depressions of the sea floor
An oceanic trench is a deep depression or valley on the ocean floor, typically formed where tectonic plates meet and one plate slides beneath another. These trenches are important because they are the deepest parts of the ocean and represent areas of significant geological activity that shape Earth's structure.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Oceanic crust is formed at an oceanic ridge, while the lithosphere is subducted back into the asthenosphere at trenches
Oceanic trenches are prominent, long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor. They are typically 50 to 100 kilometers (30 to 60 mi) wide and 3 to 4 km (1.9 to 2.5 mi) below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers in length. There are about 50,000 km (31,000 mi) of oceanic trenches worldwide, mostly around the Pacific Ocean, but also in the eastern Indian Ocean and a few other locations. The greatest ocean depth measured is in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,994 m (36,070 ft) below sea level.
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