Oceans’ extreme depths measured in precise detail
Scientists say we now have the most precise information yet on the deepest points in each of Earth’s five oceans.
The key locations where the seafloor bottoms out in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern oceans were mapped by the Five Deeps Expedition.
Some of these places, such as the 10,924m-deep (6.8 miles) Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, had already been surveyed a number of times.
But the Five Deeps project removed a number of remaining uncertainties.
For example, in the Indian Ocean, there were two competing claims for the deepest point – a section of the Java Trench just off the coast of Indonesia; and a fracture zone to the southwest of Australia….