Mariana Trench | The Deepest & Most Unexplored Place On The Planet

it's United States National Monument the 7,000 feet deeper than Mount Everest is tall we know less about it than any other place on the planet and researchers have gone as far to say that we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about what lives at the very bottom it's the Mariana Trench and is a huge crescent-shaped expanse of sea that holds the title as the deepest section in the Earth's seabed the trench is located near Japan in the Pacific Ocean and was discovered in 1875 by the British Royal Navy's HMS challenger it stretches on average 2,000 550 kilometers long and 69 kilometers wide and its deepest point labeled challenge deep after the HMS challenger that first recorded its depth is located at the southern side of the trench this area has a maximum loan depth of ten point nine kilometers deep if you dropped a stone into the water it would take over an hour to hit the bottom so how did the mariana trench form while among the many mysteries down there how it was formed is also uncertain although it's thought was formed over millions of years by the geological process of subduction this occurs when a plate topped by oceanic crust is subducted underneath another plate sinking it into the Earth's mantle and forming an underground labyrinth subduction is also the reason for the 42 submarine volcanoes in the Mariana Islands so what's so fascinating about this trench as you may know when delving deep into the ocean things get very interesting creatures and microorganisms grow to extraordinary sizes due to deep-sea gigantism and anything alive at these extreme depths baffled scientists as to how they can adapt to such harsh conditions but the deep sea and the Mariana Trench are two completely different things near the bottom of the trench temperatures are around 1 to 4 degrees Celsius 90% of the entire trench is pitch-black and the pressure at the bottom while it's 8 tonnes or 16,000 pounds per square inch that's around about the same amount of pressure a 12-gauge shotgun has inside the barrel when fired it's hard to even comprehend the effects this would have on an exposed human being it's because of these extreme conditions that there have only been four successful missions to the very bottom the first was on the 23rd of January 1960 when the United States owned bathyscaphe Trieste manned by Don wolves and Jack Pekar reached the bottom but because the water was stirred out by their landing and they only spent twenty minutes at the bottom they were able to take photographs or have a good look for undiscovered creatures they did however believe that they saw a flatfish swimming at the very bottom but since they did not take pictures it was never officially labeled as the deepest fish discovered but still they had confirmed that life could exist down there in what was rightfully thought to be unlivable conditions their mission was followed by an unmanned descent in 1996 and then another in 2009 but until about 1960 man's descent no human had been back to the bottom of the trench and for two reasons one being that no other vessel on the planet had been built to go that deep and secondly because it's far too risky with the immense pressure at the bottom especially when you find out that during that 1960 mission at 30,000 feet a crack appeared in the dive window being so close to being the first humans to reach the bottom aborting the mission was not an option so Jack and Don kept going but in 2012 all that changed film director James Cameron of Avatar the abyss Titanic and many other hugely successful films piloted a deep diving submersible designed to reach the deepest part of the Mariana Trench the Challenger Deep the craft was called deep-sea challenger and was equipped with scientific sampling equipment and 3d cameras as well as over a hundred and eighty other onboard systems such as life support LED lighting thrusters and a sophisticated underwater communication system it was the most advanced underwater vessel ever built but still his trip wasn't without its extreme risks the biggest being the pod not being able to handle the pressure during its descent imagine one of the windows or components gave way the pressure of the water from the outside flooding in would be enough to what Cameron said turn him into Jam in two microseconds the reward of being the first solo trip to the bottom of the Mariana Trench though fireweed the risk and after several successful and unsuccessful trial dives Cameron finally reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep on March the 26th 2012 recording a depth of 10 thigh 908 meters so what did he discover nearly seven miles down it seems at the very bottom not a whole lot Cameron described it is out of this world desolate foreboding and moon-like unfortunately no monster like creatures to base his next film on just a barren dark isolated and unexplored part of the planet but due to some problems down there such as the loss of a few thrusters that prevented the capsule from moving forward Cameron was only able to spend three hours at the bottom as opposed to the plan 6 and also the fact there was an issue with an unmanned baiting Lander this massively reduced the chances of attracting deep ocean creatures so although no thought to be extinct or monstrous creatures were found Cameron did manage to find a few living things down there such as jellyfish and shrimp like critters but there is still hope for huge undiscovered creatures to be found and the hope is that there was sea cucumbers that was so camouflaged in the sand that Cameron had not seen them during his dive this in itself is proof that they have adapted to use camouflage to prevent being eaten by predators what predators these are will for now remain a mystery although Cameron's expedition did not find an array of deep-sea creatures living at the very bottom 68s new species were discovered on his journey so with that another unmanned descends what do we know lives in the trench here are a few remarkable creatures that have adapted to these extreme conditions the telescope octopus this creature is almost transparent with the only non transparent part being their amazing rotating eyes and their digestive system they happily look around the Mariana Trench with its varying depths and usually venture into deeper parts as they get older being found at depths of up to 1.5 miles going deeper you can expect to find the incredible angler fish this fierce looking creature has the ability to live in complete darkness and has been spotted up to a mile from the surface in the Mariana Trench although some reports say they have been found at depths closer to 3 miles they can grow to 3 foot but are generally around 1 foot in length and have an elongated dorsal spine that uses bioluminescence to attract its prey next up one of the less ferocious looking creatures in the trench the Dumbo octopus despite its cute looks this tough creature enjoys life up to 4 miles underwater and swallows its prey whole then at a depth of 8,000 145 meters an unseen species of snail fish was discovered in 2014 by the University of Aberdeen and is the deepest depth a fish has ever been recorded since Don Walsh and Jack Picard's 1960 trip did not have photographic proof of their sighting of a fish at the very bottom of the trench theirs could not be classed as confirmed the snail fish were captured on video using the University special deep diving vehicle the same vehicle also recorded a storm of amphipods at a depth of ten thousand five hundred and forty-five meters 10.5 kilometers deep they were found in this arena deep the second deepest section in a mariana trench so we know a few creatures live down there and we know that with each new trip we will discover many new creatures we also know about the pressure and statistics at the very bottom but what does this sound like down there well for the first time ever a microphone was sent to the Challenger Deep in 2015 and kept there for three weeks it was to find a baseline for the sound at the very bottom with this scientists can then find out how man-made sounds are affecting the creatures in the ocean the recorder picked up a variety of sounds from earthquakes and boats but more interestingly the sound of a whale call take a listen the creature behind the sound isn't confirmed so I would like to think it's some undiscovered humongous whale but the scientists believe it's most likely a baleen or Bryde's whale moan that sound waves traveled from miles away and echoed in the trench another microphone is planned to be sent down again in 2017 alongside a camera and with James Cameron and many other companies planning more missions to the bottom there is no doubt that many more interesting things will be found but for now the mystery and the fascination with the Mariana Trench continues so that's it for this short documentary I hope you've enjoyed and I hope it's made you realize even more how special and fascinating the planet is thanks for watching and I'll see you again in the next video

Channel: Top5s

Views: 7,264,263

Rating: 4.8251495 out of 5

Keywords: Mariana Trench Creatures, Deep Sea Shark, Megalodon, Deep Sea Creatures, Mysterious Underwater Creatures, Real Mermaids, Marianas Trench, Challenger Deep, Frilled Shark, Giant Deep Sea Fish, Life in the Mariana Trench

Id: r17kLJxJcwM

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 16 2016