, there was no technology to descend to such a depth. Without modern means of immersion, this was tantamount to suicide.

A re-examination of the trench took place many years later, in the next century. Measurements made in 1951 showed a depth of 10,863 meters. Then, in 1957, members of the Soviet scientific vessel "Vityaz" were engaged in the study of the depression. According to their measurements, the depth of the Mariana Trench was 11,023 meters.

The last study of the gutter was carried out in 2011.

Cameron's Great Journey

The Canadian director became the third person in the history of research into the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom. He was the first in the world to do it alone. Prior to its sinking, the trough was explored by Don Walsh and Jacques Picard in 1960 using the Trieste submersible. In addition, Japanese scientists tried to find out what the depth of the Mariana Trench is using the Kaiko probe for this. And in 2009, the Nereus apparatus descended to the bottom of the gutter.

Descent to such an incredible depth is associated with a huge number of risks. First of all, a man is threatened by a monstrous pressure of 1100 atmospheres. It can damage the body of the device, which will lead to the death of the pilot. Another serious danger that awaits when descending to a depth is the cold that reigns there. It can not only lead to equipment failure, but also kill a person. The bathyscaphe can collide with rocks and get damaged.

For many years, James Cameron dreamed of visiting the deepest point of the Mariana Trench - the "Challenger Abyss". In order to carry out his plan, he equipped his own expedition. Especially for this, an underwater vehicle was designed and built in Sydney - a single-seat bathyscaphe Deepsea Challenger equipped with scientific equipment, as well as photo and video cameras. In it, Cameron sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This event took place on March 26, 2012.

In addition to photographs and video filming, the Deepsea Challenger bathyscaphe had to take new measurements of the chute and try to give accurate data on its dimensions. Everyone was worried about one question: "How much?" The depth of the Mariana Trench, according to the readings of the apparatus, was 10,908 meters.

The director was impressed by what he saw below. Most of all, the bottom of the depression reminded him of a lifeless lunar landscape. He did not meet the terrible inhabitants of the abyss. The only creature he saw through the porthole of the bathyscaphe was a small shrimp.

After successful trip James Cameron decided to donate his bathyscaphe to the Oceanographic Institute so that it could continue to be used to explore the depths of the sea.

Creepy Dwellers of the Deep

The lower the bottom of the ocean, the less sunlight penetrates through the water column. The depth of the Mariana Trench is the reason that impenetrable darkness always reigns in it. But even the absence of light cannot become an obstacle to the origin of life. Darkness gives birth to beings who have never seen the sun. And they, in turn, have only recently been able to see marine biologists.

The sight is not for the faint of heart. Almost all the inhabitants of the Mariana Trench seem to be born from the imagination of an artist who creates monsters for horror films. Seeing them for the first time, you might think that they do not live next to a person on the same planet, but are alien creatures, they look so alien.

To some extent, this is true - very little is known about the oceans and their inhabitants. The bottom of the Mariana Trench has been explored to date less than the surface of Mars. Therefore, for a long time it was believed that at such a depth without sunlight life is impossible. It turned out that this was not the case. The depth of the Mariana Trench, gigantic pressure and cold are not an obstacle to the birth of amazing creatures living in complete darkness.

Most of them have an ugly appearance due to terrible living conditions. The pitch darkness reigning in the depths made the marine inhabitants of these places completely blind. Many fish have huge teeth, such as howliods, which swallow their prey whole.

What can living beings eat so far from the surface of the ocean? At the bottom of the depression, the remains of living organisms accumulate, forming a multi-meter layer of bottom silt. The inhabitants of the depths feed on these deposits. Predatory fish have luminous parts of the body with which they attract small fish.

The gutter is inhabited by bacteria that can develop only at high pressure, unicellular organisms, jellyfish, worms, molluscs, sea cucumbers. The depth of the Mariana Trench gives them the opportunity to reach very large sizes. For example, the amphipods found at the bottom of the gutter are 17 centimeters long.

Amoeba

Xenophyophores (amoebae) are single-celled organisms that can only be seen with a microscope. But at depth, these inhabitants of the Mariana Trench reach giant size- up to 10 centimeters. Previously, they were found at a depth of 7500 meters. An interesting feature of these organisms, in addition to their size, is the ability to accumulate uranium, lead and mercury. Outwardly, deep-sea amoebas look different. Some are disk or tetrahedral shaped. Xenophyophores feed on bottom sediments.

