1. Which ocean is considered the largest and deepest of the world’s oceans?
Answer: the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific basin is large enough to hold all the world’s continents!
2. What are the world’s five named oceans?
Answer: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Southern (Antarctic) oceans. Note that there is technically only one global ocean. These named oceans represent five regions defined by oceanographers.
3. Which of the five oceans was the last to be named?
Answer: the Southern Ocean. Not all countries agree with the ocean’s proposed boundaries so it has not yet been ratified by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).
4. What percentage of the Earth’s surface is covered by ocean waters?
Answer: 71%.
5. What percentage of all surface water on Earth do oceans contain?
Answer: 97%. That’s equivalent to about 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water!
6. How many of the world’s 50 critical minerals are found in the ocean?
Answer: 37 minerals. Examples include titanium, manganese and lithium.
7. What is the name of the deepest part of the ocean?
Answer: the Challenger Deep. It has a depth of around 10,935 meters and is found in the southern end of the Mariana Trench.
8. What percentage of the world’s oxygen is produced by oceans?
Answer: around 50%.
9. How many viruses can be found in a mere one milliliter of ocean water?
Answer: around 10 million viruses!
10. What percentage of the ocean’s species have not been classified?
Answer: 91%. We’ve only classified around 9% of the ocean’s species.
11. What percentage of the world’s oceans still have not been mapped by scientists?
Answer: approximately 80%.
12. What is the world’s second largest ocean basin?
Answer: the Atlantic Ocean. It covers around 20% of the Earth’s surface.
13. What percentage of the human population resides within 100km of the coast?
Answer: 40%.
14. What is the name of the world’s longest mountain range, 90% of which is found underneath the ocean?
Answer: the mid-ocean range. It’s 40,389 miles long.
15. True or false: the world’s largest waterfall is found in the ocean.
Answer: true. It’s found underneath the Denmark Strait.
16. The Latin name for the Pacific Ocean is Tepre Pacificum, which translates in English to…?
Answer: peaceful sea.
17. The Pacific Ocean is home to the world’s largest living structure, which is…?
Answer: the Great Barrier Reef. It is part of the Pacific Ocean but is specifically located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
18. True or false: oceans and seas are the same thing.
Answer: false. Seas are smaller and usually found at the meeting point between land and ocean. They’re also typically partially land-locked.
19. Light does not travel past an ocean depth of how many feet?
Answer: 3280 feet. Minimal light can even pass deeper than 656 feet!
20. What two sources are responsible for an ocean’s saltiness?
Answer: land runoff (e.g., dissolved salts from rocks) and seafloor openings (e.g., from hydrothermal fluids).
21. What process allows deep seafloor species to produce light?
Answer: bioluminescence. The “deep” ocean refers to the depth at which light begins to fade (i.e., around 656 feet).
22. The Bermuda Triangle is located in the western side of which ocean?
Answer: the Atlantic Ocean.
23. What is the name of the underwater device used to detect underwater acoustic signals?
Answer: a hydrophone.
24. What caused the 1997 mysterious, loud sound in the Pacific Ocean (“the Bloop”)?
Answer: an icequake!
25. What is the name of the most well-known garbage patch in the ocean?
Answer: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is found in the Pacific Ocean.
About the Author
Yasmin is a McMaster University graduate and Program Coordinator at SCIFAA. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sustainable Chemistry and a Minor in Environmental Sciences.
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