Earth perspectives, 2/9: The Earth viewed over the Mariana Trench

2/9: The Earth viewed over the Mariana Trench




At the centre of the Earth view above is the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines. It is the deepest trench on Earth, reaching almost 11 kilometres below sea level. If Mount Everest were dropped into the Mariana Trench, its peak would still be over 1 kilometre underwater. Despite the trench’s geological and environmental extremity, both living organisms and human-made plastics have been found at its bottom – even the deepest point on earth is not beyond the reach of life or pollution. The deep ocean is a world without sunlight, of freezing temperatures and immense pressure, and it has remained largely unexplored by humans – ‘aquanauts’ – until recently. Some call it the Earth’s last frontier. As we learn more about what goes on in the dark, high-pressure depths of the Mariana Trench, we gain a window not only into our past and how life on Earth first took hold, but also into the capacity for adaptation and resilience that the creatures living in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet display.