为何马里亚纳海沟成为了地球上最深的地方_大学英语阅读

为何马里亚纳海沟成为了地球上最深的地方

Two other factors conspire to make the 1,580-mile-long (2,550-kilometer-long) Mariana Trench staggeringly deep.[7] For one, the trench lies far from any major landmass, which means it’s remote from the mouths of muddy rivers. “Many other deep trenches are more filled with sediment,” Chris Goldfinger, professor of Oregon State University, explained. “This one isn’t.” In addition, nearby fault lines cut the Pacific plate into a narrow tongue at the site of the trench, allowing the plate to bend more steeply downward than at other subduction zones.[8]

Cameron Dive a “Man on the Moon” Feat

Despite Cameron’s record dive, it’s impossible to know what really happens in the subduction zone, since most of the action occurs up to 420 miles (700 kilometers) below Earth’s surface. “That’s the iceberg,” Stern said. “Cameron wasn’t even at the tip of it—11 kilometers out of 700. The trench is the interface between the limits of human experience and the reality humans can’t experience.”

Even so, with subsequent dives, there’s the prospect of retrieving rock samples and looking for life deeper than it’s ever been found before. Cameron commented, “It’s really the sense of isolation, more than anything, realizing how tiny you are down in this big vast black unknown and unexplored place... I see this as the beginning. It’s not a one-time deal and then moving on. This is the beginning of opening up this new frontier.” Stern agreed, calling Cameron’s trip “kind of a man-on-the-moon thing.”