25 Fascinating Facts About Oceans

The ocean is a body of saltwater that covers approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface. It is also “any of the large bodies of water that divide the great ocean. The ocean is crucial for the survival of life on Earth. Chemicals found in the ocean include oil, mercury, lead, pesticides, and other heavy metals, which can contaminate water supplies and our food chain by affecting marine life.

1. Mainly there is only one global ocean. However, there are four main oceans known as the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian ocean. However, countries now recognize the Southern(Antarctic) as the 5th ocean basin.
2. The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific as well as the Indian Ocean.
3. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the world’s ocean basins. It covers approximately 63 million square miles and contains more than half of the free water of planet earth.
4. All of the world’s continents could fit into the Pacific basin.
5. 85% of the total plant life of our globe is found in the oceans.
6. 90% of all volcanic activity occurs in the land of the oceans.
7. 94% of the Earth’s oceans are in permanent pitch darkness.
8. There are around 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean & 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean, which weighs up to 269,000 tonnes. Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic makes their way into our oceans.
9. 95% of the underwater world is yet to be explored.
10. Oceans, seas, and bays hold 321,000,000 cubic miles of water which is 96.54 percent of the total water.
11. Despite being covered with three-foot thick ice, the Arctic Ocean has richer microscopic marine plants than any other ocean region in the world.
12. Oceans cover about 70.9% of the total area of Earth’s surface.
13. More than 80 percent of the ocean has never been mapped, explored, or even seen by humans. A far greater percentage of the surfaces of the moon and the planet Mars have been mapped and studied than our own ocean floor has.
14. The mid-ocean ridge is the longest mountain range on Earth. It spans over 40,389 miles around the globe, and over 90 percent of the mid-ocean ridge is underwater.
15. An estimated 3 million shipwrecks are spread across ocean floors around the planet. Some of these wrecks are thousands of years old and can provide precious historical information.
16. The total number of marine species known to humans is 212,000 (+/- 29%) species. However, it is estimated that there are 1.4 -1.6 million marine species on Earth.
17. The average depth of the ocean is about 12,100 feet. The deepest part of the pacific ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located beneath the western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the United States. the territorial island of Guam.
18. The deepest depth in the Arctic ocean is Molloy Hole with a depth of 5669 meters, Milwaukee Deep in the Atlantic ocean is the deepest with a depth of 8740 meters, Diamantina Deep (in the Indian ocean is the deepest zone with a depth of 8047 meters and Challenger Deep also known as Mariana trench is the deepest region in the pacific ocean with a depth of 10,925 m ± 12.
19. The ocean land with countries is known as exclusive economic zones. France has the largest Exclusive Economic Zones with an area of 11,691,000 Km2, the United States is the second with 11,351,000 Km2, whereas Australia has the third spot with 8,505,348 km2 of ocean land.
20. Ocean waters around the world contain about 20 million tons of gold in them, which is worth $771 trillion.
21. The Denmark Strait cataract is an undersea waterfall found on the western side of the Denmark Strait in the Atlantic Ocean, on the Arctic Circle between Iceland and Greenland. It is the world’s highest underwater waterfall, with water falling almost 3,505 meters (11,500 feet). So technically, it’s the world’s highest waterfall.
22. Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth’s surface and about 12% of the world’s oceans. Much of the world’s sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth’s polar regions: the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean.
23. The deep ocean (below about 200 meters depth) is cold, with an average temperature of only four °C (39°F). Cold water is also denser and, as a result, heavier than warm water. Colder water sinks below the warm water at the surface, which contributes to the coldness of the deep ocean.
24. The blue whale is the largest species in the ocean. A blue whale can grow up to 100 feet long and weigh up to 200 tonnes.
25. Coral reefs are estimated to cover 284,300 km2 (109,800 sq mi), which is 1% of the oceans’ surface area.