What ocean is the Challenger Deep located?

What ocean is the Challenger Deep located?

western Pacific Ocean
The deepest part of the ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located beneath the western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the U.S. territorial island of Guam.

What are some examples of abyssal plain?

List of abyssal plains and oceanic basins

What are abyssal plains covered with?

The lack of features is due to a thick blanket of sediment that covers most of the surface. These flat abyssal plains occur at depths of over 6,500 ft (1,980 m) below sea level. They are underlain by the oceanic crust, which is predominantly basalt—a dark, fine-grained volcanic rock.

What is deeper than the abyssal zone?

We scientists like to categorise things and the ocean depths are no exception. Depths from the surface to 0.2km is known as the “littoral zone”, from 0.2km to 3km, the “bathyal zone”, and from 3km to 6km, the “abyssal zone”. Anything deeper than that is the “hadal zone”.

Is Challenger Deep the deepest on Earth?

The Challenger Deep is the lowest point in the Mariana Trench, a gap between tectonic plates that stretches 1,500 miles along the western Pacific, and is thought to be the deepest chasm in all the world’s oceans. How do we know that Challenger Deep is the deepest point on Earth.

Is there anything deeper than Challenger Deep?

The Mariana Trench is a crescent-shaped trench in the Western Pacific, just east of the Mariana Islands near Guam. The ocean’s second-deepest place is also in the Mariana Trench. The Sirena Deep, which lies 124 miles (200 kilometers) to the east of Challenger Deep, is a bruising 35,462 feet deep (10,809 m).

Why are abyssal plains so deep?

Abyssal plains result from the blanketing of an originally uneven surface of oceanic crust by fine-grained sediments, mainly clay and silt. Much of this sediment is deposited by turbidity currents that have been channelled from the continental margins along submarine canyons into deeper water.

How deep is the abyssal zone?

abyssal zone, portion of the ocean deeper than about 2,000 m (6,600 feet) and shallower than about 6,000 m (20,000 feet). The zone is defined mainly by its extremely uniform environmental conditions, as reflected in the distinct life forms inhabiting it.

How wide is Challenger Deep?

The Challenger Deep consists of three basins, each 6 to 10 km (3.7 to 6.2 mi) long, 2 km (1.2 mi) wide, and over 10,850 m (35,597 ft) in depth, oriented in echelon from west to east, separated by mounds between the basins 200 to 300 m (656 to 984 ft) higher.

Are abyssal plains deeper than trenches?

Next is the abyssal zone, extending from a depth of 3,000 metres down to 6,000 metres. The final zone includes the deep oceanic trenches, and is known as the hadal zone. Abyssal plains are typically in the abyssal zone, at depths from 3,000 to 6,000 metres.

Is Challenger Deep deeper than the Marianas Trench?

In the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between Guam and the Philippines, lies the Marianas Trench, also known as the Mariana Trench. At 35,814 feet below sea level, its bottom is called the Challenger Deep — the deepest point known on Earth. The Challenger Deep is nearly three times deeper than that.

Is Mariana Trench deeper than Challenger Deep?

Why are there so many soft-shelled organisms in the Challenger Deep?

While similar lifeforms have been known to exist in shallower oceanic trenches (>7,000 m) and on the abyssal plain, the lifeforms discovered in the Challenger Deep may represent independent taxa from those shallower ecosystems. This preponderance of soft-shelled organisms at the Challenger Deep may be a result of selection pressure.

Why are there no abyssal plains in the Pacific Ocean?

Sediment-covered abyssal plains are less common in the Pacific Ocean than in other major ocean basins because sediments from turbidity currents are trapped in oceanic trenches that border the Pacific Ocean.

Why are there no coral reefs in the abyssal plain?

Due to scarcity of oxygen, abyssal plains are inhospitable for organisms that would flourish in the oxygen-enriched waters above. Deep sea coral reefs are mainly found in depths of 3,000 meters and deeper in the abyssal and hadal zones.

Why are abyssal plains considered as a major reservoir of biodiversity?

Owing in part to their vast size, abyssal plains are believed to be major reservoirs of biodiversity.