Hirondellea gigas

Amphipods (amphipods) large sizes were found in Mariana Trench. These deep-sea crayfish feed on dead organic matter that accumulates at the bottom of the depression and have a keen sense of smell. The largest specimen found was 17 centimeters long.

Holothurians

Sea cucumbers are another representatives of organisms that live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This class of invertebrates feeds on plankton and bottom sediments.

Conclusion

The Mariana Trench has not yet been properly explored. No one knows what creatures inhabit it and how many secrets it keeps.

Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the outer planets of the solar system, people explored only five percent of the ocean floor, which remains one of the greatest mysteries our planet.

Here are others Interesting Facts about what you can meet 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 a depth, we expect that it will be very cold there. 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 temperature of the water, which is hundreds of degrees above the boiling point, she does not boil here due to incredible pressure, 155 times higher than on the surface.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

2. Giant toxic amoeba

A few years ago, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, they discovered giant 10-centimeter amoebas, called xenophyophores.

These single-celled organisms probably got so big because of the environment they live in at a depth of 10.6 km. The cold temperature, high pressure, and lack of sunlight most likely contributed to these amoeba got huge.

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. Clams

The strong water pressure in the Mariana Trench does not give any animal with a shell or bones a chance to survive. However, in 2012, shellfish were discovered in a trough near serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which allows living organisms to form.

TO How did mollusks keep their shells under such pressure?, remains unknown.

In addition, hydrothermal vents release another gas, hydrogen sulfide, which is deadly 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 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, got its name from the bubbles that turned out to be carbon dioxide.

Many believe that these springs, called "white smokers" because of the lower temperature, 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 originate.

5. Slime

If we had the opportunity to swim to the very depths of the Mariana Trench, then we would feel that it covered with a layer of viscous mucus. Sand, in its usual form, does not exist there.

The bottom of the depression mainly consists of crushed shells and plankton residues that have accumulated at the bottom of the depression for many years. Due to the incredible pressure of the water, almost everything there turns into fine greyish-yellow thick mud.

Mariana Trench

6. Liquid sulfur

Volcano Daikoku, which is located 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 "cauldron", a seething black emulsion boils at 187 degrees Celsius. Although scientists have not been able to explore this place 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 all living and non-living things are 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 pass into the air and back to land again.

7. Bridges

At the end of 2011, in the Mariana Trench, it was discovered four stone bridge , which stretched 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. In the high 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 in one of the most mysterious and unknown places discovered these formations is amazing.

8James Cameron's dive into the Mariana Trench

Since opening most deep place Mariana Trench - "Challenger Deeps" in 1875, only three people were here. The first was an American lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Picard who dived on January 23, 1960 on the Trieste.

After 52 years, another person dared to dive here - a famous film director James Cameron. So March 26, 2012 Cameron went down to the bottom and took some photos.

Excellent students at school firmly learned: the highest point on earth is Mount Everest (8848 m), the deepest depression is Mariana. However, if we know a lot of interesting facts about Everest, then most people do not know anything about the trench in the Pacific Ocean, in addition to being the deepest.

FIVE HOURS DOWN, THREE HOURS UP

Even though the oceans are closer to us than Mountain peaks and even more so the distant planets of the solar system, people have explored only five percent of the seabed, which still remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet.

An average width of 69 km, the Mariana Trench was formed several million years ago due to shifts in tectonic plates and stretches in the shape of a crescent for two and a half thousand kilometers along the Mariana Islands.

Its depth, according to recent studies, is 10,994 meters ± 40 meters (for comparison: the Earth's equatorial diameter is 12,756 km), the water pressure at the bottom reaches 108.6 MPa - more than 1,100 times more than normal atmospheric pressure!

The Mariana Trench, which is also called the fourth pole of the Earth, was discovered in 1872 by the crew of the British research ship Challenger. The crew measured the bottom at various points in the Pacific Ocean.

In the area of the Mariana Islands, another measurement was made, but a one-kilometer rope was not enough, and then the captain ordered to add two more kilometer segments to it. Then more and more...

