Which ocean contains the Mariana Trench, the deepest known part of Earth's oceans?

The Pacific Ocean contains the Mariana Trench, the deepest known part of Earth's oceans.

The trench lies east of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. Its deepest surveyed point, Challenger Deep, reaches roughly 10,900 metres below sea level, although exact figures vary with measurement methods and ocean conditions.

The Mariana Trench formed where the Pacific Plate is forced beneath the smaller Mariana Plate, a process called subduction. This creates a long, narrow depression in the ocean floor. In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste carried Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh to Challenger Deep, the first crewed descent.

The trench is not an empty, lifeless hole. Researchers have found microbes and small animals living under intense pressure. The Pacific is also Earth's largest and deepest ocean overall, extending from Asia and Australia to the Americas.