The Mariana Trench

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered The Mariana Trench which turned out to be deeper than Everest is high, by two kilometres. Trenches like Mariana form when one tectonic plate slips under another and heads down and there are around fifty of them globally. While at one time some thought it was too dark and deep for life there and others wildly imagined monsters, the truth has turned out to be much more surprising.

With

Heather Stewart,
Director of Kelpie Geoscience and Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia

Jon Copley
Professor of Ocean Exploration and Science Communication at the University of Southampton

And

Alan Jamieson
Director of the Deep Sea Research Centre at the University of Western Australia

Producer: Simon Tillotson

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production