Almost a hundred years later, the echo sounder of another English, but under the same name, scientific vessel recorded a depth of 10,863 meters in the Mariana Trench. After that, the deepest point of the ocean floor began to be called the "Challenger Abyss".

In 1957, Soviet researchers already established the existence of life at depths of more than 7000 meters, thereby refuting the opinion that prevailed at that time about the impossibility of life at depths of more than 6000-7000 meters, and also clarified the data of the British, fixing a depth of 11,023 meters in the Mariana Trench .

The first human dive to the bottom of the trench took place in 1960. It was carried out on the Trieste bathyscaphe by the American Don Walsh and the Swiss oceanologist Jacques Picard.

The descent into the abyss took them almost five hours, and the rise - about three hours, at the bottom the researchers stayed only 20 minutes. But even this time was enough for them to make sensational discovery- in the bottom waters, they found flat fish up to 30 cm in size, unknown to science, similar to flounder.

LIFE IN PUT DARKNESS

In the course of further research using unmanned deep-sea vehicles it turned out that at the bottom of the depression, despite the terrifying pressure of water, a wide variety of species of living organisms live. Giant 10-centimeter amoeba - xenophyophores, which in normal, terrestrial conditions can only be seen with a microscope, amazing two-meter worms, no less huge sea stars, mutant octopuses and, of course, fish.

The latter amaze with their terrifying appearance. Their distinctive feature is a huge mouth and many teeth. Many open their jaws so wide that even a small predator can swallow an animal larger than itself whole.

There are also completely unusual creatures that reach a two-meter size with a soft jelly-like body, which have no analogues in nature.

It would seem that at such a depth the temperature should be at the level of the Antarctic. However, the Challenger Deep contains hydrothermal vents called "black smokers". They constantly heat the water and thereby maintain the overall temperature in the cavity at 1-4 degrees Celsius.

The inhabitants of the Mariana Trench live in pitch darkness, some of them are blind, others have huge telescopic eyes that catch the slightest glare of light. Some individuals have "lanterns" on their heads, emitting a different color.

There are fish in the body of which a luminous liquid accumulates. When they feel danger, they splash this liquid towards the enemy and hide behind this "curtain of light." Appearance such animals is very unusual for our perception, can cause disgust and even inspire a sense of fear.

But it is obvious that not all the mysteries of the Mariana Trench have yet been solved. Some strange animals of truly incredible sizes live in the depths!

THE LIZARD TRIED TO BUTTON THE BATHISCAFE LIKE A NUT

Sometimes on the shore, not far from the Mariana Trench, people find the bodies of dead 40-meter monsters. Giant teeth were also found in those places. Scientists have proven that they belong to a multi-ton prehistoric megalodon shark, whose mouth span reached two meters.

These sharks were thought to have died out about three million years ago, but the teeth found are much younger. So did the ancient monsters really disappear?

In 2003, another sensational study of the Mariana Trench was published in the United States. Scientists have loaded an unmanned platform equipped with searchlights, sensitive video systems and microphones in the deepest part of the world's oceans.

The platform descended on 6 steel cables of an inch section. At first, the technique did not give any unusual information. But a few hours after the dive, silhouettes of strange large objects (at least 12-16 meters) began to flicker on the monitor screens in the light of powerful searchlights, and at that time the microphones transmitted sharp sounds to the recording devices - the grinding of iron and deaf, uniform blows on metal.

When the platform was raised (never lowered to the bottom due to incomprehensible interference that prevented the descent), it was found that the powerful steel structures were bent, and the steel cables seemed to be sawn. A little more - and the platform would forever remain the "Challenger Abyss".

Earlier, something similar happened to the German apparatus "Hyfish". Having descended to a depth of 7 kilometers, he suddenly refused to emerge. To find out what the problem was, the researchers turned on the infrared camera.

What they saw in the next few seconds seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge prehistoric lizard, clinging its teeth to a bathyscaphe, tried to crack it like a nut.

Recovering from the shock, the scientists activated the so-called electric gun, and the monster, struck by a powerful discharge, hastened to retreat.

Giant 10 cm amoeba - xenophyophora

WHO IS THE REAL “OWNER” OF PLANET EARTH

But not only fantastic monsters fall into the field of view of deep-sea cameras. In the summer of 2012, the unmanned deep-sea submersible Titan, launched from the research vessel Rick Mesenger, was in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 10,000 meters. His main goal was to film and photograph various underwater objects.

