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How deep is the Philippine Trench?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Map of the Pacific Ocean showing depth contours in varying shades of blue, major submarine features such as trenches, ridges, and basins labeled throughout the ocean, and neighboring landmasses including Asia, Australia, North and South America. Principal cities along the Pacific rim and island groups are marked, along with international boundaries.
Pacific Ocean

The Philippine Trench, located in the Philippine Sea of the western North Pacific Ocean, reaches a maximum depth of 34,578 feet (10,539 metres).12

This depth, which represents the second greatest known in any ocean, was recorded by the Danish vessel Galathea in 1951. While earlier soundings, such as the 34,440-foot (10,497-metre) measurement by the USS Cape Johnson in 1945, provided early indications of this near-record depth, subsequent reports of even greater depths have been attributed to instrumentation errors.12