Diving Deep - The Secrets of the Mariana Trench Quiz

Answer: True

Mt. Everest is 8,848 meters tall, while parts of the trench are over 11,000 meters deep. Since the earth's crust is less than 10,000 meters thick at the trench, you'd have covered more than half the distance to the mantle by the time you hit the ocean floor.

In the movie "The Core" (2003), the terranauts (as I guess they would be called) begin their journey to Earth's core on the floor of the Mariana Trench.

Answer: one tectonic plate moves under another

This process occurred over 150 to 170 million years ago. Since tectonic plates only move a few centimeters per year (about as much as our fingernails grow), it would have taken the western edge of the enormous Pacific Plate tens of thousands of years to slide under the Mariana Plate.

Answer: The Challenger Deep

The HMS Challenger lent its name to this part of the trench (and also to the US space shuttle). The Challenger was the first ship to measure the depth of the trench (in 1875!) and came up with a moderately accurate measure of 8,184 meters. George Nares was the captain of this ship, so if you picked Nares' Abyss, you were on the right track.

The pressure at this depth is outrageous, about 1000 times that of standard atmospheric pressure, and is easily enough to kill any human being instantly.

Answer: Trieste

The Trieste bathyscaphe (meaning 'deep boat') was manufactured by Italy, but it was acquired by the US in 1958. In January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh traveled 10,911 meters underwater in just under 5 hours. As of 2010, this is the only manned voyage to these depths; however, in January 2010, the X Prize Foundation offered $10 million to the first group that could make two manned descents.

Kaiko was a Japanese robotic submersible that traveled to the bottom in 1995, and Nereus was a "hybrid remotely operated vehicle" that explored the trench in late May 2009. The Nautilus was Captain Nemo's submarine.

Answer: Guam

Guam lies 306 kilometers northeast from Challenger Deep and marked as the starting point for the first underwater expedition. The Trieste arrived at Guam's naval base from San Diego on a freighter and departed for the Deep soon after with the USS Wandank II.

Answer: False

You might expect the answer to be "true", but due to Earth's ovoid shape, the poles are "squished in" a bit, and the closest place to the center of the Earth is actually somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. The difference is not large though. The trench is 6366 kilometers from the center, and some spots of the Arctic ocean are 6353 kilometers from the center, only a 13-kilometer (0.2%) difference!

Answer: Anglerfish

The bioluminescence is a result of a symbiotic relationship with some of the deep-sea bacteria. One of the most incredible things about this fish is that it can survive over one hundred megapascals (~14,500 PSI) of pressure without having its bones crushed (for it is a vertebrate). Also fascinating is the mating process for the anglerfish. Since finding a mate would be nearly impossible in the inky darkness, male anglerfish have evolved so that after birth, their heightened olfactory senses lead them to a female, at which point they attach themselves to the female and integrate with her body. Then, whenever the female is ready to reproduce, she has a mate already waiting.

Aside from the anglerfish and the also-bioluminescent viperfish, most of life forms down in the trench are invertebrates, and many are bacteria.
Note: The three incorrect choices are real fish, and quite a sighto! I encourage you to Google them.

Answer: The Ring of Fire

The Pacific Ring of Fire most notably includes the Cascade Range (which include the infamous Mt. Saint Helens), all the Japanese volcanoes (such as Mt. Fuji), Paricutin in Mexico, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, and Mt. Erebus on Antarctica. Due to heavy tectonic activity in these areas (i.e. subduction), these areas are more prone to earthquakes and tsunamis than most others.

Answer: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S)

Hydrothermal vents are created when tectonic plates diverge and hot water from below the Earth's crust erupts through the ocean floor. This water is saturated in hydrogen sulfide, but when it hits the frigid water in the trench, the water cannot hold the saturation level of the H2S, and it is released into the water. Many of the bacteria that live on the trench floor rely on these hydrogen sulfide bubbles for sustenance.

As for the other choices, hydrogen cyanide is a very poisonous gas that causes respiratory failure, sodium hypochlorite is bleach, and ammonium nitrate is an explosive chemical that was used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Answer: Because the rapidly moving plates would flush the waste into the mantle.

This idea was eventually vetoed because of the potentially harmful effects the waste would have on the organisms in the trench. The United Nations Law of the Sea bans the dumping of nuclear waste into any part of the ocean. The US has yet to ratify this law, though they helped write it and signed an Agreement of Implementation in 1994.