Landforms
The Mariana Trench
Also Known As Marianas Trench
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The Mariana Trench is the deepest known trench in Earth's oceans, a crescent-shaped scar in the seafloor of the western Pacific east of the Mariana Islands, formed where the Pacific Plate is subducted beneath the smaller Mariana Plate. Its lowest point, the Challenger Deep, has been visited by only a handful of crewed and robotic descents since its first sounding in 1875.
Facts
Length (km)The trench is crescent-shaped, about 2,550 km long and 69 km wide on average. Maximum Depth (m)Surveys of the Challenger Deep's exact maximum depth disagree by tens of meters depending on the instrument and expedition: figures from roughly 10,902 to 10,935 and 10,994 meters have all been published by credible oceanographic surveys, and no single figure is universally accepted as final. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The Mariana Trench marks the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate bends and subducts beneath the smaller Mariana Plate.
On Continent
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