The Mariana Trench experiment: Earth’s deepest spot, the bone-chilling Challenger Deep, reveals something mysterious

Scientists from Oregon, in a bone-chilling experiment, decided to lower a hydrophone seven miles below the ocean surface into the deepest part of the world’s oceans -- Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep. The idea was to try and record sounds from below.

The scientists believed the experiment wouldn’t be fruitful as Challenger Deep is supposedly the deepest, hence, the quietest place on Earth. But they were wrong. Interestingly, the titanium-encased hydrophone recorded a cacophony of sounds, both manmade and natural.

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The hydrophone recorded noise 36,000 feet below the earth’s surface in Micronesia for three weeks. The team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oregon State University and the US Coast Guard were most surprised by the noise when they didn’t expect to hear anything.

The very mention of the deepest part of Earth sends chills down the spine. Moreover, if Mount Everest was placed in this chasm, there would still be a mile of water above it. Only a handful of vessels have penetrated the Challenger Deep.

In 2017, scientists will deploy the hydrophone for a longer period of time and attach a deep-ocean camera. Who knows what mysteries the camera will unearth?

The Challenger Deep is dominated by constant sounds of earthquakes, both near and far. It is unknown why the deepest place on Earth catches these sounds. Moans of baleen whales were also heard. Even the sound of typhoons that passed overhead was distinctly heard, writes EurekAlert.

Apparently, sound does not get as weak as scientists believed in Challenger Deep even that far from the source. There were also lot of noise from ships. However, pressure at such depths is incredible and it was extremely difficult to lower the hydrophone on the seabed.

The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is 16,000 pounds-per-square-inch, and scientists were afraid that the pressure would crack the ceramic covering outside the hydrophone.

“We recorded a loud magnitude 5.0 earthquake that took place at a depth of about 10 kilometres (or more than six miles) in the nearby ocean crust. Since our hydrophone was at 11 kilometres, it actually was below the earthquake, which is really an unusual experience. The sound of the typhoon was also dramatic,” said Robert Dziak, a NOAA research oceanographer and chief scientist on the project.