The oceans are fraught with many interesting, and sometimes even mysterious objects.
The Mariinsky Depression, also known as the Mariana Trench, is a huge gorge at the bottom of the
Pacific Ocean. This
is the deepest place on Earth. Its total length is 1.5 km.
In its geometric profile, it resembles the Latin letter V. The width of the bottom is from one and a half to five kilometers. The entire bottom section is divided by small ridges into several isolated locations. Depth - almost 11 kilometers!
Near the bottom, the pressure is 108.6 MPa, which is more than a thousand times higher than similar indicators of average pressure in the Pacific Ocean. The Mariinsky Depression itself was formed due to the movement of two huge tectonic plates, on the border of which it is located.
The first attempts to explore this amazing place were made by the team of the English corvette Challenger, which carried out systematic measurements of the bottom. A huge contribution to the study of the area under consideration was made by Soviet scientists, and subsequently by their Russian colleagues.
Despite the huge number of experiments, the Mariinsky Depression to this day remains one of the least studied mysteries of the World Ocean: many objects in near space have been better studied.
In 1958, Soviet scientists found that life exists at a depth of more than 7 km. In 1960, the French sent their newest Trieste bathyscaphe into the trench. The research involved the legendary Picard and Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
But the first oddities were still recorded by the American expedition. A research hedgehog was launched from the Glomar Challenger vessel. An hour after the dive, the recording microphones began to transmit noise to the surface, suspiciously reminiscent of a saw.
The cameras recorded some obscure shadows in the depths. Scientists did not like the idea that unique equipment might disappear in the Mariana Trench, and therefore an urgent rise was initiated.
Gently and gradually, the "hedgehog" was raised in eight hours. It turned out that the sturdy cobalt-titanium beams of the structure were distorted, and the cable from a special steel alloy was completely sawed at all. Who and how could have done this remained a mystery. Dumbfounded scientists published a report on this incident in 1996. You can read it in the New York Times.
Can the Mariinsky Depression, the depth of which is amazing, conceal in its abyss some kind of large and strong living creatures? Exploring such depths is extremely difficult, because incredible pressure can crush any more or less large structure into a cake. Until 1958, the scientific community believed that at depths exceeding 6 km, life was in principle impossible.
And it turned out that in the incredible abyss of the water pogonophors live. This is a type of marine invertebrate that is characterized by living in remarkable chitin tubes feeding on bottom sediments. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that these creatures do not need sunlight to live and develop. But why did invertebrates need to "cut" the cables? Or weren't they?
Thus, the Mariinsky Depression, photos of which are presented in the article, is one of the most amazing places on Earth.