DEFINITION OF MARIANAS TRENCH

Located 210 miles (338 km) southwest

of Guam, the Marianas trench is an elongated depression on

the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The trench is formed by the

bending and subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Marianas

island arc, located south of Japan and east of the

Philippines. The deepest part of the trench, the Challenger

Deep, reaches 36,198 feet (11,040 m) below sea level and is

the deepest known place on Earth. This deep is named after

the research exploration vessel H.M.S. Challenger II. The

trench was first detected by echo-soundings by Soviet scientists,

and its bottom was first reached by two U.S. Navy

divers in a bathyscaph in 1960.

The Marianas Islands are located just to the west of the

trench and include volcanoes formed above the subduction

zone marked by the Marianas trench to the east. Some of the

islands are surrounded by limestones and reefs, deposited on

a volcanic base.

See also CONVERGENT PLATE MARGIN PROCESSES; SUBDUCTION

ZONE.

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