Litke Deep () is an

oceanic trench Oceanic trenches are prominent, long, narrow topography, topographic depression (geology), depressions of the seabed, ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers ...

in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

. The deepest point, also referred to as Litke Deep, is below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. It is the closest point of the upper surface of Earth's

lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time ...

Earth's center Earth's inner core is the innermost internal structure of Earth, geologic layer of the planet Earth. It is primarily a solid ball (mathematics), ball with a radius of about , which is about 20% of Earth's radius or 70% of the Moon's radius. T ...

, with

Challenger Deep The Challenger Deep is the List of submarine topographical features#List of oceanic trenches, deepest known point of the seabed of Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, in the ocean territory o ...

being further from Earth's centre at a bathymetric depth of . The deepest point in Litke Deep is the closest point on the Earth's surface to the

given that it is located along the planet's polar flattening. Based on average global sea level (mean sea level), the deepest point in Litke Deep is shallower than

. Litke Deep is the second deepest point in the Arctic Ocean after Molloy Deep.

Topography

Location

The Litke Deep is located in the southwestern part of the Eurasian Basin, which stretches from northeastern part of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

past the

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

archipelago,

Franz Josef Land Franz Josef Land () is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is inhabited only by military personnel. It constitutes the northernmost part of Arkhangelsk Oblast and consists of 192 islands, which cover an area of , stretching from east ...

and

Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya (, ) is a archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Kara Sea i ...

to the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula ( ) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administratively it is part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai Federal subject of Russia. Ge ...

. It is situated south of the underwater ridge Gakkel Ridge roughly 350 kilometers northeast of Svalbard and roughly 220 km north of the island of

Nordaustlandet Nordaustlandet (Anglicised as North East Land) is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopen Strait. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under large ice ca ...

. The deepest part is at 5,449

metres The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

(17,881

feet The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...

) International Council of Scientific Unions, International Geophysical Committee (1969). ''Annals of the International Geophysical Year, Volumes 46-48'' p.99 Oxford: Pergamon Press under

Closest point to Earth's center

The Challenger Deep is lower below sea level, but the Litke Deep is reported to be the closest point on the surface to Earth's center, with Molloy Deep a very close second. The seabed at Litke Deep is the fixed point on Earth that has the least distance from the center – because of the oblate spheroid shape of the planet Earth, which is flatter at poles and thicker at the

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

. Application of the formula at

Earth radius Earth radius (denoted as ''R''🜨 or ''R''E) is the distance from the center of Earth to a point on or near its surface. Approximating the figure of Earth by an Earth spheroid (an oblate ellipsoid), the radius ranges from a maximum (equato ...

shows that the Earth's radius is lesser at Litke Deep than at Challenger Deep. Litke Deep is closer to

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

at 82°24’ N and the difference between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

's diameter at poles and equator is greater than the depth at Challenger Deep ( below sea level), around 11°22' north, nearer to equator with sea level also having the difference. Despite being shallower in depth below sea level, it is from the Earth's center, nearer than the Challenger Deep ( to the Earth's center). In this ranking, several other Arctic as well as Antarctic depths such as Molloy Deep, seabed at North Pole, Factorian Deep and Meteor Deep in

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

exceed Challenger Deep. However, by depth below sea level, Litke Deep is not the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean.

Surveys

The Litke Deep was located in 1955 by the Russian icebreaker ''Fyodor Litke'' expedition. It is named after Russian explorer Fyodor Petrovich Litke.

Descents

No crewed or unmanned descents have been undertaken to Litke Deep .

References

External links

Sketch of the area

Russian language map of the area
{{coord, 82, 24, 00, N, 19, 31, 00, E, type:waterbody_source:kolossus-eswiki, display=title Extreme points of Earth Lowest points of the World Ocean Oceanic trenches of the Arctic Ocean Oceanic basins of the Arctic Ocean Geography of the Arctic