Diamantina Fracture Zone Diamantina Fracture Zone The Diamantina Fracture Zone is an area of the south-eastern Indian Ocean seafloor. It has a range of ridges and trenches. It lies to the south of the mideastern Indian Ocean features of the Wharton Basin and Perth Basin, and to the south west of the Naturaliste Plateau. Being parallel to the Southeast Indian Ridge, Diamantina Fracture Zone is not a real fracture zone in the sense of plate tectonics, but rather an escarpment, separating two oceanic plateaus. In fact its extension to the west is called Diamantina Escarpment. This is the southern border of the Broken
Mariana Trench poles than at the equator. As a result, parts of the Arctic Ocean seabed are at least closer to the Earth's centre than the Challenger Deep seafloor. In 2009, the Marianas Trench was established as a United States National Monument. Xenophyophores have been found in the trench by Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers at a record depth of below the sea surface. On 17 March 2013, researchers from the Scottish Association for Marine Science reported data that suggested microbial life forms thrive within the trench. The Mariana Trench is named for the nearby Mariana Islands (in turn named Las Marianas