Earth is “drinking” more seawater through the Mariana Trench than previously thought

The Mariana Trench is best known for being the deepest part of the ocean, plunging all the way down almost 11,000 m (36,000 ft) at its lowest known point. That’s because the trench is the meeting place of two tectonic plates – the tiny Mariana Plate and the huge Pacific Plate. Being denser and older, the latter is actually sliding under the former, which lets vast amounts of seawater pour down through the cracks into the Earth’s crust and the upper mantle.