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A precise bathymetric map of the world’s deepest seafloor, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench

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Abstract

Data from three bathymetric surveys by R/V Kairei using a 12-kHz multibeam echosounder and differential GPS were used to create an improved topographic model of the Challenger Deep in the southwestern part of the Mariana Trench, which is known as the deepest seafloor in the world. The strike of most of the elongated structures related to plate bending accompanied by subduction of the Pacific plate is N70°E and is not parallel to the trench axis. The bending-related structures were formed by reactivation of seafloor spreading fabric. Challenger Deep consists of three en echelon depressions along the trench axis, each of which is 6–10 km long, about 2 km wide, and deeper than 10,850 m. The eastern depression is the deepest, with a depth of 10,920 ± 5 m.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the captains, radio offices, technical staff, and other crew of R/V Kairei who made it possible to collect bathymetric data on the 1998, 1999, and 2002 cruises. We thank Robert L. Fisher for providing useful information about the previous bathymetric surveys of the Challenger Deep and echosounding of trenches. We acknowledge Toshinobu Mikagawa and Louis L. Whitcomb for information about the dives of the ROV Kaiko and HROV Nereus, respectively. We acknowledge the staff of L-3 Communications ELAC Nautik for information of SeaBeam 2112. We are grateful to Steve C. Cande for suggesting a number of improvements to the manuscript. We thank the editor Amy Draut and anonymous reviewers for constructive input and suggestions for improvements. MN is grateful to Kensaku Tamaki for support of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan

    Masao Nakanishi

  2. Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, 1-14 Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki, 852-8521, Japan

    Jun Hashimoto

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  1. Masao Nakanishi
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  2. Jun Hashimoto
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Correspondence to Masao Nakanishi.

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Nakanishi, M., Hashimoto, J. A precise bathymetric map of the world’s deepest seafloor, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Mar Geophys Res 32, 455–463 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-011-9134-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-011-9134-0

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