In the deep, dark depths of the South Pacific Ocean lies a 1,375km-long submarine trench known as the Tonga Trench.
This vast opening in the seafloor has an average depth of 6,000m and a maximum depth of 10,882m. For context, Mount Everest – the world’s tallest mountain – stands 8,848.86m above sea level.
If, in some inconceivable feat of engineering, you were able to stack 24 Empire State Buildings – including the spire and antenna – one on top of the other and sink them into the deepest part of the Tonga Trench, the tip of the final building would still sit 245m below the water’s surface.
In short, the Tonga Trench is deep. In fact, it’s the second-deepest ocean trench on the planet, behind the Mariana Trench, a 2,540km-long, 10,994m-deep (at its deepest point) trench in the western North Pacific Ocean.
Where is the Tonga Trench?
The Tonga Trench lies in the South Pacific Ocean, north of New Zealand and south of Samoa.
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How big is the Tonga Trench?
The Tonga Trench is 1,375km long – roughly the length of the UK – and has an average width of around 80km – that’s the same distance as the length of the Panama Canal.
It has an average depth of around 6,000m and a maximum depth of 10,882m.
Wildlife in the Tonga Trench
A range of marine creatures live within the Tonga Trench, including snailfish, large amphipods and bigfin squid.
During a recent expedition, referred to as the Tonga Trench Expedition, researchers from the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre captured remarkable footage of a Pacific sleeper shark in the trench. These slow-moving giants can grow up to 7m in length.
Top image: Lisa-Blue/Getty Images
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