Japan Trench

The Japan Trench lies east of Honshū island

The Japan Trench is an oceanic trench, a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, in the floor of the northern Pacific Ocean off northeast Japan. It extends from the Kuril Islands to the Bonin Islands and is 10,554 metres (34,600 ft) at its deepest. It is an extension of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench to the north and the Izu-Ogasawara Trench to its south with a length of 800 km (500 mi).^[1] This trench is created when the oceanic Pacific plate subducts beneath the continental Okhotsk Plate. The subduction process causes bending of the downgoing plate, creating a deep-sea trench. Continuing movement on the subduction zone associated with the Japan Trench is one of the main causes of tsunamis and earthquakes in northern Japan, including the megathrust Tōhoku earthquake and resulting tsunami that occurred on 11 March 2011.^[2]

Exploration

On 11 August 1989, the Shinkai 6500 three-person submersible descended to 6,526 m (21,411 ft) while exploring the Japan Trench.
In October 2008, a UK-Japan team discovered a shoal of fish, Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis at a depth of 7,700 m (25,300 ft) in the trench, these are believed to be the deepest living fish ever filmed.^[3] The Bathyscaphe Trieste observed bottom-dwelling fish at the base of the Marianas Trench/Challenger deep at 10,916 m (35,814 ft).^[4]

Tectonic plates of East Asia (Eurasian Plate-Pacific Plate Convergence Zone)
Large	Amur Plate Okhotsk Plate Philippine Sea Plate Yangtze Plate
Small	Mariana Plate Okinawa Plate Philippine Mobile Belt
Faults and rift zones	Baikal Rift Zone Fukozu Fault Idosawa Fault Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc Japan Median Tectonic Line Longmenshan Fault Neodani Fault Nojima Fault Northeastern Japan Arc Philippine Fault System Senya Fault Tanna Fault Ulakhan Fault Urasoko fault
Trenches and troughs	Kuril Trench Mariana Trench Japan Izu-Ogasawara Trench Japan Trench Nankai Trough Sagami Trough Suruga Trough Okinawa Trough Ryukyu Trench Philippines Manila Trench Philippine Trench East Luzon Trench
Other	Boso Triple Junction

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