How Deep Is The Ocean?
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We\\u2019re exploring a part of the world that not much is known about\\u2014in fact, you could be one of the people who help us understand and learn more about this very important, and very large, part of our earth.
\\n\\nThe land underneath the ocean is as varied and interesting as the terrain up on dry land\\u2014with mountains and canyons, plains and forests. (That\\u2019s right, forests! There are kelp forests where the kelp is as much as 150 feet tall!) In this episode, what\\u2019s known--and unknown--about the bottom of the ocean. How deep IS the deepest part of the ocean? And how was the Mariana Trench formed? We get answers from Jamie McMichael-Phillips and Vicki Ferrini of Seabed 2030, a global collaboration designed to map the sea floor, by 2030.
\\n\\nResources
\\n\\nDownload our learning guides: PDF | Google Slide | Transcript
\\n\\n\\n\\nVisual: What Lurks In The Depths Of the Ocean? (CBC Kids)
\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u201cHow deep is the deepest part of the ocean?\\u201d \\u2013Freya, 8, Wellington, New Zealand
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The deepest part of the ocean is the Challenger Deep, 11,034 meters in the Mariana Trench. It\\u2019s about seven miles deep! How did the trench get so deep?\\xa0
\\n\\nThe same processes that formed canyons and mountains on dry land also formed the depths of the ocean and the islands that peek above the water.
\\n\\nIn the case of the Mariana Trench, it was formed by the process of subduction\\u2014when one tectonic plate slides under another. A tectonic plate is a gigantic piece of the earth\\u2019s crust and the next layer below that, called the upper mantle. These massive slabs of rock are constantly moving, but usually very slowly, so a lot of changes to the earth\\u2019s structure take place over a long time. But sometimes something like an earthquake can speed that process up.
\\n\\nA trench is formed when one plate slides or melts beneath another one.
\\n\\nThe Mariana Trench is the deepest trench in the world\\u2014farther below sea level than Mount Everest, is tall!
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