The Five Deeps, the deepest point in each of Earth’s oceans

Molloy Deep, the Sunda Trench, aka Java Trench, the South Sandwich Trench, the Puerto Rico Trench, and the famed Mariana Trench, home of Challenger Deep, the deepest-known point on Earth.

These are The Five Deeps, the deepest point in each of Earth’s oceans.

Esri’s animated map provides a tour of these four trenches and a hole that was likely created by seafloor spreading, “which is when two tectonic plates move apart from one another.” From Esri:

“Ours is a water planet, with over 70 percent of its surface covered by oceans. Mapping them with maximum precision has always been a challenge, such that, even today, we have better maps of Mars than of our own oceans. Part of the problem is that even the most detailed two-dimensional map only gives us a tiny sliver of the picture.”

“The ocean is three-dimensional. Without a close picture of its varying depths and the contours of the seafloor, we’re not getting anything close to a complete image. But creating such a map is still a challenge, one that the United Nations Seabed 2030 aims to meet by creating a complete bathymetric ocean map by the end of the decade. In this animated map, we highlight the deepest spots in the briny deep that surrounds us.”

Esri also shares an interactive map of The Five Deeps.

Watch these related videos next:
• How deep is the ocean?
• Marie Tharp: Uncovering the Secrets of the Ocean Floor
• How the Mariana Trench was formed
• NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer live stream in the Mariana Trench
• 1000m beneath the Antarctic ice, where no human has gone before