The+Mariana+Trench+-+Kelsey+Coley

The Mariana Trench is the world's deepest part of the earth's surface. The Mariana Trench is located west of North America in the Western part of the Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands, and to the South of Japan. The trench has a curved shape. It is 1580 miles (2550 km) long and it has a width of only 43 miles (69 km). It reaches a maximum depth of 11,033 meters at the Challenger Deep, a small slot-shaped valley in its floor, at its southern end. Part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc system, the trench forms the boundary between two tectonic plates, where the western edge of the **__PACIFIC PLATE__** is subducted beneath the small **__MARIANA PLATE__**. Because the Pacific Plate is the largest of all the tectonic plates in the world, crustal material at its western edge has had 170 million years to compact and become very dense; therefore its great height-difference, which translates to water depth, relative to the higher-riding Mariana Plate, at the point where the Pacific Plate crust is subducted. This deep area is the Mariana Trench proper. The movement of these plates is also responsible for the formation of the Mariana Islands. At the bottom of the trench, where the plates meet, **__the water column exerts a pressure of 108.6 MPa, over 1000 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level__.** There is also deep-sea life in the Mariana Trench. Some creatures of the type that is normally found in other deep-sea depths have been spotted in these waters. The Angler fish is one of them. Scientists have discovered several new deep-sea fish in the Mariana Trench. If the 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) Mount Everest mountain was placed in the Mariana Trench, then there would only be 2,076 meters (6,811 feet) of water left above it. Part of the Mariana Arc is the **__CHALLENGER DEEP__**. The Challenger Deep got its name from the British survey ship "Challenger 2". The Challenger Deep is full of **__HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE__. Hydrostatic Pressure is the greatest pressure of water that is on you. An example of this is diving or swimming to the deepest end of the pool. Like diving into a 10 foot deep pool and feeling your ears pop and feeling harder pressure on your body. The Challenger deep is deep because of the thin layer of the earth's crust. In fact the Challenger Deep's crust has huge plates of thin crust that "float" on the molten rock on the earth's mantle. In 1984 the Japanese sent a highly specialized survey vessel down into the Challenger Deep and found out that the Challenger Deep was 35,838 feet deep. The Mariana Trench does have active volcanoes. It is also part of the "RING OF FIRE". The "RING OF FIRE" is a chain of active volcanoes. ** The plates invovled with the Mariana Arc are the Philippine Plate, Pacific Plate, and Mariana Plate. All these plates have been subducting over each other for many years. That is basically why the Mariana Trench developed. It was because of the subducting plates that kept overriding each other. That is how trenches are formed. The Mariana Arc is always going to be full of surprises and changes for the next million years of its life. Remember, the Mariana Trench, A.K.A Challenger Deep, has been full of volcanic action and full of deep-sea life. No matter what happens, the earth's land and sea is always changing course.