Molloy Deep

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Bathymetric feature in the Fram Strait

title: "Molloy Deep" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["lowest-points-of-the-world-ocean", "oceanic-trenches-of-the-arctic-ocean", "oceanic-basins-of-the-arctic-ocean", "geography-of-the-arctic"] description: "Bathymetric feature in the Fram Strait" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molloy_Deep" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Bathymetric feature in the Fram Strait ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox body of water"]

FieldValue
nameMolloy Deep
captionMolloy Deep
location
coords
typeOceanic trench
part_ofFram Strait
etymologyArthur E. Molloy
catchment
area
depth
max-depth5550 m
volume600 km3
::

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The Molloy Deep (also known as the Molloy Hole) is a bathymetric feature in the Fram Strait, within the Greenland Sea east of Greenland and about 160 km west of Svalbard. It is the location of the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean. The Molloy Deep, Molloy Hole, Molloy Fracture Zone, and Molloy Ridge were named after Arthur E. Molloy, a U.S. Navy research scientist who worked in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Arctic Oceans in the 1950s–1970s.

The outer rim of the trench is at a depth of 2700 m and contains about 600 sqkm inside the rim, descending to approximately 5,550 m at its greatest depth. The basin floor measures about 220 sqkm and is the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean. The only person to have reached the bottom of the Molloy Deep is American explorer Victor Vescovo as part of his Five Deeps Expedition.

Topography

The Molloy Deep is a roughly rectangular, seismically active, extensional, sea-floor basin that lies between the northwestern tip of the Molloy Fracture Zone (a right-lateral, strike-slip fault) and the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone (also a right-lateral, strike-slip fault). These two fracture zones connect the actively spreading northern segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean ridge system called the Knipovich Ridge with the Lena Trough, an actively spreading mid-ocean ridge region north of the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone. The Lena Trough joins the southwestern end of the Arctic Ocean's Gakkel Ridge, which is the slowest-spreading mid-ocean ridge on Earth and which stretches across the entire Arctic Oceans' Eurasian Basin.

Surveys

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Limiting_Factor_to_be_prepared_for_a_dive_into_the_Atlantic_Ocean.jpg" caption="''DSSV Pressure Drop'' and ''DSV Limiting Factor'' at its stern"] ::

The Molloy Deep was discovered in September 1972 by the USNS Hayes (T-AGOR-16), the first of a new class of catamaran-hulled oceanographic research vessels. The Molloy Deep, Molloy Hole, Molloy Fracture Zone, and Molloy Ridge were named after Arthur E. Molloy, a U.S. Navy research scientist who worked in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic Oceans in the 1950s–1970s.

Descents

The only person to reach the bottom of the Molloy Deep is Victor Vescovo on 24 August 2019. The Five Deeps Expedition leader and chief submersible pilot, Vescovo, descended into the Molloy Deep in the Deep-Submergence Vehicle Limiting Factor (a Triton 36000/2 model submersible) from the support ship, the Deep Submersible Support Vessel DSSV Pressure Drop. The Five Deeps Expedition established the depth of the Molloy Deep as 5,550 m ±14 m by direct CTD pressure measurements. This is shallower than previous estimations using earlier technology with less precise bathymetric methods.

References

References

  1. "Fram Strait Bathymetry". Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research.
  2. IHO-IOC GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names (2018-06-25), available online at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/gazetteer/
  3. Thiede, Jörn. (1990). "Bathymetry of Molloy Deep: Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland". Springer.
  4. (2002-07-01). "A new bathymetric model for the central Fram Strait". Marine Geophysical Research.
  5. (1987-06-30). "Eddy near the Molloy Deep revisited". [[Journal of Geophysical Research]].
  6. (1990-08-01). "Bathymetry of Molloy Deep: Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland". Mar. Geophys. Res..
  7. (2014-03-31). "Acoustic evidence of a submarine slide in the deepest part of the Arctic, the Molloy Hole". Geo-Marine Letters.
  8. "Five Deeps Expedition is complete after historic dive to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean".
  9. (April 2014). "Acoustic evidence of a submarine slide in the deepest part of the Arctic, the Molloy Hole". Geo-Marine Letters.
  10. (2012). "The International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) Version 3.0". Geophys Res Lett.
  11. (March 2011). "Seismicity and active tectonic processes in the ultra-slow spreading Lena Trough, Arctic Ocean". [[Geophysical Journal International]].
  12. (1990). "Structure and Geodynamics of the Molloy Transform Fracture Zones in the Mid-Ridge System of the Norway–Greenland Oceanic Basin". Okeanologiya.
  13. (1990). "Bathymetry of Molloy Deep: Fram Strait Between Svalbard and Greenland". Marine Geophysical Researches.
  14. (2010). "Structure and composition of the sedimentary cover in the Knipovich Rift valley and Molloy Deep (Norwegian-Greenland basin)". Lithology and Mineral Resources.
  15. "Do You Know the Different Types of Faults?".
  16. (February 2003). "The Gakkel Ridge: Bathymetry, gravity anomalies, and crustal accretion at extremely slow spreading rates". [[Journal of Geophysical Research]].
  17. (October 2018). "Eurasia Basin and Gakkel Ridge, Arctic Ocean: Crustal asymmetry, ultra-slow spreading and continental rifting revealed by new seismic data". [[Tectonophysics (journal).
  18. (10 April 2017). "Giant caldera in the Arctic Ocean: Evidence of the catastrophic eruptive event". [[Scientific Reports]].
  19. Perry, R.K.. (1986). "The Nordic Seas". Springer-Verlag.
  20. Amos, Jonathan. (2019-09-09). "Victor Vescovo: Adventurer reaches deepest ocean locations". [[BBC News]].
  21. "Full Ocean Depth Submersible LIMITING FACTOR". fivedeeps.com.
  22. Five Deeps Expedition. (2019-09-09). "Five Deeps Expedition is complete after historic dive to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean".
  23. (2021-05-05). "High-resolution multibeam sonar bathymetry of the deepest place in each ocean". Geoscience Data Journal.

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