What is an ocean trench simple definition?
What is an ocean trench simple definition?
Ocean trenches are long, narrow depressions on the seafloor. These chasms are the deepest parts of the ocean—and some of the deepest natural spots on Earth. At many convergent plate boundaries, dense lithosphere melts or slides beneath less-dense lithosphere in a process called subduction, creating a trench.
What is an example of an ocean trench?
Ocean trenches exist in all the world’s oceans. They include the Philippine Trench, Tonga Trench, the South Sandwich Trench, the Eurasian Basin and Malloy Deep, the Diamantina Trench, the Puerto Rican Trench, and the Mariana.
Where is the trench located?
Located in the western Pacific east of the Philippines and an average of approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers) east of the Mariana Islands, the Mariana Trench is a crescent-shaped scar in the Earth’s crust that measures more than 1,500 miles (2,550 kilometers) long and 43 miles (69 kilometers) wide on average.
Why are most trenches found in the Pacific Ocean?
Why are most oceanic trenches found in the Pacific Ocean? The Pacific Ocean is shrinking and plates are descending below surrounding plates along its edges, hence the creation of trenches.
What is the example of trench?
Deepest oceanic trenches
| Trench | Ocean | Maximum Depth |
|---|---|---|
| Mariana Trench | Pacific Ocean | 10,920 m (35,830 ft) |
| Tonga Trench | Pacific Ocean | 10,820 m (35,500 ft) |
| Philippine Trench | Pacific Ocean | 10,540 m (34,580 ft) |
| Kuril–Kamchatka Trench | Pacific Ocean | 10,542 m (34,587 ft) |
What happens at an ocean trench?
Ocean trenches are steep depressions in the deepest parts of the ocean [where old ocean crust from one tectonic plate is pushed beneath another plate, raising mountains, causing earthquakes, and forming volcanoes on the seafloor and on land.
What is the longest ocean trench?
Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean, is the deepest location on Earth.
Which ocean has the most trenches Why?
the Pacific Ocean
Why are most oceanic trenches found in the Pacific Ocean? The Pacific Ocean is shrinking and plates are descending below surrounding plates along its edges, hence the creation of trenches.
What causes an ocean trench?
Ocean trenches are typically caused when an oceanic crustal plate slides under a lighter continental plate or another oceanic plate. It is believed to work by density.
What are facts about trenches in science?
Trenches are depression in the ocean floor . They are also the deepest part of the seafloor. Trenches form natural boundaries between two tectonic plates. There are 20 major trenches on Earth and 17 of these trenches can be found around the Pacific Ocean Basin.
What is an example of ocean trench?
Challenger Deep . Examples of some deep ocean trenches that are subduction zones are off the West coast of South America, in the Peruvian Trench. The Aleutian Trench, in the North Pacific Ocean , and the deepest, most famous one in the world, the Marianas Trench off the coast of the Marianas Islands in the Southeast Pacific.
What does ocean trench mean?
An ocean trench is a geological structure which occurs undersea along the boundary of a tectonic plate. Specifically, ocean trenches form along subduction zones, in areas where one plate is being sucked under another.