How long would a pebble take to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench?

How long would a pebble take to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench?

The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean. So, if you were to drop something over board, how long would it take to reach the seabed?


Asked by: Merlin Hetherington, Spain

Located in the Pacific roughly halfway between Japan and Papua New Guinea, the Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean, and plunges down over 10,900m below sea level. A pebble dropped overboard would take just over an hour to reach the pitch-black seabed, where temperatures hover just above freezing and the pressure is over 1000 times higher than at the surface.

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