The world's deepest ocean trench has been re-mapped in
more detail than ever before.
The Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean, is 1,553 miles long. That's about
the distance from Britain to the top of Africa.
At its deepest point, it's 10,994 metres below sea level, which would be deep
enough to swallow Mount Everest.
The scientists used an echosounder attached to a US Navy ship to make the
measurements.
It bounces sound waves off the
ocean bed. The time it takes for the sound to get back to the ship shows how
deep the ocean is.
This is the map the echosounder
produced
The data's been collected to
help the USA work out how much land it owns underwater near places it controls
like the island of Guam.
But it also gives geologists a
really clear and accurate picture of the one of the most unexplored places on
Earth.
So far, only two humans have
ever visited the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, Challenger Deep - Don
Walsh and Jacques Piccard over 50 years ago - and back then, they really were
going into the unknown.
New missions to return to the
trench are being planned but this time they'll be prepared with a brand new
map.
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