The oceans, which cover a large part of our world, are almost as mysterious and full of unknowns as space. In addition to the many things we don’t know, what we know is just as interesting. We have compiled 10 of these surprising and important information for you.
As humanity, although we talk more about the space full of unknowns, other planets and galaxies, we are much closer to the unsolved there is a great mystery; oceans. The oceans, with their dark waters reaching a depth of thousands of meters and their gigantic size covering 70% of the earth, are also home to the vast majority of living species on earth.
These great, mysterious and fascinating waters are also still There is so much we don’t even know about the planet we live on. is showing. What we know gives ample motivation to understand the oceans more.
Only 20% of the oceans have yet been mapped
Even though the oceans appear as blue spaces when we take a world map and look at it, It has a ground full of volcanoes, mountains and plains. Just like blacks. But we only have maps of a tiny 20% of these huge areas that cover 70% of the entire planet. The rest is still a big unknown for us.
Oceans are home to 94% of life on earth
on different planets ‘water’ is the first indispensable sign we look for in our search for life.. Because we know that a small pond can provide the necessary conditions for life. These puddles where it all began were oceans for our planet. The oceans formed on our planet, which started to cool, became the source of life.
This source is still the most important existence area of life on earth. Because, despite the uncountable number of creatures living on land, the oceans host approximately 94% of life on our planet. Moreover, in the oceans many creatures we haven’t met yet thought to be possible.
The world’s largest and many ‘smallest’ creatures also live in the oceans
The biggest creatures of our planet, Blue whales, with a length of up to 33 meters and a weight of up to 150 tons. These fascinating creatures, unfortunately, are in danger of extinction due to their hunting activities as well as the reasons such as ocean pollution and sea traffic in the oceans.
The oceans, home to giant blue whales, are also the world’s It is also home to the smallest creatures. Many ultra-small bacteria and protozoa, and many tiny fish in the ‘animal’ class, continue to live in the ocean while holding the title ‘smallest’.
The source of more than half of the breath we take is the oceans.
Although forests come to mind first when it comes to the world’s oxygen source, the correct answer is actually the oceans. Although an exact rate cannot be given, 50% to 80% of the oxygen we breathe oceans do.
The reason why the oceans are such a rich source of oxygen is that phytoplankton and marine plants. Considering that 70% of the planet is covered by oceans, and there are many more plants living in these oceans than on land, the situation is quite plausible.
Oceans regulate and maintain our planet’s climate balance
The oceans, which temperate our planet’s climate and also allow precipitation to occur largest source of water vapor in position. The oceans, which are already very critical for the climate in this respect, are also trying to fix one of the biggest damage we have done to the planet.
human origin natural removal of most of the carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere The oceans that supply it do this by ‘absorbing’ carbon dioxide. The oceans, which absorb other greenhouse gases besides carbon dioxide and try to maintain the climate balance, unfortunately continue to warm while doing this.
Although it seems to preserve the natural balance by minimizing the damage we inflict at first glance, it actually oceans absorbing anthropogenic greenhouse gases is getting hotter. The warming of the oceans, on the other hand, results in many bad situations, from the deterioration of the balance and from precipitation to temperatures, from upsetting the ecological balance in the oceans to damaging oxygen production.
Earth’s only gigantic ‘structure’ of living organisms is in the ocean
Have you heard of the Great Barrier Reef? Composed of millions of coral polyps Great Barrier Reef, It is known as the largest reef system in the world, with an area of 344,400 km² spread over 2,600 km, consisting of 2,900 separate reefs and 900 islands. This gigantic structure is made up of living organisms and is home to many species of fish and creatures.
The Great Barrier Reef, which has unfortunately entered a serious extinction process with the effect of global warming, is located in the Coral Sea off the Queensland coast of Australia. In the past years, intensified post ‘disappearance’ trend Although the Australian government has started work to save the reef, the danger to the reef remains.
‘World’s largest migration’ occurs every day in oceans
Scientists studying the oceans basically examine this huge body of water in three parts. The first 200 meters below the surface is referred to as the ‘Sunlight zone’, while the part after 200 meters to a depth of 1000 meters ‘Twilight zone’ known as. Then comes the batial zone, where sunlight never reaches.
The twilight zone is the part that has caught the attention of scientists the most because we still have a lot to learn about the creatures living in the area and the ecosystem in general. Known information is quite remarkable.
Continuing deep down this 800 meters under the water some of the creatures living in the area Every night it swims hundreds of meters up to the surface. Then they return to their nests in the depths of the ocean. This ‘ritual’, which takes place every night and is practiced by perhaps millions of living things, is referred to as the world’s greatest migration by scientists.
There are rivers, waterfalls, lakes in the oceans…
Strange as it may sound, there are rivers, waterfalls and ‘lakes’ that have formed in the oceans. What is effective in the formation of these impressive structures is different salinity and density ratios occurring in ocean water variation of the temperature of the water.
The deepest trench on the planet, the Mariana Trench, is located in the Pacific Ocean.
The Mariana Trench is the deepest known point on Earth. Approximately 11,000 meters deep The pit is so deep that almost 1.5 of the planet’s highest mountain above sea level, Everest, could fit in it.
The first to enter this frightening pit, which goes down 11 thousand meters under the water, on January 23, 1960 Lieutenant Donald Walsh of the US Navy and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard had landed. The first dive that followed was performed by the famous director James Cameron in 2012. Finally, in 2019, Victor Vescovo made a dive. In this dive, the plastic waste, which was found at a depth of 11 thousand kilometers, caused a lot of controversy at that time.
‘Point Nemo’, the world’s most isolated and far from land point, is also a ‘space dump’ in the middle of the ocean
Think of a point on Earth, thousands of kilometers from the land and humanity, completely isolated. Even so that May the closest people be in space…
There is such a point and it is known as ‘Point Nemo’. Approx. from the nearest land strip To Point Nemo, 1600 kilometers away The nearest settlement is 2700 kilometers away. So much so that the astronauts on the International Space Station, which orbits around the world at an altitude of about 415 kilometers, are the people who can come closest to the region from time to time.
But we have succeeded in turning even ‘the most isolated spot in the world’ hundreds of kilometers away from this person into a kind of garbage. At the same time ‘spacecraft cemeterySpacecraft, satellites and other space ‘garbage’, which have expired, are thrown into this region, also known as ‘.
BONUS: The oceans host approximately 8 million tons of new plastic waste each year…
Unfortunately, the oceans are rapidly and irreversibly turning into gigantic plastic dumps. Average per year Another 8 million tons of plastic waste is dumped into the oceans. These wastes turn the ecological structure of the oceans upside down, creating giant garbage islands and almost destroying life.
Unfortunately, as humanity, we insist on preparing our own end in this matter, as in many other issues.We continue to use tires. We leave the scenarios of what may happen to us when there is no life in the oceans in the future, based on the information in this article, to your imagination….
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