Oceans: Facts and Myths!
I happen to hit this topic
from an ice breaker activity in my GMCS 2 class. Wherein we were asked to
convey to the class a few things from our bucket list i.e. a list of things
which you wish to explore and haven’t tried before.
Travelling in a cruise to the 5 oceans was one of the few.
To take a step closer to fulfilling it, I went on to
read about these 5 oceans. And I discovered that within these deep waters lies
some well discovered and proven facts as well as some mysterious myths.
None of the below points come
from my experience, and hence, I cannot vouch for their accuracy.
But they seem to be quite well
researched and reliable.
Highlighting the Facts:
1. On Earth, the ocean covers almost 70.80% of its surface.
These are, in descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian,
Southern, and Arctic Oceans.
2. Though generally described as
several separate oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body
of salt water sometimes referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. Oceanographers
have stated that less than 5% of the World Ocean has been explored.
3. The origin of Earth's oceans
remains unknown.
4. The bluish color of water is a
composite of several contributing agents. Prominent contributors include
dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll.
5. Oceanic evaporation, as a
phase of the water cycle, is the source of most rainfall, and ocean
temperatures determine climate and wind patterns that affect life on land.
6. Mount Everest (the highest point on the Earth's
surface 5.49 miles) is more than 1 mile shorter than the Challenger Deep (the
deepest point in the ocean at 6.86 miles).
7. The longest continuous mountain chain known to
exist in the Universe resides in the ocean at more than 40,000 miles long.
8. The world’s oceans contain nearly 20 million tons
of gold. A lot of treasure deep down there.
9. The blue whale, the largest animal on our planet
ever (exceeding the size of the greatest dinosaurs) still lives in the ocean;
it's heart is the size of a Volkswagen.
10. The gray whale migrates more than 10,000 miles each
year, the longest migration of any mammal.
11. The Great Barrier Reef, measuring 1,243 miles, is
the largest living structure on Earth. It can be seen from the Moon.
12. Plastic waste kills up to 1 million sea birds,
100,000 sea mammals and countless fish each year. Plastic remains in our
ecosystem for years harming thousands of sea creatures every day.
Busting the Myths:
The ocean is huge and
mysterious. There’s a lot of rumors circulating – do you believe everything
you’ve heard about the ocean? Let us clear out the misinformation by some myth busters.
Myth 1: Sharks are vicious man-eaters!
Myth 1: Sharks are vicious man-eaters!
Truth:
Movies like
Jaws often portray sharks as being vicious, human-hungry killers.
In reality,
sharks, like most fish, are quite shy and usually swim away from divers and
swimmers when they do encounter us.
When sharks do
kill people, it’s usually surfers who fall victim to these attacks, since
surfboards can look like a seal (a delicacy for sharks) from below.
Even with
these instances, sharks only kill about 10 people per year.
While sharks
only kill a few of us, it is estimated that we kill about 100 million of them
every year.
Myth 2: The Ocean
provides us with seafood, and that’s about it!
Truth:
Being a vegetarian, still I would agree with the fact that seafood is
critically important – 1 billion people depend on seafood as their primary
source of protein, most of whom also depend on seafood as their main source of income. But the
oceans give us so much more than just food
Oceans produce
50% of our oxygen – Every second breath you take is thanks to the oceans, they
are literally giving you life.
Oceans absorb
26% of our Carbon Dioxide emissions – That’s 2.5 billion tons of Carbon Dioxide.
Oceans
control our weather and keep us warm – Europe is much further north than the US
but has much warmer climates thanks to the warm Gulf Stream flowing reaching
western Europe.
Myth 3: Sight of a Mermaid!
Truth:
Mermaids are just characters
in stories, of course. But people sometimes think they see them in real life.
It might seem strange to
confuse a slow-moving blubber sea cow Manatees with a beautiful and fish-tailed
human creature.
Even today there are false
mermaid sightings. After a fake documentary special on mermaids aired on Animal
Planet in 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was flooded
with calls from people asking for the truth about mermaids. The truth is that
mermaids are entirely fictional.
Myth 4: Mars and Venus have had
large water oceans!
Mystery:
The Mars
ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once
covered by water, and a runaway greenhouse effect may have boiled away the
global ocean of Venus.
Though
the water on Mars is no longer oceanic (much of it residing in the ice caps).
The possibility continues to be studied along with reasons for their apparent
disappearance.
While mermaids hold much of
our attention and affection, their real life doubles are left struggling in the
sea.
Myth 5: Possibility of convergence of Baltic and North Seas!
Mystery:
This phenomenon has been a highly debated topic.
The convergent point of the
North and Baltic Seas occurs in the province of Skagen in Denmark. However,
because of the differing rates of densities of the seas’ waters, the sea waters
continue to remain separate in spite of their convergence. They don’t mix well!
Sources:
www.worldoceansday.org
www.savethesea.org
www.ocean.si.edu
Image sources:
North and Baltic Seas: www.quota.com
Mermaid and Manatees: www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com
Shark, land use: en.wikipedia.org
Great barrier reef: www.divezone.net, www.422south.com
Thank
you for reading!
