The Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of the Mariana Islands. It lies mostly east and south of the Mariana Islands and southwest of the U.S. territory of Guam. The trench is crescent-shaped, stretching more than 1,580 miles (2,550 kilometers) in length and about 43 miles (69 kilometers) wide on average
. The deepest point in the trench, known as the Challenger Deep, is situated at the southern end of the trench and lies approximately 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Guam
. The Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth and is part of the western Pacific system of oceanic trenches formed by tectonic plate subduction
