World Ocean Day

1. The Earth is made up of 71% water and only 29% land. A huge part of that is made up of the salty water of the worlds 5 oceans, which are called the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean. The Pacific and Atlantic oceans are so big they are also split up into the North and South Pacific and the North and South Atlantic, being divided by the Equator that runs through the middle of the Earth.

2. Most of the worlds oceans are a mystery. It is incredibly difficult to discover completely what is under the water of the worlds oceans, in fact only about 5% of the ocean depths have been explored by humans. Closest to the land there the oceans are at their shallowest and then the further from land you go the deeper the ocean tends to be. And they can be incredibly deep and very dark the deeper you go. What we do know is the ocean floor is not completely flat, and just like the land we live on it is full of different features such as mountains and canyons. 

3. Oceans have 5 zones or layers. The Sunlight Zone, the Twilight Zone, the Midnight Zone, the Abyss and the Trenches. The Sunlight Zone is the closest layer to the surface, and is lit up by the Sun. The Twilight Zone is where it is starting to get darker, and the Suns rays can only just reach. The layer beneath this is the Midnight Zone and the Sun can no longer provide any light and it is really dark. Beneath this is two other layers right at the bottom of the ocean, the Abyss is right by the ocean floor and the Trenches are deep ocean trenches. The different layers not only have different amounts of light but are also different temperatures, getting much colder deeper down. The pressure of all that water also gets stronger the deeper you go too. Different creatures live in the different zones, perfectly suited to the conditions of the zones.

4. The water in the oceans is constantly moving. There are warm and cold currents that move huge amounts of water around the Earth. The water is also moved around by winds, strong winds create waves and gentle winds will just create ripples on the surface of the water. The oceans also have tides, and is controlled by the gravitational pull from the Moon and the Sun. You’ll see the impact of these tides if you are at the beach as in high tide the water will come up higher on the beach and at low tide the water will move further back.

5. The Pacific Ocean is the worlds largest ocean and it covers about one third of the whole Earth. It is also the deepest ocean, and has an average depth of over 4000 metres. It lies between Asia and Oceania in the west and North America and South America in the east.

6. The deepest known part of any ocean is the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean and it is almost 11 000 metres deep! It is so deep that Mount Everest, the worlds tallest mountain, could fit inside it and still be covered completely under water.

7. The longest mountain range on Earth is found under water, it is called the Mid Atlantic Ridge and is over 40 000 miles long! It runs all the way down the Atlantic Ocean. Some islands are part of this Mid Atlantic ridge and stick up above the water, including Iceland.

8. There are more volcanoes covered by the worlds oceans than on land. The Ring of Fire is a ring of over 450 volcanoes found in the South Pacific Ocean.

9. Coral Reefs are another amazing feature found in the worlds oceans, the Great Barrier Reef which is in the Pacific Ocean near to Australia is so big it can actually be seen from space! Coral Reefs are found in warm water near to the equator and are home to an estimated 25% of all the creatures living in the worlds oceans.

10. It is thought there could be around 1 million species living in the oceans. It is really hard to know for sure though as it is believed there are many that have never been discovered!