The deepest places in the world. The deepest points of the oceans Top 10 deepest places in the world

In everyday life, we get used to the fact that the earth is flat and level. Potholes on the roads seem like a personal insult, a depression of 10-20 meters is a serious pit. But behind this routine, we sometimes forget that the topography of our planet is very heterogeneous. We have already talked about high points, and now it’s time to look at the other side of this problem and find the deepest place on Earth.

Underwater depths

One of the creatures from the Mariana Trench. It's alive and pretty happy

It may seem like a funny paradox, but some of the deepest points on Earth are located under water. It is in the ocean that numerous trenches are hidden - faults of lithospheric plates. Filled with water, they turned into amazing places, completely different from the world we are used to. The multi-kilometer layer of water creates unimaginable pressure; not a single ray of sunlight, even the fastest, can pass through this barrier. As a result, it is very dark and difficult there.

There are quite a lot of such points in the world, but the most impressive of them are known to everyone:

Mariana Trench. Its bottom is the deepest point of the Pacific Ocean and the ocean in general. Many times they tried to accurately determine its depth, and according to the latest data it is 10994 meters. This value is difficult to comprehend, but for comparison, the height of Everest, the tallest mountain, is just over 8800 meters. Thus, our planet is rather deep than high.
Tongo gutter. The second deepest and much less studied trench. Its deepest point is at level 10882, which is only 100 meters less than the Mariana Trench. It turns out that the difference between the two deepest gutters is about 1%. Not so much. But if he loses in depth, he is first in other respects. For some reason, in this place the plates move an order of magnitude faster than in other places. The movement speed is about 25 centimeters instead of the required 2.
Philippine Trench. The third deepest point in the World Ocean. The maximum value is 10,265 meters, which is clearly less than that of the Mariana Trench and the Tongo Trench.

The funny thing is that these trenches are quite well studied, unlike most of the seabed. People imagine what is happening on approximately 5% of its area, while the remaining places escape our attention.

At the same time, gutters hide many secrets. For example, previously people did not even think that at such pressure, without light and oxygen dissolved in water, someone could exist. But the expeditions still found quite cheerful, albeit strange creatures there. And this is just one of many surprises that human nature has prepared.

Wells

Despite the fact that the underwater faults and trenches created by nature itself are amazing, the deepest place is still the work of man. And these are wells.

This is what KS-3 looks like from the outside. And under the cover - 12 kilometers of puncture

If a fault is an open wound on the body of the planet, then a well is more like a trace of an injection from the thinnest needle, but sometimes they can bring no less surprises and unexpected data. And the following wells boast the most impressive depth:

Kola superdeep well. Its total depth is 12263 meters. At the same time, the diameter of the outer part of the well is only about half a meter. The purpose of creating this well was to obtain new data on the structure of the earth's crust. And scientists received them in full. The study of this place brought them an incredible amount of new and unexpected information, which significantly influenced people’s ideas about the structure of our planet.
OR-11. Another well created by Russian engineers. It belongs to the Sakhalin-1 project, within the framework of which the field was studied. Its depth is 11,345 meters, a very impressive achievement. In total, 10 wells were drilled as part of this project.
BD-04A. This well, located in Qatar, was created with one very specific purpose - to study the oil field. Exploration required some effort, first of all, the creation of one of the deepest wells - 10,092 meters.

It turns out that the deepest place on the planet is still the fruit of human hands. And even if this mistake is infinitely small, the achievement cannot but rejoice.

Where is the deepest place on Earth? How far is it from the center of the Earth? If Everest was placed there, would it rise above the surface of the Earth?

Today we will deal with the deepest places, holes, wells, caves, wells in the world, natural and man-made.

1.8 meters

Graves are usually dug at this depth. It is from this depth that the zombies will emerge when the time comes.

20 meters

Here are the famous Paris catacombs- a network of winding underground tunnels and artificial caves near Paris. The total length, according to various sources, is from 187 to 300 kilometers. Since the end of the 18th century, the remains of almost six million people have been buried in the catacombs.

