Mariana Trench at a glance
- 10,931 mdeep in the grid
- Oceanic trenchtype of feature
- 11.35° N, 142.20° Elisted point
- Federated States of Micronesianearest country, about 252 km
- 10,994 mWikidata's own depth
- 1 of 39deepest of the trenches in our list
Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench. In the GEBCO grid it reaches 10,931 m below sea level. That figure is the deepest cell in the grid within 400 km of the centre point Wikidata gives for it (a trench is very long, and Wikidata lists a single point). It is the deepest trench in our list, a long curve in the western Pacific where one tectonic plate slides beneath another. Its deepest point is Challenger Deep, 10,927 m down in the grid. The nearest country in our list is Federated States of Micronesia, about 252 km from its listed point.
Open the main map at the deepest cell and tap anywhere to read the depth.
How deep is the Mariana Trench?
The grid figure is 10,931 m. We measured it as the deepest cell in the grid within 400 km of the centre point Wikidata gives for it (a trench is very long, and Wikidata lists a single point). The cell is at 11.34° N, 142.21° E. The GEBCO_2026 grid has a value every 15 arc-seconds, about 460 m at the equator, so a very narrow feature can be a little deeper or shallower in reality than any grid cell shows.
Wikidata, the open database this feature's name comes from, gives a depth of 10,994 m. That is within 63 m of the grid figure.
Among the 39 trenches in our list it ranks 1st by depth. The list is the named features on Wikidata with a position at sea, so it is not every oceanic trench in the world.
Mariana Trench depth against other trenches and Everest
The Mariana Trench is the deepest trench in our list. Its deepest cell in the grid is 10,931 m down, and the deepest point is Challenger Deep at 10,927 m. For scale, the highest cell on land in the same grid is 8,627 m above sea level, so the trench's deepest cell lies about 2,304 m further below sea level than the highest cell on land lies above it. The grid smooths peaks, so the real summit of Everest is higher than that cell and the true gap is a little smaller.
| Trench | Deepest cell in the grid | Wikidata's figure |
|---|---|---|
| Mariana Trench | 10,931 m | 10,994 m |
| Tonga Trench | 10,755 m | 10,817 m |
| Philippine Trench | 10,090 m | |
| Kermadec Trench | 10,050 m | |
| Yap Trench | 9,918 m | |
| Izu-Ogasawara Trench | 9,841 m | |
| Kuril–Kamchatka Trench | 9,595 m | 10,542 m |
| Sangihe Trench | 9,595 m |
How the Mariana Trench formed, and who has been there
The trench marks a subduction zone: the edge of one tectonic plate is bending down and sliding beneath another, and the seabed folds into a deep, curved valley as it goes. Because the plate that is sinking is old, cold and heavy, the trench is much deeper than most others. The deepest part, Challenger Deep, is named after the Royal Navy survey ships called HMS Challenger that sounded it. Crewed submersibles and uncrewed robots have reached the bottom, and cameras have found small animals living there, so the deepest place in the ocean is not empty.
Why you will see different figures for the Mariana Trench
Published depths for the Challenger Deep and the Mariana Trench vary by tens of metres, because they come from different instruments, surveys and corrections for the speed of sound in water. Here is how the figures compare in the data behind this site.
| Source | Depth | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| GEBCO_2026 grid, full resolution | 10,927 m | Deepest cell within 15 km. The figure used on this site. |
| Map tile, zoom 7 | 10,875 m | What a tap on the map reads. About 52 m shallower because a tile pixel is about 1.2 km wide at the equator. |
| Map tile, zoom 5 | 10,734 m | Zoomed out, the same spot averages over a wider area and reads shallower still. |
| Commonly cited | 10,935 m | Often quoted 10,920 to 10,935 m; GEBCO 15 arc-second gives about 10,9xx m. |
| Wikidata, Challenger Deep | 10,984 m | The depth recorded in the open database. |
About trenches
Oceanic trenches are long, narrow valleys where one tectonic plate slides beneath another. They hold the deepest water on Earth, and most lie around the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
This site lists 39 trenches, 31 of them with their own indexed page. See all undersea features.
Nearby undersea features
- Vityas Deep 1 deep, about 7 km away
- Challenger Deep deep, about 43 km away
- Parece Vela Basin ocean basin, about 255 km away
- Sirena Deep deep, about 271 km away
- Galvez Banks seamount or guyot, about 310 km away
- Emerging Gaferut Seamount seamount or guyot, about 421 km away
Distances are between listed points. A long feature such as a trench or ridge has a single listed point on Wikidata.
The deepest trenches in our list
- Tonga Trench 10,755 m
- Philippine Trench 10,090 m
- Kermadec Trench 10,050 m
- Yap Trench 9,918 m
- Izu-Ogasawara Trench 9,841 m
- Kuril–Kamchatka Trench 9,595 m
Frequently asked questions
How deep is the Mariana Trench?
In the GEBCO grid the figure is 10,931 m. That is the deepest cell in the grid within 400 km of the centre point Wikidata gives for it (a trench is very long, and Wikidata lists a single point). Wikidata, the open database this feature's name comes from, gives a depth of 10,994 m. That is within 63 m of the grid figure.
Where is the Mariana Trench?
Its listed point is 11.35° N, 142.20° E, about 252 km from Federated States of Micronesia. The grid's deepest cell for it is at 11.34° N, 142.21° E.
Is the Mariana Trench deeper than Mount Everest is high?
Yes. The deepest cell of the trench in the grid is 10,931 m below sea level, and the highest cell on land in the same grid is 8,627 m above it, so the trench is about 2,304 m deeper than that. The grid smooths peaks, so the highest cell reads a little lower than the real summit of Everest, which makes the true gap a little smaller.
Data: depth from the GEBCO_2026 grid. Name and position from Wikidata Q510 (CC0); Wikipedia article. See data sources and licences. The GEBCO Grid should NOT be used for navigation or for any other purpose involving safety at sea.
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