Zhemchug Canyon is a giant underwater canyon

Canyon

A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...

 located in the middle of the Bering Sea

Bering Sea

The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....

. This submarine canyon

Submarine canyon

A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley on the sea floor of the continental slope. Many submarine canyons are found as extensions to large rivers; however there are some that have no such association. Canyons cutting the continental slopes have been found at depths greater than 2 km below sea...

 is the largest canyon in the ocean. The canyon has a vertical relief of 2600 metres dropping from the shallow shelf the Bering Sea to the depths of the Aleutian Basin

Aleutian Basin

The Aleutian Basin is an oceanic basin under the southwestern Bering Sea. While the northeastern half of the Bering Sea overlies the North American Plate in relatively shallow water, the Aleutian Basin consists of oceanic plate—the remnant of the Kula Plate that was mostly subducted under...

. Zhemchug Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...

. Zhemchug Canyon has two main branches, each larger than typical continental margin

Continental margin

The continental margin is the zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust. Continental margins constitute about 28% of the oceanic area....

 canyons such as the Monterey Canyon

Monterey Canyon

Monterey Canyon, or Monterey Submarine Canyon, is a submarine canyon in Monterey Bay, California. It is the subject of ongoing study by the scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and other oceanographic institutions.Monterey Canyon begins...

.

What makes the Zhemchug Canyon the largest canyon in the world is not only its great depth, but its large cross-sectional area.
Zhemchug Canyon is the largest submarine canyon in the world, based on drainage area (11,350 km²) and volume (5800 km³).

Ocean wildlife

Zhemchug Canyon is important habitat for many species of ocean wildlife. The endangered short-tailed albatross

Short-tailed Albatross

The Short-tailed Albatross or Steller's Albatross, Phoebastria albatrus, is a large rare seabird from the North Pacific. Although related to the other North Pacific albatrosses, it also exhibits behavioural and morphological links to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean...

 congregates to feed over the surface waters of the canyon. Marine mammals such as Northern Fur Seal

Northern Fur Seal

The Northern fur seal is an eared seal found along the north Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. It is the largest member of the fur seal subfamily and the only species in the genus Callorhinus.-Physical description:Northern fur seals have extreme sexual dimorphism, with males...

 feed in the canyon as do many species of whales. Habitat-forming invertebrates such as Bubblegum Coral, bamboo coral

Bamboo coral

Bamboo coral, family Isididae, is a family of mostly deep-sea coral of the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, and subclass Octocorallia. It is a commonly recognized inhabitant of the deep sea, due to the clearly articulated skeletons of the species. Deep water coral species such as this are...

, soft corals, Hexactinellid

Hexactinellid

Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed siliceous spicules, often referred to as glass sponges...

 sponges, and other sponges have been identified during trawl surveys in the canyon.