A giant sperm whale surfaces off the coast of Kaikoura, New Zealand, against the backdrop of the Southern Alps, South Island. The whale's play and feeding ground is one of the deep trenches in the area, and it connects with the abyssal Kermadec Trench, at about 30,000 feet one of the deepest spots on earth. The mountain range in the background was formed at the same time, being pushed up in the grinding mingle of the Pacific and the Australian tectonic plates.