What does the marianas trench look like

Navy submersible. They were only able to spend 20 minutes there due to the extreme pressures, and their arrival stirred up too much dust from the seafloor for them to take any pictures. Cameron was able to spend three hours there. And, of course, he captured video and took many photos—he is a Hollywood filmmaker, after all. The extreme pressures took a toll on his equipment, though. Already a subscriber?

Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Despite the lack of light and the hostile, acidic conditions in the trench, a surprising number of organisms live there. There are more than known microorganisms and small creatures that live there, including crustaceans and amphipods.

A new type of snailfish was found in the trench. The Mariana Trench was first pinpointed in during the undertaking of a global circumnavigation. It was found by utilizing sounding equipment on the HMS Challenger. It was named for the nearby Mariana Islands. This undertaking — the Challenger expedition from to — was revolutionary in the field of oceanography.

During that time the ship went almost 70, nautical miles, exploring and mapping as it traveled. During the trip, about 4, species were discovered. Some points of the trench are deeper than others, with the deepest section being called the Challenger Deep. The remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer exploring the Mariana Trench at a depth of meters in Scientist Jacques Piccard and U. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh earned the distinction of being the first people to reach the Challenger Deep in a deep boat.

It happened in It could! While the Trieste expedition laid to rest any doubts that life could exist in the Mariana Trench, scientists still know very little about the types of organisms that reside there. No bones, no fish. But nature has also proven scientists wrong many times in the past with its remarkable capacity for adaptation. So are there fish that deep? In recent years, deep-ocean dredges and unmanned subs have glimpsed exotic organisms such as shrimp-like amphipods, and strange, translucent animals called holothurians.

But scientists say there are many new species awaiting discovery and many unanswered questions about how animals can survive in these extreme conditions. Scientists are particularly interested in microorganisms living in the trenches, which they say could lead to breakthroughs in biomedicine and biotechnology.

Additionally, studying rocks from ocean trenches could lead to a better understanding of the earthquakes that create the powerful and devastating tsunamis seen around the Pacific Rim, geologists say.

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