This week I was able to travel to the depths of Mariana Trench. Its a crescent shaped trench that is 1,580 miles long, 43 miles wide, and a maximum known depth of 36,037 ft. The trench is caused by the Pacific Plate subducting under the Mariana Plate. the subduction has been going on for 50 million years and is what helped make the Marina islands. The Pacific crust that is subducting under the Mariana plate is some of the oldest crust on earth at about 170 million years old. the crust then melts and comes up out of the volcanos that created the Mariana islands.
Du to this fault being a thrust fault it has created folding in the plate creating the West Mariana Ridge, Mariana Trough, and the Mariana Arc.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/MarianaPlate.png/420px-MarianaPlate.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Mariana_Features.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Cross_section_of_mariana_trench.svg/563px-Cross_section_of_mariana_trench.svg.png
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