that we use each day. Of this useful water, 30% is merely groundwater, and .3% of this water is actually found in rivers and lakes. So less than 1% of all available fresh water on the planet can be found in rivers and lakes. Only .1% of water is found in the atmosphere.
What are the names of the oceans and seas?
The five largest bodies of water are named the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. Each of the world’s oceans have numerous seas, including the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Greenland Sea, the Ross Sea, the Andaman Sea, and the Coral Sea.
How many seas are landlocked and not connected to the world’s oceans?
There are four seas that are completely surrounded by land: the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Dead Sea, and the Salton Sea.
What is so dead about the Dead Sea?
The Dead Sea was considered to be dead because of its high salinity (at 34.2%, which is approximately 9.6 times more salty than the world’s oceans). So aquatic life cannot survive in such conditions. But there are several other places that have more salinity than the Dead Sea, including Lake Vanda (Antarctica), Lake Assal (Djibouti), Lagoon Garabogazköl (Caspian Sea), and many lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (Antarctica), where the salinity in each of them has been measured at more than 40%.
What are trenches?
Trenches are deep, “v”-shaped depressions on the Earth’s surface, lying in the deepest parts of the Earth’s oceans, mostly in the Pacific Ocean. They are caused by subduction, where tectonic plates collide, pushing one heavier, older plate underneath a relatively less dense, newer plate, causing the formation of deep trenches, mountains, earthquakes, and volcanic islands.
The deepest point in the oceans of the planet is the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific Ocean. The above map also shows where the Challenger Deep is located, with a depth of 35,814 feet (10,916 meters).
What island did Robinson Crusoe shipwreck on?
Daniel Defoe based his novel Robinson Crusoe on the real-life story of Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was an English sailor who had an argument with the captain of his ship and asked to go ashore on the island of Más a Tierra (also known as Robinson Crusoe Island or Isla Robinson Crusoe), about 400 miles (644 kilometers) west of Santiago, Chile, in the South Pacific Ocean. Selkirk was stranded on the island from 1704 to 1709, when he was rescued by another English ship.
What are some of the deepest points in the oceans?
Lying deep below the Pacific Ocean, about 200 miles (322 km) south of the island of Guam, is the Marianas Trench (also known as the Mariana Trench), which is 1,554 miles (2,550 km) long and 44 miles (71 km) wide. The deepest point of the Marianas Trench is named Challenger Deep at 35,814 feet (10,916 meters), first discovered by the HMS Challenger in 1875. In the Atlantic Ocean, the Puerto Rico Trench is 28,373 feet (8,648 meters) below the surface. In the Arctic Ocean, the Eurasia Basin at the Litke Deep is 17,881 feet (5,449 meters) deep. The Java Trench or Sunda Trench in the Indian Ocean is 25,344 feet (7,725 meters) deep. Another deep point of note in the Pacific Ocean is Monterey Canyon off the coast of northern California. It is about 95 miles (153 km) long and 11,800 feet (3,600 meters) deep. The cold waters generated in the trench create a perfect environment rich in foods that support a diverse range of wildlife.
In comparison to all of these ocean canyons, the most famous land canyon—the Grand Canyon in Arizona—is 277 miles (446 km) long and 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) deep. The world’s ocean canyons are much more impressive, but most people will never see them.
What is a sounding?
A sounding is a method once used for determining the depth of the ocean by dropping a weighted line into the water and measuring the length of that line when it stops descending at certain predetermined points.
Where is the farthest point from land?
In the middle of the South Pacific Ocean lies the Pacific pole of inaccessibility, a spot on the Earth that is the farthest from any land. It is 1,670 miles (2,688 km) from any land. Located at 48°52.6′ South and 123°23.6′ West, this spot is approximately equidistant from Antarctica, Australia, and Pitcairn Island.
Where is the farthest point from an ocean?
The Eurasian pole of inaccessibility is located in Xinjiang Province, in northern China, and is over 1,600 miles (2,574 km) from any ocean. Located at 46°17′ North, 86°40′ East, the land is approximately equidistant from the Arctic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean.
What is the world’s largest island?
The world’s largest island is Greenland (in Greenlandic, Kalaallit Nunaat). Greenland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean near Canada, between the latitudes of 59′ and 83′ North, and longitudes of 11′ and 74′ West. It is an autonomous country within the kingdom of Denmark, with the queen of Denmark as the head of state, but with a local referendum in 2008, it was granted self-rule and self-government. It is approximately 840,000 square miles (2,175,600 square km). Australia, while it also meets the usual definition of an island (surrounded by water) and is larger than Greenland, is not considered an island but a continent.
Why is Greenland considered an island while Australia is a continent?
Australia is three and a half times larger than Greenland and comprises most of the land on the Indo-Australian Plate, while Greenland is distinctly part of the North American Plate.
What is an archipelago?
An archipelago is a chain (or group) of islands that are close to one another. The Aleutian Islands of Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands are both archipelagos. They are usually formed by plates pushing into one another or by volcanic activity.
Atolls like these in the Maldives are formed of coral reefs surrounding what was once a volcano.
What is a coral reef?
Coral reefs are formed by the accumulation of calcium carbonate that comes from the external skeletons of tiny animals called coral polyps. The polyps live in shallow, warm water and thus congregate around islands in the tropics, where coral reefs are abundant.
What is an atoll?
In addition to reefs, coral can also form atolls. Atolls are formed when a volcano, around which coral often grows, erodes away, leaving a circular wall of coral with a lagoon at the center.
What is a strait?
A strait is a narrow body of water between islands or continents that connects two larger bodies of water. Two of the most famous straits are the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.
HIGH, LOW, BIG, SMALL, AND WONDROUS
Where is the lowest point on Earth?
To reach the lowest point on Earth, you would have to go far below the Pacific Ocean, south of Guam to the Marianas Trench,
