Located in the western Pacific Ocean, the Mariana Trench is one of the deepest in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 meters at its deepest point, and is an important object of study in marine geoscience.
Scientists have discovered an astonishing fact in the deep exploration of the Mariana Trench: this trench can swallow about 3 billion tons of seawater every year, and this has been the case for nearly a million years.
What is the Mariana Trench?
The Mariana Trench is a trench with a depth of 10,911 meters, located in the western Pacific Ocean, about 200 kilometers from Guam, and is one of the deepest trenches on Earth. The trench is about 2,550 kilometers long and has an average width of 69 kilometers, and is the junction of the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate. The depth of the trench far exceeds that of other trenches such as the Fulbright Trench and the Chile Trench.
The Mariana Trench formed as a result of the westward movement of the Pacific Plate, going through a process called "trench cracking." In the process, the Earth's crust was torn into a crack, and the crustal plates in the crack began to sink, forming the Mariana Trench. The formation of the Mariana Trench dates back about 50 million years and continues to evolve today.
Environmental characteristics of the Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench is a hot spot for marine geoscience research because its depth, high water pressure, and harsh environmental conditions make it difficult for scientists to reach this place for in-depth research. According to previous studies, the environmental conditions of the Mariana Trench are extremely harsh, with water pressure as high as 1090 times atmospheric pressure, and the water temperature is very low, only 0-4 degrees Celsius.
In addition, due to the depth of the depth, the lack of light in the Mariana Trench makes the seabed ecosystem very monotonous, and only some special organisms adapted to low temperature and high pressure environments can survive here.
In addition to these extreme environmental conditions, the Mariana Trench has a number of other features that have also played an important role in scientists' study of the site. One of the most important features is the deep-sea salt lakes in the trench.
The disappearance of deep-sea salt lakes and seawater
The deep-sea salt lake is a very special place in the Mariana Trench, which is due to the separation of water molecules from salt molecules during the flow of sea water into the trench, resulting in the salt being concentrated in a specific place, forming a "salt lake". Due to the extremely high salt concentration in deep-sea salt lakes, the species here are very limited, but they can adapt to this high-salt environment and become the main organisms in deep-sea salt lakes.
When seawater flows into deep-sea salt lakes, a large amount of seawater disappears, resulting in the entire Mariana Trench that can swallow about 3 billion tons of seawater per year. This number sounds staggering, but in reality, it only accounts for about 0.00003% of the total global inflows into the ocean each year.
Although this number is very small, it also means that the lost water in the Mariana Trench did not disappear out of thin air, but was recycled elsewhere in the trench. Specifically, seawater undergoes a series of chemical changes in the Mariana Trench, including the separation of water molecules from salt molecules, the dissolution and recrystallization of water, etc., which lead to the recycling of seawater.
The importance of the Mariana Trench
Although the amount of seawater lost each year in the Mariana Trench is very small, its discovery is still of great scientific significance. First of all, this discovery proves that there are also very rich ecological environments and biomes in the depths of the ocean, which are very important for the stability and ecological balance of marine ecosystems.
Secondly, the Mariana Trench is a very important object of scientific research that can help us better understand the physical, chemical and biological processes on Earth and their interactions. Through the study of the Mariana Trench, we can better understand the earth's natural environment and ecosystem, and provide important data and references for global environmental and climate change research.
The Mariana Trench is also of great economic value. Due to the abundance of minerals and fossils in the trench, it is one of the most important deep-sea mineral resources on Earth. One of the most important mineral resources is manganese nodules, a mineral rich in manganese, iron and other metal elements that is widely used in steel, batteries, chemicals and other industries. Manganese nodule reserves in the Mariana Trench are estimated at around 4 billion tonnes, which is nearly half of the world's manganese nodule reserves.
In addition to manganese nodules, the Mariana Trench contains other mineral and fossil resources such as copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, rare earth elements and oil. These resources are of great significance to the earth's economy and industrial development, so the Mariana Trench has also become one of the important research objects for the research and development of deep-sea mineral resources around the world.
Through the study of the Mariana Trench, we can better understand the earth's natural environment and ecosystem, provide important data and reference for global environmental and climate change research, and also develop and utilize the rich mineral resources of this place to promote the development of the earth's economy and industry.