Here are some facts you might find useful to know about oceans.
What do you think humanity knows about the oceans? Not much, actually. Despite the fact that we are close to creating an artificial intelligence, are about to send people to Mars, and are about to create a quantum computer, we still know very little about the 71% of the Earth’s surface that is covered by the oceans, which includes various oceans and seas.
We have collected facts about the ocean that will amaze you and make you feel like a microbe.
1. Of course, you are an intelligent, informed earthling who knows that most of the surface of our planet is covered with water
For reference: water actually covers 71% of the Earth’s surface.
2. Oceans are usually imagined to be much smaller than they actually are
Two-dimensional maps are to blame. For example, here is a view of the Pacific Ocean alone.
3. The average depth of the ocean is 3.7 kilometers …
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4. Which is about 4.5 times the height of the tallest building in the world:
Dubai’s Burj Khalifa Tower, which is currently the tallest building in the world, is 829.8 meters high and has more than 160 floors.
5. The deepest part of the ocean is known as the Mariana Trench, and it is located in the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench runs several hundred kilometers northwest of the island of Guam, and the depth in the trench is about 10,994 meters (about 11 kilometers)!
6. And 10.9 kilometers below the ocean surface, the pressure is insane – about 1000 times higher than on the Earth’s surface!
According to National Geographic, the pressure at this depth is equivalent to 50 airliners pressing down on you!
7. In addition, we have just begun to study the oceans – 95% of the ocean has not yet been explored
And if we already know that there are such things as a Pacific fish with a transparent head (!!!) in the Pacific Ocean, then who knows what else is swimming there. Can you imagine, if humanity has explored only 5% of the world’s oceans, it’s scary to think what you can find in the 95% of the unexplored area.
Although, to be honest, most of the ocean looks something like this:
So it’s hard for us to explore this uncharted territory. And we really don’t know what else we can find there.
8. So far, only three people have actually spent time that deep underwater. The deepest manned oceanic dive took place in 1960, when Don Walsh and Jacques Picard spent almost 20 minutes together on the submarine Trieste at a depth of 11 kilometers at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
The third person to visit the bottom of the Mariana Trench was Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron, who in 2012 went to the deepest point of the Earth in his submarine DeepSea Challenger.
Despite the fact that James Cameron failed to break the dive record of Don Walsh and Jacques Picard (the director was 100 meters short), the Hollywood screen master managed to become the first person in the world to make a long descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench on his own. So who knows what the talented James Cameron saw down there. It’s hard to imagine what kind of sight he saw. After all, he was alone. But there is hope that we will find out what he actually saw there. Perhaps we will see some creatures similar to those floating at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in his sequel, Avatar 2.
9. James Cameron also broke the record for staying at such a depth – he was underwater for 3 hours
10. Despite our advanced technology that has allowed us to map other planets, we have not yet created a detailed map of our own planet’s ocean floor
11. We have created a map of the ocean floor with a maximum resolution of about 5 kilometers, but the map of most of Venus now has a resolution of about 100 meters
The photo shows a map of the bottom of the South China Sea.
12. Since 1971, we have known that the largest volcano in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars. But only in 2013 did we learn that the largest volcano on Earth is the Tamu massif in the Pacific Ocean?
For comparison, the Tamu massif (nobly extinct) stretches over an area roughly equal to the size of the entire United Kingdom.
13. Oh, and here’s another crazy discovery: only three years ago we discovered that there is a reservoir of water in the Earth’s mantle that is three times larger than ALL known oceans. Three times! Just think about it!
The water is hidden inside the ringwoodite crystals that can be found between the upper and lower regions of the Earth’s mantle.
14. The ocean floor is dotted with shipwrecks – UNESCO estimates that there are about 3 million shipwrecks at the bottom of the oceans worldwide.
Including the Titanic, the shipwrecks of King Philip II of Spain’s armada, the wreck of Kublai Khan’s fleet off Japan, and Christopher Columbus’ ships.
15. The total value of all sunken treasures is estimated at 60 billion dollars.
16. Every year, 10,000 shipping containers are lost on the high seas
If you have not received an order from Amazon or Ebay, the possible reason for this is that the container containing your order has sunk.
17. Now here’s a little mystery: in 1997, a loud, unknown noise (called a “Bloop” that you can listen to here) was recorded in the Pacific Ocean. For 10 years, no one could explain where it came from
The prevailing theory is that these sounds come from icebergs, but who really knows what it is? To this day, the origin of this sound is a mystery.
18. Deep in the water off the coast of Cuba, researchers have discovered a structure that looks like a sunken city. No one knows for sure whether this is true or whether it was formed by accident.
Conspiracy theorists love this image and claim that it is the sunken city of Atlantis, about which world governments are silent.
19. Speaking of “things that just happen to be in the water,” how about a whole new continent? Zealand is a territory east of Australia, 94% of which is covered by the Pacific Ocean. But since 2017, it has been declared that it meets all the criteria to be considered a continent
A hidden continent! Super.
20. The Pacific Ring of Fire is home to 75% of the world’s volcanoes
Yes, and 90% of earthquakes occur here.
21. Now let’s get back to animals. In some parts of the oceans, there are jellyfish (in particular, the Lion’s Mane or Hairy Cyanea), which can be up to 36.5 meters long!
Now you realize what else might be floating around out there…
22. And since there are no plants in the deepest parts of the ocean, all living things there feed on each other, leading to epic photos like this one…
Here is a deep-sea squid and a deep-sea smelt fighting for survival.
or look at this creature:
It’s a goblin shark that devours its prey by extending its jaw far beyond its body. It’s gruesome!
So, what did we learn today?
The correct answer is that the ocean is dark and full of horrors, and we still have a lot to learn about it…
