Seas and Oceans
Created | Updated Jul 22, 2003
Just some facts.
Seas and Oceans cover more then 70% of the earth surface. If the surface would be levelled the world spanning ocean would be more than 2200m deep
Seas are on the shallow edges of the continents 0 to 800m deep. Oceans are the deep areas between the continents stretching 3000 to 4500 m deep. Water in the seas and oceans is salt, however there are differences in concentration. Water in seas and oceans does flow. Just like wind moving the air in the atmosphere the heat of the sun and the rotation of the earth propel this motion.
The north pole is just a sea covered with ice. The south pole is a big island, or better it is a continent. On some places the ocean bottom is folded. While continental plates collide they ripple the surface, or floor for oceans. These collisions cause deep rifts like the mariane rift with 11418m the deepest place on earth. Trieste a small yellow submarine descended there, they did not encounter human or intelligent habitation.
On some other places the continents drift appart, leaving a vulcanic area in the middle. This is what happens in the atlantic. A long rim of underwater vulcanic mountains stretch from greenland down to the antarctic.
The edges of the continents have shallow seas. These seas act as a slow conveyor belt in transporting debree from the continents down into the oceans. Often organic material is deposited and covered by rocky layers of debree. The organic materials are rather scarce on the ocean floors. Many organisms feed on them. After being covered by layers of inpermeable clay the gasses contained under these layers are thereby locked up. Hopefully for the animals some manage to escape.
The large volume of the oceans may seem uninhabited. The majority of aquatic life is microscopic and will not be seen by the naked eye. The light dependend algae live in the upper layers stretching 500m deep. While all kinds of dirt is falling down the deeper layers inhabit the garbage collectors. And of course in all layers you will find predators hunting for a good byte.
And I wonder if I will ever find the time to do research for these articles.
Seas and Oceans cover more then 70% of the earth surface. If the surface would be levelled the world spanning ocean would be more than 2200m deep
Seas are on the shallow edges of the continents 0 to 800m deep. Oceans are the deep areas between the continents stretching 3000 to 4500 m deep. Water in the seas and oceans is salt, however there are differences in concentration. Water in seas and oceans does flow. Just like wind moving the air in the atmosphere the heat of the sun and the rotation of the earth propel this motion.
The north pole is just a sea covered with ice. The south pole is a big island, or better it is a continent. On some places the ocean bottom is folded. While continental plates collide they ripple the surface, or floor for oceans. These collisions cause deep rifts like the mariane rift with 11418m the deepest place on earth. Trieste a small yellow submarine descended there, they did not encounter human or intelligent habitation.
On some other places the continents drift appart, leaving a vulcanic area in the middle. This is what happens in the atlantic. A long rim of underwater vulcanic mountains stretch from greenland down to the antarctic.
The edges of the continents have shallow seas. These seas act as a slow conveyor belt in transporting debree from the continents down into the oceans. Often organic material is deposited and covered by rocky layers of debree. The organic materials are rather scarce on the ocean floors. Many organisms feed on them. After being covered by layers of inpermeable clay the gasses contained under these layers are thereby locked up. Hopefully for the animals some manage to escape.
The large volume of the oceans may seem uninhabited. The majority of aquatic life is microscopic and will not be seen by the naked eye. The light dependend algae live in the upper layers stretching 500m deep. While all kinds of dirt is falling down the deeper layers inhabit the garbage collectors. And of course in all layers you will find predators hunting for a good byte.
And I wonder if I will ever find the time to do research for these articles.
