Oceans

ONLY ONE: Oceans cover about 70% of earth's surface. Though we study that there are five oceans on the earth, they can certainly be treated as ONE largest ocean because all the oceans are combined together.

LARGEST: There are five oceans in the world namely Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Ocean is also called as Southern Ocean. Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on earth covering over one third of the earth's surface.

DEPTH: The average depth of all oceans is 12,100 feet. But when you wish to consider individual statistic, Pacific Ocean is deepest of all oceans with an average of 14,040 feet. The Mariana Trench in Pacific Ocean is almost 36,200 deep into the sea.

MOUNTAINS: Do you know there are mountains under the oceans! In fact the tallest mountain on earth is an oceanic mountain. Its name is Mauna Kea and lies among the Hawaii Islands. Mauna Kea is 33,474 feet from its base on the ocean floor. But appears only 13,680 feet above sea level! The largest mountain range also appears under the sea. It is called the Mid Oceanic Ridge which is just 65,000 km long.

BLUE: Most of us think that Oceans appear blue or greenish because of the reflection of the sky. But this is not true! We know that light is a mixture of seven colours namely Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. As the wave length of Red, Orange and Green are longer... they could easily enter the ocean water. The Green and Blue colours are left to be reflected! Though Indigo and Violet too are reflected, our eyes are constructed in such a way to see green and blue colours easily.

SALT: Most of us might know the reason why ocean water is salty. But let's check out once again. The rivers that join the oceans at the end of their journey would bring lot of salts and minerals with them. As the fresh rain feed the rivers, they get rid of the salty nature. But the oceans can't go anywhere to get rid of the salts deposited in them. Year after year, fresh water gets evaporated from the oceans leaving them with more salts!

LIFE: The life under the ocean is too huge that there is separate science called Marine Biology to study the species that live in ocean. According to an estimate, scientists were able to record about one million species that live in the ocean... and that's not the end of the surprising fact! Almost 90 % of Ocean life is yet to be discovered and recorded.