40 meters

The Terme Millepini hotel in Italy chose this bold strategy, digging a 40-meter-deep tunnel for snorkelers and divers. This is the Y-40 pool. The most interesting thing about the deepest is that it is filled with thermal water and has a wonderful temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.

105.5 meters

This is the depth Kyiv metro station "Arsenalnaya", which is located on the Svyatoshinsko-Brovarskaya line between the Khreshchatyk and Dnepr stations. This is the deepest metro station in the world.

122 meters

Tree roots can penetrate to this depth. The tree with the deepest roots is a wild ficus growing at Echo Caves near Ohrigstad, South Africa. This tree is native to South Africa. Its roots go almost 122 meters deep.

230 meters

The deepest river. This Congo - river in Central Africa. In the lower reaches of the Congo breaks through the South Guinea Highlands in a deep narrow (in some places no more than 300 meters) gorge, forming the Livingston Falls (total drop 270 meters), the depths in this area are 230 meters or more, which makes the Congo the deepest river in the world .

240 meters

This is a railway tunnel with a length of 53.85 km. The tunnel descends to a depth of about 240 meters, 100 meters below the seabed. It is the deepest under the seabed and the second longest (after the Gotthard Base Tunnel) railway tunnel in the world.

287 meters

It is located even deeper, laid along the bottom of the Storfjord in the Norwegian province of Møre og Romsdal, connecting the cities of Eiksund and Rjanes. Construction began in 2003, the opening ceremony took place on February 17, 2008, full traffic opened on February 23, 2008. With a length of 7765 m, the tunnel goes to a depth of 287 m below sea level - this is the deepest tunnel in the world. The slope of the road surface reaches 9.6%.

382 meters

Woodingdean is an eastern suburb of Brighton and Hove, located in East Sussex, England. It is notable for the fact that on its territory there is deepest well in the world, dug by hand between 1858–1862. The depth of the well is 392 meters.

Of course, it doesn't look so picturesque, it's just an illustration.

603 meters

"Cave of Vertigo" Vrtoglavica in the Julian Alps. It is located on the territory of Slovenia, near the border with Italy). The cave was discovered by a joint Slovenian-Italian group of speleologists in 1996. Located in the cave the world's deepest karst well, its depth is 603 meters.

The North Tower can easily fit here (its height is 417 m, and taking into account the antenna installed on the roof - 526.3 m).

If you accidentally fall into this hole, you can reach the bottom in 11 seconds.

700 meters

33 miners were trapped under the rubble on August 5, 2010. They were held captive at a depth of 700 meters for more than 2 months and were listed as dead for almost 3 weeks. As a result of 40 days of work, a well was drilled to rescue Chilean miners.

970 meters

This largest dug hole in the earth, from the bottom of which you can still see the sky. The Bingham Canyon Quarry in Utah is one of the largest man-made (man-dug) formations in the world. After more than 100 years of mining, a large crater was formed, 970 meters deep and 4 km wide. This unique canyon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

This quarry will fit entirely into the tallest structure in the world ever created, whose height is 828 meters. And not only will it fit, but from its “top” there will be more than 140 meters to the surface.

On April 10, 2013, a giant block of earth broke off and rushed into a huge hole in the artificial Bingham Canyon in Utah. Approximately 65 - 70 million cubic meters of earth thundered along the walls of the mine, reaching speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour. The event was so powerful that it shook the earth - seismic sensors were activated, recording the earthquake. Intensity was measured as 2.5 on the Richter scale.

1642 meters

The deepest lake on Earth. The current maximum depth of the lake is 1642 m.

1857 meters

One of the deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA. Depth - more than 1800 m.

2199 meters

So we reached the deepest cave in the world. This is the only known cave in the world deeper than 2 kilometers. The main entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of about 2250 m above sea level.

3132 meters

To date, the deepest mine is located southwest of Johannesburg. Its depth is a little over 3 kilometers. The elevator takes 4.5 minutes to reach the very bottom, but you can speed up the process: if a person accidentally falls here, the flight to the bottom will take him 25 seconds.