Suddenly, the cameras recorded a strange multiple brilliance of a material very similar to metal. And then, a few dozen meters from the device, several large objects lit up in the spotlight.

Approaching these objects at the maximum allowable distance, the Titan gave a very unusual picture to the monitors of the scientists on the Rick Mesenger. On site at about square kilometer there were about 50 large cylindrical objects, very similar to ... flying saucers!

A few minutes after the recorded “UFO airfield”, the Titan stopped communicating and never surfaced.

There are a lot of well-known facts, which, if they do not confirm the possibility of the existence of intelligent beings in the depths of the sea, then, in any case, fully explain why modern science still knows nothing about them.

Firstly, the habitat native to humans - the earth's firmament - occupies only a little more than a quarter of the land surface. So our planet could well be called the Ocean planet, rather than the Earth.

Secondly, as everyone knows, life originated in water, so the marine mind (if it exists) is older than the human one by about one and a half million years.

That is why, according to some experts, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, due to the presence of active hydrothermal springs, not only entire colonies of prehistoric animals that have survived to this day can exist, but also an underwater civilization of intelligent beings unknown to earthlings! The “fourth pole” of the Earth, in the opinion of scientists, is the most appropriate place for their habitat.

And once again the question arises: is man the only "owner" of the planet Earth?

"FIELD" STUDIES PLANNED FOR SUMMER 2015

The third person in the entire history of the study of the Mariana Trench to descend to its bottom was exactly three years ago James Cameron.

“Practically everything on the earth’s land has been explored,” he explained his decision. - In space, the bosses prefer to send people circling the Earth, and send machine guns to other planets. For the joys of discovering the unknown, one field of activity remains - the ocean. Only about 3% of its water volume has been explored, and what’s next is unknown.”

On the DeepSes Challenge bathyscaphe, being in a half-bent state, since the internal diameter of the device did not exceed 109 cm, the famous film director watched everything that happened in this place until mechanical problems forced him to rise to the surface.

Cameron managed to take samples of rocks and living organisms from the bottom, as well as filming with 3D cameras. Subsequently, these shots formed the basis of a documentary film.

However, he never saw any of the terrible sea monsters. According to him, the very bottom of the ocean was "lunar ... empty ... lonely", and he felt "total isolation from all mankind."

Meanwhile, in the laboratory of telecommunications of Tomsk Polytechnic University, together with the Institute of Marine Technology Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the development of a domestic apparatus for deep-sea research, which can descend to a depth of 12 kilometers, is in full swing.

Specialists working on the bathyscaphe declare that there are no analogues of the equipment they develop in the world, and “field” studies of the sample in the waters of the Pacific Ocean are planned for the summer of 2015.

Started work on the project "Diving into the Mariana Trench in a bathyscaphe" and famous traveler Fedor Konyukhov. According to him, his goal is not just to touch the bottom deepest depression of the World Ocean, but also to spend two whole days there, conducting unique research.

The bathyscaphe is designed for two people and will be designed and built by one of the Australian companies.

Despite the fact that the oceans are closer to us than the outer planets of the solar system, people have explored only five percent of the ocean floor, which remains one of the greatest mysteries of our planet.

The deepest part of the ocean - the Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is one of the most famous places about which we don't know much.

With water pressure that is a thousand times greater than at sea level, diving into this place is akin to suicide.

But thanks modern technologies and a few daredevils who, risking their lives, went down there, we learned a lot of interesting things about this amazing place.

Mariana Trench on the map. Where is she?

The Mariana Trench or the Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean to the east (about 200 km) of the 15 Mariana Islands near Guam. It is a crescent-shaped trench in the earth's crust, about 2550 km long and 69 km wide on average.

The coordinates of the Mariana Trench are 11°22′ north latitude and 142°35′ east longitude.

Depth of the Mariana Trench

According to the latest research in 2011, the depth of the deep point The Mariana Trench is about 10,994 meters ± 40 meters. For comparison, the height of high peak world - Everest is 8,848 meters. This means that if Everest were in the Mariana Trench, it would be covered by another 2.1 km of water.