Location The Litke Deep is located in the southwestern part of the
Eurasian Basin, which stretches from northeastern part of
Greenland past the
Svalbard archipelago,
Franz Josef Land and
Severnaya Zemlya to the
Taymyr Peninsula. 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. The deepest part is at 5,449
metres under
sea level.
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. Application of the formula at
Earth radius shows that the Earth's radius is lesser at Litke Deep than at Challenger Deep. Litke Deep is closer to
North Pole at 82°24’ N and the difference between
Earth'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 exceed Challenger Deep. However, by depth below sea level, Litke Deep is not the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean. ==Surveys==