3600 meters

A living organism was found at this depth. About a hundred years ago, the English scientist Edward Forbes argued that there are no living creatures deeper than 500 meters. But in 2011, nematode worms were found in a gold mine in South Africa. The second name for these 0.5 mm creatures is “worm from hell.”

4500 meters

The deepest mines in the world are located in South Africa: Tau-Tona, Witwatersrand - depth more than 4500 m, Western Deep Levels Mine - 3900 m (De Beers company), Mponeng - 3800 m. For miners have to work in extreme conditions. The heat reaches 60 °C, and at such depths there is always the danger of water breakthrough and explosions. These mines produce gold. The journey here takes miners about 1 hour.

By the way, from 25 to 50% of the gold mined in the world is obtained from the Witwatersrand deposit. Extraction is carried out, among other things, from the deepest mine in the world, “Tau-Tona” - its depth is more than 4.5 km, the temperature in the workings reaches 52 degrees.

10994 meters

The Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) is an oceanic deep-sea trench in the western Pacific Ocean, the deepest known on Earth. Named after the nearby Mariana Islands. The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep. According to measurements in 2011, its depth is 10,994 m below sea level.

This is very deep. If Everest, 8848 meters high, could be placed here, then there would still be more than 2 km left from its top to the surface.

Yes, there is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about distant space - mysterious ocean floor. It is believed that world science has not yet really even begun to study it...

At a depth of 11 kilometers. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is approximately 1072 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean.

12262 meters

We have reached the deepest well in the world. This . Located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. Unlike other ultra-deep wells that were drilled for oil production or geological exploration, SG-3 was drilled solely for scientific research purposes in the place where the Mohorovicic boundary comes close to the surface of the Earth.

At a depth of five kilometers, the ambient temperature exceeded 70 °C, at seven - 120 °C, and at a depth of 12 kilometers, sensors recorded 220 °C.

Kola superdeep well, 2007:

The Kola Superdeep served as the source of the urban legend about the “well to hell.” This urban legend has been circulating on the Internet since at least 1997. The legend was first announced in English in 1989 on the American television company Trinity Broadcasting Network, which took the story from a Finnish newspaper report published on April Fool's Day. According to this legend, in the very thickness of the earth, at a depth of 12,000 meters, microphones of scientists recorded screams and moans. The tabloid newspapers write that this is “a voice from the underworld.” The Kola superdeep well began to be called “the road to hell” - every new kilometer drilled brought misfortune to the country.

If you drop something into this hole, it will take 50 seconds before that “something” falls to the bottom.

This is it, the well itself (welded), August 2012:

12376 meters

Which was drilled in Russia on the shelf of Sakhalin Island, it is considered the deepest oil well in the world. It goes to a depth of about 13 kilometers - this depth is comparable to the height of 14.5 skyscrapers Burj Khalifa, which remains the tallest in the world. This the deepest hole that humanity has been able to drill.

At the moment, this is deepest place in the world. And it is located only at a depth of about 12.4 km. Is this too much? Let us remember that the average distance to the center of the Earth will be 6371.3 kilometers...

The Mariana Trench is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, not far from the Mariana Islands, just two hundred kilometers away, thanks to its proximity to which it received its name. It is a huge marine reserve with the status of a US national monument, and therefore is under state protection. Fishing and mining are strictly prohibited here, but you can swim and admire the beauty.

The shape of the Mariana Trench resembles a colossal crescent - 2550 km long and 69 km wide. The deepest point - 10,994 m below sea level - is called the Challenger Deep.

Discovery and first observations

The British began to explore the Mariana Trench. In 1872, the sailing corvette Challenger entered the waters of the Pacific Ocean with scientists and the most advanced equipment of those times. After taking measurements, we established the maximum depth - 8367 m. The value, of course, is noticeably different from the correct result. But this was enough to understand: the deepest point on the globe had been discovered. Thus, another mystery of nature was “challenged” (translated from English as “Challenger” - “challenger”). Years passed, and in 1951 the British carried out “work on the mistakes.” Namely: the deep-sea echo sounder recorded a maximum depth of 10,863 meters.

