The team led by Prof. Zhang Xiaohua and Prof. Liu Xiaoshou from the College of Marine Life Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. Zhao Meixun’s team from the Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, made new progress in the research on the sedimentary dynamic process and deep biosphere of the 10,000-meter hadal. 

The research team obtained a 7.5-meter columnar sediment sample from a depth of 10,816 meters in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench. An organic geochemical and microbial analysis of the rock core was conducted, providing for the first time the organic carbon apparent age framework of the deep seabed sediments of the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench (>1.5 m), which reveals the episodic sedimentary characteristics of the 10,000-meter hadal trench sediments and the distinctive deep biosphere of the world’s deepest ocean they shaping.

The research outcome titled “A unique subseafloor microbiosphere in the Mariana Trench driven by episodic sedimentation” was published in Marine Life Science & Technology, an international journal co-sponsored by Ocean University of China and the Laoshan Laboratory. The columnar sediment samples in this research were collected by OUC’s research vessel Dong Fang Hong 3 in July 2020.