The Philippine Trench is a submarine trench to the east of the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. It has a length of approximately 1,320 km and a width of about 30 km from the centre of the Philippine island of Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

 trending southeast to the northern Maluku

Maluku Islands

The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...

 island of Halmahera

Halmahera

Halmahera is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia.Halmahera has a land area of 17,780 km² and a population in 1995 of 162,728...

 in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. Its deepest point, the Galathea Depth

The Galathea Depth

the Galathea Depth is a 10,540 meter deep depth in the Philippine Trench in the western of the Pacific Ocean. It was explored by the Danish ship Galathea from where the name is taken....

, has a depth of 10,540 metres (5763 fathoms or 34,580 feet). Before 1951, when an expedition of HMS Challenger

HMS Challenger (1931)

HMS Challenger was a survey ship of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. She was laid down in 1930 at Chatham Dockyard and built in a dry dock. After that, the ship was moved to Portsmouth for completion and commissioned on 15 March 1932.-Service history:...

 measured a depth of 10,863 metres in the Mariana Trench

Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands. The trench is about long but has a mean width of only...

, the Galathea Depth was the greatest known ocean depth.. Now, it's the deepest point in the country and the 3rd in the world.

Immediately to the north of the Philippine Trench is the East Luzon Trench. They are separated, with their continuity interrupted and displaced, by Benham Plateau

Benham Plateau

Benham Plateau , also known as the Benham Rise, is a seismically active undersea region and extinct volcanic ridge east of the Philippines, in the Philippine Sea. Under the Philippine Sea lies a number of Basins including the West Philippine Basin of which inside the Basin is located the Central...

 on the Philippine Sea Plate.

The Philippine Trench is the result of a collision of tectonic plates. The Philippine Sea Plate is subducting

Subduction

In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...

 under the Philippine Mobile Belt

Philippine Mobile Belt

The Philippine Mobile Belt is a complex portion of the tectonic boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate, comprising most of the country of the Philippines. It includes two subduction zones, the Manila Trench to the west and the Philippine Trench to the east, as well as the...

at the rate of about 16 cm per year.