Then the baton was intercepted by Russian researchers, who sent the research vessel Vityaz to the Mariana Trench area. In 1957, with the help of special equipment, they were not only able to record the depth of the depression as 11,022 m, but also established the presence of life at a depth of more than seven kilometers. Thus, making a small revolution in the scientific world of the mid-20th century, where there was a strong opinion that there are no and cannot be such deeply living creatures. This is where the fun begins... Many stories about underwater monsters, huge octopuses, unprecedented bathyscaphes crushed into a cake by the huge paws of animals... Where is the truth and where is the lie - let's try to figure it out.

Secrets, riddles and legends

The first daredevils who dared to dive to the “bottom of the Earth” were US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and explorer Jacques Picard. They dived on the bathyscaphe "Trieste", which was built in the Italian city of the same name. A very heavy structure with thick 13-centimeter walls was immersed in the bottom for five hours. Having reached the lowest point, the researchers stayed there for 12 minutes, after which an ascent was immediately begun, which took approximately 3 hours. At the bottom, fish were found - flat, flounder-like, about 30 centimeters long.

Research continued, and in 1995 the Japanese descended into the “abyss”. Another “breakthrough” was made in 2009 with the help of the automatic underwater vehicle “Nereus”: this miracle of technology not only took several photographs at the deepest point of the Earth, but also took soil samples.

In 1996, the New York Times published shocking material about the diving of equipment from the American scientific vessel Glomar Challenger into the Mariana Trench. The team affectionately nicknamed the spherical apparatus for deep-sea travel “the hedgehog.” Some time after the start of the dive, the instruments recorded terrifying sounds reminiscent of the grinding of metal on metal. “The Hedgehog” was immediately raised to the surface, and they were horrified: the huge steel structure was crushed, and the strongest and thickest (20 cm in diameter!) cable seemed to have been sawed off. Many explanations were immediately found. Some said that these were the “tricks” of the monsters inhabiting the natural object, others were inclined to the version of the presence of an alien intelligence, and still others believed that it could not have happened without mutated octopuses! True, there was no evidence, and all assumptions remained at the level of conjecture and conjecture...

The same mysterious incident occurred with a German research team that decided to lower the Haifish apparatus into the waters of the abyss. But for some reason he stopped moving, and the cameras impartially displayed on the monitor screens an image of the shocking size of a lizard that was trying to chew through the steel “thing.” The team was not at a loss and “scared away” the unknown beast with an electric discharge from the device. He swam away and never appeared again... One can only regret that for some reason those who came across such unique inhabitants of the Mariana Trench did not have the equipment that would allow them to photograph them.

At the end of the 90s of the last century, at the time of the “discovery” of the monsters of the Mariana Trench by the Americans, this geographical object began to become “overgrown” with legends. Fishermen (poachers) talked about glows from its depths, lights running back and forth, and various unidentified flying objects floating up from there. Crews of small ships reported that ships in the area were being “towed at great speed” by a monster possessing incredible strength.

Confirmed evidence

Depth of the Mariana Trench

Along with many legends associated with the Mariana Trench, there are also incredible facts supported by irrefutable evidence.

Found a giant shark tooth

In 1918, Australian lobster fishermen reported seeing a transparent white fish about 30 meters long in the sea. According to the description, it is similar to the ancient shark of the species Carcharodon megalodon, which lived in the seas 2 million years ago. Scientists from the surviving remains were able to recreate the appearance of a shark - a monstrous creature 25 meters long, weighing 100 tons and an impressive two-meter mouth with teeth 10 cm each. Can you imagine such “teeth”! And it was they who were recently found by oceanologists at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean! The “youngest” of the discovered artifacts… is “only” 11 thousand years old!

This find allows us to be sure that not all megalodons went extinct two million years ago. Perhaps the waters of the Mariana Trench hide these incredible predators from human eyes? Research continues; the depths still conceal many unsolved secrets.

