What is the maximum depth of the sea

What is the deepest known depth of the sea?

Just as the highest mountains in the world are studied and what their peaks are, human beings have also tried to study what is the maximum depth of the seas and oceans. It is true that this is more difficult to calculate since knowing what is the maximum depth of the sea It requires very advanced technology. The human being cannot go down on foot or by swimming to the depths of the sea in the same way that he does with the mountains.

For this reason, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you about the maximum depth of the sea, its characteristics and what research there is about it.

Research

fish in the sea

After months of research, a team of scientists say we finally have the "most accurate" information yet about the deepest part of our planet. They are the result of a five-depth expedition that used the most advanced technology to date to map the largest depressions on the seabed in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic oceans.

Some of these sites such as the 10.924 meter deep Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, have been inspected many times. But the five-depth project also removed some remaining uncertainties.

For years, two places have competed for the deepest point in the Indian Ocean: part of the Java Trench off the coast of Indonesia and a fault zone in southwestern Australia. The rigorous measurement techniques employed by the Five Deeps team confirmed that Java was the winner.

But the depression At 7.187 meters deep, it is actually 387 meters lower than previous data suggested. Likewise, in the Southern Ocean, there is now a new place where we have to consider the deepest place. It is a depression called Factorian Abyss, at the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench, at a depth of 7.432 meters.

In the same trench, there is another deeper one to the north (Meteor Deep, 8.265 meters), but technically it is in the Atlantic Ocean, since the dividing line with the South Pole begins at 60º south latitude. The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean is the Puerto Rico Trench at 8.378 meters at a place called Brownson Deep.

The expedition also identified Challenger Deep at 10.924 meters in the Mariana Trench as the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean, ahead of Horizon Deep (10.816 meters) in the Tonga Trench.

What is the maximum depth of the sea

marine exploration

The new depth data was recently published in an article in the journal Geoscience Data. Its main author is Cassie Bongiovanni of Caladan Oceanic LLC, the company that helped organize Five Deeps. The expedition was led by Victor Vescovo, a financier and adventurer from Texas.

The former US Navy reservist wanted to be the first person in history to dive to the deepest point in all five oceans, and he achieved that goal when he reached a place at the North Pole called Molloy Deep (5.551 meters) on August 24, 2019. But while Vescovo was setting records in his submarine, his science team was taking unprecedented measurements of water temperature and salinity at all levels down to the seafloor.

This information is essential for correcting depth readings (known as pressure drops) from echo sounders on subsea support ships. Therefore, depths are reported with great precision, even if they have a margin of error of plus or minus 15 meters.

Ignorance about what is the maximum depth of the sea

Little is currently known about the seabed. Approximately 80% of the world's seabed remains to be surveyed using the modern technical standards used by Five Deeps. "Over a period of 10 months, while visiting these five sites, we mapped an area the size of mainland France," explained Heather Stewart, a team member from the British Geological Survey. "But within that area, there is another completely new area the size of Finland, where the seabed has never been seen before," she added. According to experts, this "only shows what can be done and what should be done."

All information collected will be provided to the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project, which aims to produce ocean depth maps from various data sources by the end of this decade.

ocean maps

The implementation of this type of map is important in many ways. They are, of course, essential for navigation and for the laying of submarine cables and pipelines. It is also used for the management and conservation of fishing, since it wildlife tends to congregate around seamounts.

Each seamount is at the heart of biodiversity. Furthermore, the agitated seabed affects the behavior of ocean currents and the vertical mixing of the water. This is necessary information to improve models that predict future climate change, since the oceans play a key role in moving heat around the planet.

Good maps of the ocean floor are essential if we are to understand exactly how sea level will rise in different parts of the world.

What is known so far about the ocean

what is the maximum depth of the sea

The average depth of the ocean is 14.000 feet. (2,65 miles). The deepest point in the ocean, known as Challenger Deep, lies under the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, hundreds of miles southwest of the US territory of Guam. Challenger Deep is approximately 10,994 meters (36,070 feet) deep. It was so named because HMS Challenger was the first ship to make the first well depth measurements in 1875.

This depth exceeds the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest (8.846 meters = 29.022 feet). If Everest were in the Mariana Trench, the ocean would cover it, leaving about another 1,5 kilometers (about 1 mile deep). At its deepest point, pressures reach more than 15 pounds per square inch. For comparison, daily pressure levels at sea level are about 15 pounds per square inch.

The deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean is found in the Trench north of Puerto Rico. The trench is 8.380 meters (27.493 feet) deep, 1.750 kilometers (1.090 miles) long and 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide. The deepest point is the Milwaukee Abyss in northwestern Puerto Rico.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about the maximum depth of the sea.


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  1.   Caesar Salad said

    Extraordinarily interesting information, since like the Universe I am also fascinated by the immensity and beauty of the oceans which, when observed in the distance, seem to join the atmosphere, which is touching and fascinating for the eyes and mind. Greetings