Mariana Trench Essay

The Earth’s ocean is as mysterious to humans as outer space. Hayden states that only “5 percent” of the Earth’s waters have been explored making the deep sea highly interesting to scientists. The Mariana Trench is one of the most mysterious biomes on Earth due to its inability to be studied effectively because of its extreme depth and pressure. Kollipara states that the pressure is “over 1000 times those at sea level.” The Challenger Deep, near the island of Guam, is the deepest known part of the Mariana Trench at a depth of over 36,000 feet below sea level and has been explored by American ship called The Trieste in 1960, a Japanese probe in 1995, and the world famous director, James Cameron in 2012 (“Marianas Trench”). The Mariana Trench as a whole measures 2500 km long and 70 km. The Mariana Trench is a subduction zone where the static Mariana tectonic plate forces the colliding Pacific tectonic plate to descend below pulling rocks and other minerals below the Earth’s crust (Kaplan).

The Mariana Trench is so deep that ocean currents do not affect its microorganisms making it evolutionarily isolated, therefore making it of great interest to biologists, geologists, and evolutionary scientists (Kaplan). A mathematically derived equation estimates that a third of all prokaryotic life on Earth is contained in the deep sea trench across the globe. These extremophiles, due to the ability to live in high pressure and high temperature near hydrothermal vents, are important for the possibilities of curing diseases or even understanding life on other planets (Mayer). Hydrothermal vent organisms, however, are very hard to study by scientists due to several factors. First, any light or movement disturbs the organisms of study. Th...

... middle of paper ...

...r fish until sharks, albeit at a higher depth, eventually top off the food chain. This is the opposite of life above sea level ecosystems where the sun generates the initial energy from above; the Mariana Trench’s energy starts from the extreme depths of the Earth’s underwater crust and travels toward the shallower parts of the ocean (Bosveld).

The importance of the Mariana Trench is one of the most important and unknown biomes on the planet. Even Former President George W. Bush made a proclamation to establish a Mariana Trench Marine National Monument. Bush noted the vast opportunities for exploration as vents produce pure liquid CO2 and its large unexplored size of 940 nautical miles in length and 38 nautical miles wide. His proclamation allows for environmental protection of certain areas and allowed funds for scientific exploration and research (Bush).