Features of the deep sea world

The water pressure at the lowest point of the Mariana Trench is 108.6 MPa, that is, 1072 times higher than normal atmospheric pressure. A vertebrate animal simply cannot survive in such monstrous conditions. But, oddly enough, mollusks have taken root here. How their shells withstand such colossal water pressure is unclear. The discovered mollusks are an incredible example of “survival”. They exist next to serpentine hydrothermal vents. Serpentine contains hydrogen and methane, which not only do not pose a threat to the “population” found here, but also contribute to the formation of living organisms in such a seemingly aggressive environment. But hydrothermal springs also emit gas that is lethal to shellfish - hydrogen sulfide. But “cunning” and life-hungry mollusks have learned to process hydrogen sulfide into protein, and continue, as they say, to live happily in the Mariana Trench.

Another incredible mystery of a deep-sea object is the Champagne hydrothermal spring, named after the famous French (and not only) alcoholic drink. It's all about the bubbles that “bubble” in the waters of the source. Of course, these are by no means bubbles of your favorite champagne - these are liquid carbon dioxide. Thus, the only underwater source of liquid carbon dioxide in the whole world is located precisely in the Mariana Trench. Such sources are called “white smokers”; their temperature is lower than the ambient temperature, and there is always vapor around them, similar to white smoke. Thanks to these sources, hypotheses were born about the origin of all life on earth in water. Low temperature, abundance of chemicals, colossal energy - all this created excellent conditions for ancient representatives of flora and fauna.

The temperature in the Mariana Trench is also very favorable - from 1 to 4 degrees Celsius. “Black smokers” took care of this. Hydrothermal springs, the antipode of “white smokers,” contain a large amount of ore substances, and therefore they are dark in color. These springs are located here at a depth of about 2 kilometers and spew out water whose temperature is about 450 degrees Celsius. I immediately remember a school physics course, from which we know that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. So what's going on? Is the spring spewing boiling water? Fortunately, no. It's all about the colossal water pressure - it is 155 times higher than on the surface of the Earth, so H 2 O does not boil, but it significantly “heats up” the waters of the Mariana Trench. The water of these hydrothermal springs is incredibly rich in various minerals, which also contributes to the comfortable habitat of living creatures.

Incredible facts

How many more mysteries and incredible wonders does this incredible place conceal? A bunch of. At a depth of 414 meters, the Daikoku volcano is located here, which served as further evidence that life originated here, at the deepest point of the globe. In the crater of the volcano, underwater, there is a lake of pure molten sulfur. In this “boiler”, sulfur bubbles at a temperature of 187 degrees Celsius. The only known analogue of such a lake is located on Jupiter’s satellite Io. There is nothing else like it on Earth. Only in space. It is no wonder that most hypotheses about the origin of life from water are associated precisely with this mysterious deep-sea object in the vast Pacific Ocean.

Let's remember a little school biology course. The simplest living creatures are amoebas. Tiny, single-celled, they can only be seen through a microscope. They reach, as it is written in textbooks, a length of half a millimeter. Giant toxic amoebas 10 centimeters long were discovered in the Mariana Trench. Can you imagine this? Ten centimeters! That is, this single-celled living creature can be clearly seen with the naked eye. Isn't this a miracle? As a result of scientific research, it was established that amoebas acquired such gigantic sizes for their class of single-celled organisms by adapting to the “unsweetened” life at the bottom of the sea. Cold water, coupled with its colossal pressure and the absence of sunlight, contributed to the “growth” of amoebae, which are called xenophyophores. The incredible abilities of xenophyophores are quite surprising: they have adapted to the effects of most destructive substances - uranium, mercury, lead. And they live in this environment, just like mollusks. In general, the Mariana Trench is a miracle of miracles, where everything living and nonliving is perfectly combined, and the most harmful chemical elements that can kill any organism not only do not harm living things, but, on the contrary, promote survival.

The local bottom has been studied in some detail and is not of particular interest - it is covered with a layer of viscous mucus. There is no sand there, there are only the remains of crushed shells and plankton that have been lying there for thousands of years, and due to water pressure have long since turned into thick grayish-yellow mud. And the calm and measured life of the seabed is disturbed only by the bathyscaphes of researchers that descend here from time to time.

Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

Research continues

Everything secret and unknown has always attracted man. And with each secret revealed, new mysteries on our planet did not become fewer. All this fully applies to the Mariana Trench.

At the end of 2011, researchers discovered unique natural stone formations in it, shaped like bridges. Each of them stretched from one end to the other for as much as 69 km. Scientists had no doubt: this is where the tectonic plates – the Pacific and the Philippine – come into contact, and stone bridges (four in total) were formed at their junction. True, the very first of the bridges - Dutton Ridge - was opened in the late 80s of the last century. He impressed then with his size and height, which were the size of a small mountain. At its highest point, located just above the Challenger Deep, this deep-sea “ridge” reaches two and a half kilometers.

Why did nature need to build such bridges, and even in such a mysterious and inaccessible place for people? The purpose of these objects still remains unclear. In 2012, James Cameron, the creator of the legendary film Titanic, dived into the Mariana Trench. Unique equipment and powerful cameras installed on his DeepSea Challenge bathyscaphe made it possible to film the majestic and deserted “bottom of the Earth.” It is unknown how long he would have been observing local landscapes if some problems had not arisen on the device. In order not to risk his life, the researcher was forced to rise to the surface.

Together with The National Geographic, the talented director created the documentary film “Challenging the Abyss.” In his story about the dive, he called the bottom of the depression “the border of life.” Emptiness, silence, and nothing, not the slightest movement or disturbance of the water. No sunlight, no shellfish, no algae, much less sea monsters. But this is only at first glance. Over twenty thousand different microorganisms were found in the bottom soil samples taken by Cameron. Great amount. How do they survive under such incredible water pressure? Still a mystery. Among the inhabitants of the depression, a shrimp-like amphipod was also discovered that produces a unique chemical substance that scientists are testing as a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease.

While staying at the deepest point not only of the world's oceans, but of the entire Earth, James Cameron did not encounter any terrible monsters, or representatives of extinct animal species, or an alien base, not to mention any incredible miracles. The feeling that he was completely alone here was a real shock. The ocean floor seemed deserted and, as the director himself said, “lunar... lonely.” The feeling of complete isolation from all humanity was such that it cannot be expressed in words. However, he still tried to do this in his documentary. Well, you probably shouldn’t be surprised that the Mariana Trench is silent and shocking with its desolation. After all, she simply sacredly guards the secret of the origin of all life on Earth...

Where is the deepest place on Earth? How far is it from the center of the Earth? If Everest was placed there, would it rise above the surface of the Earth?
Today we will deal with the deepest places, holes, wells, caves, wells in the world, natural and man-made.

Here are the famous Parisian Catacombs - a network of winding underground tunnels and man-made caves beneath Paris. The total length, according to various sources, is from 187 to 300 kilometers. Since the end of the 18th century, the remains of almost six million people have been buried in the catacombs.

40 meters

The Terme Millepini hotel in Italy chose this bold strategy, digging a 40-meter-deep tunnel for snorkelers and divers. This is the Y-40 pool. The most interesting thing about the Y-40 deepest pool is that it is filled with thermal water and has a wonderful temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.

105.5 meters

This is the depth of the Arsenalnaya metro station of the Kyiv metro, which is located on the Svyatoshinsko-Brovarskaya line between the Khreshchatyk and Dnepr stations. This is the deepest metro station in the world.

122 meters

The deepest river. This is the Congo - a river in Central Africa. In the lower reaches of the Congo breaks through the South Guinea Highlands in a deep narrow (in some places no more than 300 meters) gorge, forming the Livingston Falls (total drop 270 meters), the depths in this area are 230 meters or more, which makes the Congo the deepest river in the world .

240 meters

This is the Seikan Tunnel railway tunnel in Japan, 53.85 km long. The tunnel descends to a depth of about 240 meters, 100 meters below the seabed. It is the deepest under the seabed and the second longest (after the Gotthard Base Tunnel) railway tunnel in the world.

