The Mariana's Trench: An Extreme Environment

Everyone knows the Mariana's Trench as just some big hole in the ocean. But does anyone know how these "holes" are formed? Well, when there are two tectonic plates in the earth that collide, one of the plates slips under the other one, creating a trench in between them.

The Mariana's Trench is a place that is deep, dark, and cold. As you get deeper, the same in any ocean habitat, it gets colder and colder. At around  1 km deep, the temperature is approximately 4 degrees Celsius. That's the temperature that snow falls at! As you go deeper and deeper, all the way down to the Challenger Deep, goes below 0 degrees Celsius! It is so cold because cold water, like cold air, is less dense than warm water, or warm air. Therefore, the cold, salty water is heavier and it sinks to the bottom of the sea. This causes the surface water to be warmest, and the deeper you go, the colder it gets. This one condition that makes it difficult to survive. Also, the ocean gets darker the deeper you go too, for obvious reasons. Since the sun is what lights up the earth, and there's no sunlight at the bottom of the ocean, there is no light in general. Except for little bio-luminescent animals that float around, displaying a light show of beauty. This is another reason it is difficult to survive in the ocean. But some animals, like the sea cucumber and the snail fish, have adapted to this harsh cold and light-less environment.

Water pressure is like a silent killer. The amount of water above you in the Challenger Deep is an amount of unimaginable pressure. Air pockets, such as in fish swim bladders, can be crushed by that much pressure. There are some fish, though, that their swim bladders are designed to withstand such high pressure, that when brought to the surface, their swim bladders expand so much that they could die. This extreme condition has been adapted to by many animals in the trench, and all over the deep sea.

When most people think ocean, they think "no oxygen". But that's not necessarily true. In fact, the deeper oceans all over the world have an appropriate amount of oxygen in them. This is because cold waters can dissolve more oxygen than warm waters. There are some places where the waters full of oxygen cool off so much that they sink to the sea floor. But this is one of those conditions that is unbearable for us humans. That much oxygen is impossible for us to survive in with out any special equipment.

“Worry is a good thing when you’re an explorer. It’s when you’re cavalier, when you take risk for granted, that’s when you’re gonna get bit.” —James Cameron. I couldn't have said it better myself. The main risk for exploring the Mariana Trench or any ocean, is the risk of dying. With so many different ways to die, of course there's a risk! You could die from getting squashed by water pressure if your sphere unbuckles suddenly. Or, you could freeze to death if your stuck at the bottom and the weights don't drop.