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The World of Water

by Amelia Modigliani

The Oceans
The Dynamic Ocean
How Oceans Formed
Basic Knowledge
Fascinating Facts
Currents
Highest Tides
Optimal Conditions for Coral Growth
Fish
Dangerous Sea Food
Sharks
Ocean Concerns

The Oceans

"The ocean is a huge body of salt water that covers almost three-quarters of our planet and separates the continents of the world. This world ocean is divided into the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic oceans. In and around these five oceans are other bodies of water such as bays, gulfs, and lagoons, all filled with salty ocean water."

"The bottom of the ocean is not flat. In fact, this land beneath the water has hills and valleys, mountains and plains, and other interesting features, just like the dry land above sea level. Some of the deepest valleys and longest mountain ranges in the world are at the bottom of the oceans. One mountain range stretches most of the way around the earth through the oceans."

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The Dynamic Ocean

" The Atlantic Ocean is slowly getting larger as North and South America continue to drift farther away from Europe and Africa. These continents, however, move very slowly and will drift only about 1 inch apart each year."

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How Oceans Formed

"The Earth formed some 4,600 million years ago. Soon afterward, the early oceans began to fill with water. Water vapor gas rose from volcanoes and hot rocks on the new Earth's surface. As it cooled, it formed storm clouds and soon the first rain fell to form the seas. The first seas were as acidic as lemon juice and only a few degrees below boiling point."

 

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Basic Knowledge

* 71% of the Earth is covered in sea water.
* Oceans contain 97% of all the water on Earth, 1% is fresh water and 2-3% is contained in ice caps and glaciers.
* 90% of all volcanic activity occurs in the oceans.
* Sea plants provided the oxygen that was need to support the first animals.
* Algae produces over half of the worlds oxygen.
* Sea level rises about 3 inches every 100 years.
* At the deepest point in the ocean the pressure is more than 8 tons per square inch.
* Many parts of the deep ocean are only 29 ûF.

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Fascinating Facts

 

* If mined, all the gold suspended in the world's seawater would give each person 9 pounds.
* Although Mt. Everest is considered the largest mountain on earth, Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano on the island of Hawaii, begins underwater and if measured from the ocean floor to summit reaches 33,465'.
* If the ocean's total salt content were dried, it would cover the continents to a depth of 5 ft.
* The Antarctic ice sheet is twice the size of the United States.
* Less than 1/10 of 1% of deep sea is explored and is mapped, not understood, not touched, etc.
* There are 2 otters, 18 seals, 14 sea lions, 1 walrus, & 78 Cetacean species in the oceans.
* There is a crustose red algae found at 871 feet; deepest growing plant (.0005% of light).
* Nearly half of ocean range is below 20,000'.
* Japan's land area is only 4% of U.S. with a population of 120 million people (U.S. has 281 million) and they take 44% of their food supply from the ocean
* There are 250,000 species of plants, 75,000 edible species, 2,000 domesticated, 150 commercially cultivated-yet only 3(wheat, rice, corn) supply over half of caloric intake.
* The diversity of fish choices leads to its popularity -at least 18 types of tuna alone.
* Formerly only 4 or 5 of the estimated 60 ‘red tide' producers were considered toxic - now the number is closer to 50
* The Mid-Atlantic ridge mountain system is the largest geological feature in the world spanning 42,000 miles, and covering an estimated 23% of Earth's surface area.

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Currents

Warm currents can be up to 30 ° C, while cold currents can get as cold as —2 ° C.

Warm currents
Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, Agulhas, South Equatorial, Equatorial Counter-Current

Cold Currents
Oyashio, Labrador, Benguela, Humboldt, West Wind Drift

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Highest Tides

Where: Bay of Fundy, Canada. Where tidal range can be over 50 ft.

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Optimal Conditions for Coral Growth

Temperature should be between 25-29 ° C.

Depth should be less than 25 m in water with minimal turbidity.

Salinity should be no higher than 30-40 parts per thousand.

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Fish

Smallest Fish
Dwarf Goby lives in the Indian Ocean. Adults are only about .35 " long and could fit on a fingernail.

Lightest Fish
Dwarf Goby. It would take 500 adults to weigh just 1 gram.

Fastest Fish
Bluefin Tuna: 100kph
Swordfish: 90kph
Marlin: 80kph

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Whales

Scientists figure out how old bowhead whales are by studying changes in amino acids in the lenses of their eyes. Three bowhead whales killed recently by Alaskan natives were estimated to be 135, 172 and 211 years old! Some bowheads have been found to have harpoon points made of ivory and stone embedded in their blubber - those points haven't been used since about the 1880s.

Right whales are the most endangered whales in the world, with a population of only about 340 alive today. New England Aquarium researchers have been working to save them for 20 years.

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Dangerous Sea Food

The Death Puffer fish has a gut, skin, liver and blood that are poisonous to kill a human    in two hours. 20 people die a year from eating the flesh.

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Sharks

-Megalodon, which grew to up to 40 ft. in length and its teeth were each the size of a   person's hand.

-There are 80 species found along eastern coast of U.S. and 50 from Cape Hatteras to Maine.

-Blue shark: appears to be most abundant, grow to 400 lbs., yet not commercially valuable

-There are 2 local species of hammerhead in the N.E. region

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Ocean Concerns

- Australia's Monkey Mia bottlenose dolphin calves have a survival rate of less than 20% since 1989.

- Tagged Sperm whales dove to 3,900' and one possibly to 6,600' in Caribbean.

-  In a recent study nearly half of young Loggerhead turtles' mouths in the Atlantic coated with tar.    Loggerhead turtles have complex internal magnetic compass. Turtles spend 5-7 years in the Sargasso Sea after Florida birth, and use light as aid to navigation and travel.

- Humpback whale in Antarctica was spotted less than 5 months later off Columbia-over 5,000 miles journey

- Fin whale use their jaw bones, the largest single bones ever to exist, to produce cracking noises to cause fish to retreat into back of jaw.

- Romanian conservation groups are working hard to save the common dolphin, the porpoise, and the bottlenose dolphin of the Black Sea.

- St. Lawrence beluga whales are contaminated with heavy metals, organochlorines, and benzopyrene.

- Limulus ameobocyte lysate (LAL), taken from Horseshoe crabs, clots in the presence of endotoxins in just 3 hours. May provide an antidote to septic shock and now diagnoses spinal meningitis to computer chip impurities. India's horseshoe crab species breed year round!

- Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) which is used in dock treatment is shown to be harmful to mollusks, algae, and crustaceans. A plastic alternative is being tested.

- The 17 countries and 165 million people surrounding the Black Sea are finally seeing attempts to begin to clean its waters.

- The ocean drilling program has 19 countries actively participating, and have drilled 2,000 holes around the world at 900 sites. 190 kilometers of core have been collected.

- The Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival, and Holland America account for 65% of all trash collected off coasts of 13 nations.

- A bacteria found in surgeon fishes of Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef that is visible to the naked eye. It is 1 x 106 times larger than other bacteria.

- The ballast waters of tankers are responsible for migration of organisms at all levels. Japanese cargo ship carried 367 species to Oregon. Ballast water has brought Comb jellies to the Black Sea, zebra mussels to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi.

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