287 meters

Even deeper is the Eiksund road tunnel, laid along the bottom of the Storfjord in the Norwegian province of Møre og Romsdal, connecting the cities of Eiksund and Rjanes. Construction began in 2003, the opening ceremony took place on February 17, 2008, full traffic opened on February 23, 2008. With a length of 7765 m, the tunnel goes to a depth of 287 m below sea level - this is the deepest tunnel in the world. The slope of the road surface reaches 9.6%

382 meters

Woodingdean is an eastern suburb of Brighton and Hove, located in East Sussex, England. It is notable for the fact that it contains the deepest well in the world, dug by hand between 1858–1862. The depth of the well is 392 meters.

Of course, it doesn't look so picturesque, it's just an illustration.

603 meters

"Cave of Vertigo" Vrtoglavica in the Julian Alps. It is located on the territory of Slovenia, near the border with Italy). The cave was discovered by a joint Slovenian-Italian group of speleologists in 1996. The cave contains the deepest karst well in the world, its depth is 603 meters.

The North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York can easily fit here (its height is 417 m, and taking into account the antenna installed on the roof - 526.3 m).

If you accidentally fall into this hole, you can reach the bottom in 11 seconds.

700 meters

33 miners were trapped under the rubble as a result of the collapse of the San Jose mine on August 5, 2010. They were held captive at a depth of 700 meters for more than 2 months and were considered dead for almost 3 weeks. As a result of 40 days of work, a well was drilled to rescue Chilean miners.

970 meters

This is the largest dug hole in the Earth, from the bottom of which you can still see the sky. The Bingham Canyon Quarry in Utah is one of the largest man-made (man-dug) formations in the world. After more than 100 years of mining, a large crater was formed, 970 meters deep and 4 km wide. This unique canyon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

The entire Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure ever built, will fit into this quarry at 828 meters. And not only will it fit, but from its “top” there will be more than 140 meters to the surface.

Baikal is the deepest lake on Earth. The current maximum depth of the lake is 1642 m.

1857 meters

The Grand Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA. Depth - more than 1800 m.

2199 meters

So we reached the deepest cave in the world. This is the Krubera (Voronya) cave - the only known cave in the world deeper than 2 kilometers. The main entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of about 2250 m above sea level.

3132 meters

Today, the deepest mine is the Moab Khotsong mine in South Africa, located southwest of Johannesburg. Its depth is a little over 3 kilometers. The elevator takes 4.5 minutes to reach the very bottom, but you can speed up the process: if a person accidentally falls here, the flight to the bottom will take him 25 seconds.

3600 meters

A living organism was found at this depth. About a hundred years ago, the English scientist Edward Forbes argued that there are no living creatures deeper than 500 meters. But in 2011, nematode worms Halicephalobus mephisto were found in a gold mine in South Africa. The second name for these 0.5 mm creatures is “worm from hell.”

4500 meters

A piece of gold-bearing ore mined at the deposit:

Let's move on. What follows will be very deep.

10994 meters

This is very deep. If Everest, 8848 meters high, could be placed here, then there would still be more than 2 km left from its top to the surface.

Yes, there is a place on Earth about which we know much less than about distant space - the mysterious bottom of the ocean. It is believed that world science has not yet really even begun to study it...

At a depth of 11 kilometers. At the bottom, the water pressure reaches 108.6 MPa, which is approximately 1072 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure at the level of the World Ocean.

12262 meters

We have reached the deepest well in the world. This is the Kola superdeep well. Located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. Unlike other ultra-deep wells that were drilled for oil production or geological exploration, SG-3 was drilled solely for scientific research purposes in the place where the Mohorovicic boundary comes close to the surface of the Earth.

At a depth of five kilometers, the ambient temperature exceeded 70 °C, at seven - 120 °C, and at a depth of 12 kilometers, sensors recorded 220 °C.

Kola superdeep well, 2007:

If you drop something into this hole, it will take 50 seconds before that “something” falls to the bottom.

