Tonga Trench

The Tonga Trench is a deep underwater valley located in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga. It is a subduction zone where one tectonic plate, the Pacific Plate, is slowly sliding beneath another, the Indo-Australian Plate. This process creates intense geological activity, including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and the trench reaches depths of about 10,882 meters (35,702 feet). As a major feature of plate tectonics, the Tonga Trench plays a crucial role in Earth's geological processes, helping to recycle oceanic crust back into the Earth's interior.