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Mariana Trench & Challenger Deep

11°22′N, 142°35′E — Western Pacific — deepest known oceanic trench; Challenger Deep at ~10,935 m

What's documented

The Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth: Challenger Deep, at approximately 10,935 meters, lies at its southern end. Pressure at the floor is roughly 1,100 atmospheres. The trench was first sounded by HMS *Challenger* in 1875; first visited by the bathyscaphe *Trieste* in 1960; revisited by the *Deepsea Challenger* in 2012 and by a Triton-class submersible repeatedly since 2019. NOAA hydrophone networks log persistent low-frequency acoustic signatures from across the trench's volume, most of which is unmapped at land-equivalent resolution.

Public-record imagery

Bathymetric location of the trench. The Challenger Deep lies near its southern end.
Bathymetric location of the trench. The Challenger Deep lies near its southern end.Wikipedia Commons · CC BY 2.5 · 2014
NOAA chart of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.
NOAA chart of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.Wikipedia Commons · Public domain · NOAA · 2018
Bathyscaphe *Trieste* recovered after the 1960 dive to Challenger Deep.
Bathyscaphe *Trieste* recovered after the 1960 dive to Challenger Deep.Wikipedia Commons · Public domain · 23 J
A 1907 USC&GS chart of the Mariana Trench — three decades after HMS Challenger first sounded the deep. Reaching the floor still required half a century more: bathyscaphe Trieste's 1960 descent, then a 52-year pause until James Cameron in 2012.
A 1907 USC&GS chart of the Mariana Trench — three decades after HMS Challenger first sounded the deep. Reaching the floor still required half a century more: bathyscaphe Trieste's 1960 descent, then a 52-year pause until James Cameron in 2012.Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Otto Krummel · 1907