This is it, the well itself (welded), August 2012:

12376 meters

The Z-44 Chaivo well, which was drilled in Russia on the shelf of Sakhalin Island, is considered the world's deepest oil well. It goes to a depth of about 13 kilometers - this depth is comparable to the height of 14.5 skyscrapers Burj Khalifa, which remains the tallest in the world. This is the deepest hole that humanity has been able to drill.

At the moment, this is the deepest place in the world. And it is located only at a depth of about 12.4 km. Is this too much? Let us remember that the average distance to the center of the Earth will be 6371.3 kilometers...

Not far from Japan, in the depths of the sea, the deepest depression in the world's oceans is hidden - the Mariana Trench. This geographical object received its name thanks to the islands of the same name located nearby. Scientists call this phenomenon the “Fourth Pole,” along with the South, North and the highest point on the planet – Mount Everest.

Geolocation

The coordinates of the Mariana Trench are 11°22` north latitude and 142°35` east longitude. The trench surrounds the coastal islands for a length of more than 2.5 thousand km, and a width of about 69 km. In its shape, it resembles the English letter V, widened at the top and narrowed at the bottom. This formation resulted from the influence of tectonic plate boundaries. The maximum depth of the world's oceans in this place is 10994 (plus or minus 40 m).

Rice. 1. Mariana Trench on the map

Compared to Everest, the largest depression is further from the Earth's surface than the highest peak. The mountain is 8848 m long, and climbing it was much easier than overcoming the incredible pressure of plunging into the abyss of the sea.

The deepest point of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep point, which in English means “Challenger Deep”. It was first explored by a British ship of the same name. They recorded a depth of 11521m.

First studies

The deepest point of the world's oceans was conquered only in 1960 by two daredevils: Don Walsh and Jacques Picard. They dived on the bathyscaphe Trieste and became the first people in the world to dive first to a depth of 3,000 meters, and then to 10,000 meters. The bottom mark was recorded 30 minutes after the dive. In total, they spent about 3 hours at depth and froze significantly. Indeed, in addition to the enormous pressure, there is also a low water temperature - about 2 degrees Celsius.

Rice. 2. Mariana Trench in section

In 2012, the famous director James Cammeron (“Titanic”) conquered the deepest cavity, becoming the third person on Earth to descend so far. This was the most important expedition, during which unique photographic and video materials were obtained, as well as bottom samples were taken. Contrary to popular belief, at the bottom there is not sand, but mucus - a product of processing the remains of fish bones and plankton.

Flora and fauna

The underwater world of the largest crack has been studied very poorly. It was first discovered that life in this part of the Earth was possible in 1950. Then Soviet scientists suggested that some simple creatures were able to adapt to chitinous pipes. The new family was named pogonophorans.

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At the very bottom live various bacteria and single-celled organisms. For example, the amoeba here grows with a diameter of 20 cm.

The largest number of inhabitants is in the thickness of the trench at a depth of 500 to 6500 meters. Many of the fish species that live in the gutter are blind, others have special luminous organs for illumination in the dark. The pressure and lack of sun made their bodies flat and their skin transparent. Many have eyes on their backs and look like small telescopes rotating in all directions.

Rice. 3. Inhabitants of the Mariana Trench

In addition to the fact that there is no sun and heat, various toxic gases are released from the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Hydrothermal geysers are sources of hydrogen sulfide. It became the basis for the development of Mariana mollusks, despite the fact that this gas is destructive for this type of marine life. How these protozoa managed to survive, and even preserve their shells under enormous pressure, remains a mystery.

There is another unique area at depth. This is the Champagne spring, where liquid carbon dioxide comes from.

What have we learned?

We learned which part of the Earth is the deepest. This is the Mariana Trench. The deepest point is the Challenger Deep (11,521 m). The first expedition to the bottom was completed successfully in 1960. In conditions of pitch darkness, pressure and constant toxic fumes, a special world with its own unique animals and simple organisms was formed here. It’s very difficult to say what the world of the Mariana Trench really is, because it’s only 5% studied.