Using state-of-the-art mapping technology, scientists from the University of New Hampshire have mapped all 400,000 square kilometres of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, finding four bridges that rise up to 2,500 metres above the sea floor.
The ridges of the Mariana Trench are still forming as the tectonic plates collide, and the scientists have surmised the bridges may be related to the March 2011 earthquakes in Japan.
The scientists also mapped the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth, finding that it is nearly 11 kilometres deep, which is more then Mount Everest is tall.
Read more at University of New Hampshire