Deep. Its maximum known depth is 6.831 miles or 36,070 feet (10,994 meters).
Is the lowest point on Earth actually closer to the center of the Earth?
No, because of the Earth’s irregular shape—it is not a perfect sphere—places in the Arctic Ocean are technically closer to the Earth’s center than the Mariana Trench, although not as deep.
Where is the world’s lowest point on dry land?
The world’s lowest point is at the shore of the Dead Sea on the border of Palestine, Israel, and Jordan. It is 1,378 feet (420 meters) below sea level.
What are the lowest points on each continent?
In Africa, the lowest point is Lake Assal in Djibouti, 509 feet (155 meters) below sea level. In North America, California’s Death Valley lies at 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level. Argentina’s Laguna del Carbón is the lowest point in South America at 345 feet (105 meters) below sea level. The Caspian Sea in Europe lies at 92 feet (28 meters) below sea level. In Asia the shoreline of the Dead Sea lies at 1,378 feet (420 meters) below sea level. And Australia’s lowest point is a mere 52 feet (16 meters) below sea level at Lake Eyre.
How does the hydrologic cycle work?
The movement of water from the atmosphere to the land, rivers, oceans, and plants and then back into the atmosphere is known as the hydrologic cycle. We can pick an arbitrary point in the cycle to begin our examination. Water in the atmosphere forms clouds or fog and falls (precipitates) to the ground. Water then flows into the ground to nourish plants or into streams that lead to rivers and then to oceans, or it can flow into the groundwater (underground sources of water). Over time, water sitting in puddles, rivers, and oceans evaporates into the atmosphere. Water in plants is transpired into the atmosphere.
What is evapotranspiration?
The process of water moving into the atmosphere is collectively known as evapotranspiration. It is the combination of water vapor being evaporated from the surface of the Earth (such as from lakes, rivers, or puddles) into the atmosphere, and transpiration, which is the movement of water from plants to the air.
Where is all the water?
Over 97% of the world’s water is contained within oceans and is too salty to drink or to irrigate crops with (except when the water is cleaned through a desalination plant, which is not done very often). About 2.8% of the world’s water supply is fresh water. Of that 2.8%, about 2% is frozen in glaciers and ice sheets. This leaves only about 0.8% of the world’s water that is accessible through aquifers, streams, lakes, and in the atmosphere. The water that we use primarily comes from this 0.8%.
How many people in the world have limited access to clean water?
According to experts at MIT, approximately 700 million people have limited access to clean water. This number will swell to approximately 1.8 billion people over the next ten years as the global population grows and demand for industrial water used for manufacturing, power generation, agriculture, and energy production continues to accelerate.
What is desalination?
Desalination is the process of removing some salt and minerals from ocean water in order to produce consumable fresh water for a population. According to experts at the International Desalination Association, there are approximately 17,000 desalination plants worldwide in 150 countries, producing 21.1 billion gallons (66.5 cubic meters) per day. Three hundred million people in the world rely on desalinated water for their daily drink water needs. Twenty percent of all water used in Israel is desalinated water that comes from the Mediterranean Sea. It is estimated that by 2016, 50% of Israel’s water supply will be produced in the country’s desalination plants.
Desalination plants remove salt from seawater to create fresh drinking water. The process has improved over the years, but there is still the problem of what to do with all the salt and other minerals that are generated from the process.
What is a desalination plant?
A desalination plant is a facility that pumps ordinary seawater through a myriad of expensive equipment and processes, transforming the salty water into fresh water. This process has been used with some success in many parts of the world, including the United States, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. It is much more efficient and less expensive, however, to clean wastewater (water that has been used for bathing, cooking, cleaning, etc.) than it is to clean and desalinate seawater.
How many desalination plants are there?
There are approximately 17,000 plants located throughout the world. Saudi Arabia alone accounts for 24% of the world output of fresh water from desalination. More than half of the world’s desalination plants are located in the Middle East due to the need for fresh water for the petroleum industry. The United States accounts for another 15% of all plants, Europe and Asia 10% each, and Africa approximately 6%.
Where is the biggest desalination plant in the United States?
The biggest desalination plant is in Carlsbad, California, where it opened in December 2015 at a cost of approximately $1 billion. It is capable of producing 50 million gallons (188 million liters) of drinking water to arid San Diego County per day. This is a fraction of the largest plant in the world, the Jebel Ali Plant in the United Arab Emirates, which produces over 140 million gallons (530 million liters) per day.
What is an aquifer?
An aquifer is an underground collection of water that is surrounded by rock. The creation of an aquifer is a very slow process, as it relies upon precipitated water (rainwater) to percolate through the soil and rock layers and into the aquifer. An aquifer lies above a lower layer of rock that holds the water in place and keeps it from moving further underground.
What is the Ogallala Aquifer?
The Ogallala Aquifer is a huge aquifer that spans an area from western Texas to South Dakota, including parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The oldest water deposited in the aquifer is over one million years old, and only a very small amount of water is added each year. The Ogallala Aquifer is being pumped rapidly by the farms in the region, causing a reduction in the amount of water in the aquifer. Consequently, wells have to be continually deepened so that they can continue to pump water. The aquifer supports 20% of the wheat, corn, cotton, and cattle produced in the United States.
Why are we losing groundwater?
Water is pumped from aquifers around the world for irrigation, industrial, and household needs. Aquifers do not refill as rapidly as water is being pumped out, so in many areas, there is a danger that some aquifers may disappear altogether.
What are ice ages?
Ice ages began during the Precambrian Era approximately 600 million years ago. Throughout the life of the planet, the climate has warmed and cooled many times. During the cooling periods, ice ages have occurred. Large sheets of ice cover large portions of land. In the most recent ice age, which began approximately 3 million years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago, large parts of northern Europe and North America were covered by ice sheets. Some experts argue that there is evidence to suggest that the most recent ice age continues to this very day.
