Kermadec-Tonga Trench
The Kermadec-Tonga Trench , up to 10,882 m deep, is a deep-sea channel in the southwestern Pacific Ocean .
geography
The Kermadec-Tonga Trench , which runs in a north-south direction, consists of two deep-sea gullies that are almost directly adjacent to one another or only separated from one another by a small sill : These are the Tonga Trench up to 10,882 m deep in the north and the Kermadec Trench up to 10,047 m deep in the south . Together they have a length of about 3200 kilometers.
In the southwestern Pacific it is located between the Samoan Islands in the north, the extensive South Pacific Basin in the east, the North Island of New Zealand in the south and the Kermadec-Tonga Ridge with the southern Kermadec Islands and the northern Tonga Islands in the west. There it lies between about 13 and 36 ° south latitude and 163 and 178 ° west longitude .
geology
The Kermadec-Tonga Trench is part of the deeply carved seam between the Australian plate in the west and the Pacific plate in the east. The Pacific Plate is submerged here under the Australian Plate. To the west of this deep-sea channel there is a forearc and a backarc basin , which are separated from each other by the arch of the islands of the Kermadec-Tonga ridge.
Ocean lows
In the Kermadec-Tonga Trench there are these sea lows :
-
Tonga Trench :
- Witjastief 2 (10,882 m)
- Horizontief (10,647 m)
-
Kermadec Trench :
- Witjastief 4 (10,047 m)
Naming
The trench is named after the French navigator and explorer Jean Michel Huon de Kermadec .