Question

Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth, lies in the ______ Ocean. 

1. Arctic 
2. Atlantic 
3. Pacific 
4. Indian 

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Pacific 

The correct answer is Pacific.

• Mariana Trench
  • The deepest oceanic trench on the Earth, i.e. the Mariana Trench, is located in the western North Pacific Ocean.
  • Its maximum depth (≈10,984 m) is found at the southern end of a small slot-shaped valley in its floor called Challenger Deep.
  • It is approximately 200 km east of the Mariana Islands and is about 2550 km long and 69 km wide.
  • The trench was named after the Mariana Islands which in turn were named after the Queen Mariana of Austria (widow of Philip IV of Spain) and the trench was declared as a US National Monument in the year 2009.

• The Mariana Trench is part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction system.
• The first attempt to measure the depth of the Mariana Trench was made in 1875 during the 'Challenger Expedition'.

• The Pacific Ocean  
  • ​The largest and the deepest ocean, extending from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Antarctica in the south.
  • It covers around 46% of the Earth's water surface and about 32% of Earth's total surface area, making it larger than all of Earth's combined land area.
  • The centers of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere lie in the Pacific Ocean.
  • The second and the third deepest point i.e. the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench and the Sirena Deep in the Mariana Trench respectively, also lie in the Pacific Ocean. 
  • The seas included in the Pacific Ocean are - the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Philippine Sea, the Coral Sea, and the Tasman Sea.