January 14, 2013

What Is The Ocean?

Hi! My name is Emerald Robinson. And in this What is video we’ll take a look at Earth’s biggest body of water, the Ocean.

The ocean can be defined as any large body of salt water that covers in total over 70% of the earth, because all of these bodies are connected there are technically only one big ocean on earth.

Geographers have divided this world ocean into by five smaller oceans, these five are in order from biggest to smallest. The Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean or Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.

The oceans are divided into three zones based on depth, the top 650 feet, the depth to which sunlight penetrated is called the photic zone, anything deeper than 650 feet is called the Aphotic zone. The Benthic zone is the ocean floor which averages above 12,000 feet from the surface but it is added to the maximum that in the Mariana Trench about 36,000 Feet deep.

The oceans are also divided into three zones based on distances from the shore. The Intertidal Zone, the shore that is wet or dry based on high and low to high tides. The Neritic Zone, which covers the Continental Shelf, and the Oceanic Zone which is open ocean. Because 92% of the earth’s water is in its oceans they are the primary source of the water vapor that eventually falls to earth as precipitation.

Oceans also keep the temperature of the planet within an unlivable range, circulating warm air from each of the Equators towards the Artic poles. Oceans provide habitats for some of the most diverse forms of life on Earth from tiny oxygen producing algae to the largest blue whales.

Simply put, life would not be possible on earth without its oceans.

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