In which ocean is the Mariana Trench located?

The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean, specifically in the western Pacific east of the Mariana Islands. It forms a long, crescent-shaped depression in the seafloor and is the deepest known oceanic trench on Earth.

The trench exists where the Pacific Plate is forced beneath the smaller Mariana Plate, a process called subduction. As the older, denser oceanic crust bends downward, it creates the trench; volcanic activity above the subduction zone helped form the Mariana Islands.

Its deepest section is the Challenger Deep, which reaches roughly 11,000 metres below sea level. That depth is greater than the height of Mount Everest above sea level, although the trench and mountain measure different kinds of distance.

The trench is sometimes confused with an ocean itself. It is a geological feature within the Pacific Ocean, not a separate ocean basin. Its extreme depth also produces pressure more than 1,000 times standard atmospheric pressure at sea level.