A COLOSSAL 10,900 metres below sea level, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the deepest point in the world’s oceans. The chasm was thought to occur where two oceanic plates were sliding past each other horizontally, but researchers have now found that the truth is much more dramatic. It appears that one plate is being pushed under the other with a force that is tearing it in two.
The Challenger Deep region of the trench, in the western Pacific Ocean, marks the boundary between the Caroline plate and the Mariana platelet. According to seismic records, most of…
