The , also known as Izu–Bonin Trench, is an

oceanic trench Oceanic trenches are prominent, long, narrow topography, topographic depression (geology), depressions of the seabed, ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers ...

in the western Pacific Ocean, consisting of the Izu Trench (at the north) and the Bonin Trench (at the south, west of the Ogasawara Plateau). It stretches from Japan to the northernmost section of

Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deep sea, deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maxi ...

. The Izu–Ogasawara Trench is an extension of the Japan Trench. Here, the Pacific plate is being subducted beneath the

Philippine Sea plate The Philippine Sea plate or the Philippine plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part of ...

, creating the

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ōsh ...

and

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , is a list of islands of Japan, Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and Island#Tropical islands, tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total ...

on the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc system. It is +/- 11m at its deepest point and first dived to its base on August 13, 2022, during a joint Caladan Oceanic/University of Western Australia expedition in the Deep Submergence Vehicle

Limiting Factor A limiting factor is a variable of a system that causes a noticeable change in output or another measure of a type of system. The limiting factor is in a pyramid shape of organisms going up from the producers to consumers and so on. A factor not l ...

. The pilot on the mission was

Victor Vescovo Victor Lance Vescovo (born February 10, 1966) is an American private equity investor, retired naval officer, sub-orbital spaceflight participant, and undersea explorer. He was a co-founder and managing partner of private equity company Insight ...

with scientific mission specialist Professor Katsuyoshi Michibayashi of Nagoya University. On this dive, Prof. Michibayashi became the deepest-diving Japanese person in history. Also in August 2022, the deepest fish ever recorded on camera was filmed in the trench, a juvenile snailfish, at a depth of 8,336 meters. The xenophyophore '' Occultammina'' was first discovered at a depth of 8260 metres in the trench.

References

Oceanic trenches of the Pacific Ocean Geology of Japan Landforms of Japan Subduction zones Izu Islands Natural history of the Bonin Islands {{tokyo-geo-stub

See also

References