Ocean Facts
- The oceans occupy nearly 71% of our planet's surface.
- More than 97% of our entire planet's water is contained in the ocean,
- The top ten feet of the ocean hold as much heat as our entire atmosphere.
- The average depth of the ocean is more than 2.5 miles.
- The oceans provide 99 percent of the Earth's living space- the largest space in our universe known to be inhabited by living organisms.
- More than 90% of this habitat exists in the deep sea known as the abyss.
- Less than 10% of this living space has been explored by humans.
- Mount Everest (the highest point on the Earth's surface 5.49 miles) is more than 1 mile shorter that the Challenger Deep (the deepest point in the ocean at 6.86 miles).
- The longest continuous mountain chain known to exist in the Universe resides in the ocean at more than 40,000 miles long.
- The Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon is deeper and larger in volume than the Grand Canyon
- The Antarctic ice sheet that forms and melts over the ocean each year is nearly twice the size of the United States.
- The average temperature of the oceans is 2ºC, about 39ºF.
- Water pressure at the deepest point in the ocean is more than 8 tons per square inch, the equivalent of one person trying to hold 50 jumbo jets.
- Cold, saline water that forms off the coast of Iceland can be found in the North Pacific Ocean, about 1000 years later.
- The Gulf Stream off the Atlantic seaboard of the United States flows at a rate nearly 300 times faster than the typical flow of the Amazon river, the world's largest river.
- The world ocean contains nearly 20 million tons of gold.
- The color blue is least absorbed by seawater; the same shade of blue is most absorbed by microscopic plants, called phytoplankton, drifting in seawater.
- A new form of life, based on chemical energy rather than light energy, resides in deep-sea hydrothermal vents along mid-ocean ridges.
- A swallow of seawater may contain millions of bacterial cells, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton and tens of thousands of zooplankton .
- The blue whale, the largest animal on our planet ever (exceeding the size of the greatest dinosaurs) still lives in the ocean; its heart is the size of a Volkswagen.
- The gray whale migrates more than 10,000 miles each year, the longest migration of any mammal.
- The swordfish and marlin are the fastest fish in the ocean, reaching speeds up to 75 miles per hour in quick bursts; the bluefin tuna may reach sustained speeds up to 55 miles per hour.
- Many sharks give live birth to their young, a phenomenon called vivipary; rival siblings sometimes eat each other before they are even born.
- The Great Barrier Reef, measuring 1,243 miles, is the largest living structure on Earth.
- More than 90 percent of the trade between countries is carried by ships and about half the communications between nations use underwater cables.
- More oil reaches the oceans each year as a result of leaking automobiles and other non-point sources that was spilled in Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez.
- Fish supply the greatest percentage of the world's protein
consumed by humans
Most of the world's major fisheries are being fished at levels above their maximum sustainable yield; some regions are severely overfished . - Five species of salmon are now on the endangered species list in the Pacific Northwest, as a result of habitat destruction, logging, overfishing, building of dams and other problems.
- The Grand Banks, the pride of New England fishing for centuries, are closed due to overfishing .