Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
From shallow waters to the deep sea, the open ocean to rivers and lakes, numerous terrestrial and marine species depend on the surface ecosystem and the organisms found there. [28] The ocean's surface acts like a skin between the atmosphere above and the water below, and harbours an ecosystem unique to this environment.
Brine rejection is a process that occurs when salty water freezes. The salts do not fit in the crystal structure of water ice, so the salt is expelled. Since the oceans are salty, this process is important in nature. Salt rejected by the forming sea ice drains into the surrounding seawater, creating saltier, denser brine.
For example, the Southern Ocean contributes greatly to the environmental carbon cycle. Given that this body of water does not contain high levels of iron, the deficiency impacts the marine life living in its waters. As a result, this ocean is not able to produce as much phytoplankton which hinders the first source of the marine food chain. [59]
About 3.5% of the weight of seawater comes from dissolved salts. But just how did the salt get in there? Why is the ocean salty? Lets dive in.
Whatever pore size is used in the definition, the resulting salinity value of a given sample of natural water will not vary by more than a few percent (%). Physical oceanographers working in the abyssal ocean , however, are often concerned with precision and intercomparability of measurements by different researchers, at different times, to ...
Using the observed temperatures and salinities, in the modern ocean, is about 10 whilst at the LGM it is estimated to have been closer to 25. The modern thermohaline circulation is thus more controlled by density contrasts due to thermal differences, whereas during the LGM the oceans were more than twice as sensitive to differences in salinity ...
The mass of the oceans is approximately 1.35 × 10 18 metric tons, or about 1/4400 of the total mass of the Earth. The oceans cover an area of 3.618 × 10 8 km 2 with a mean depth of 3,682 m, resulting in an estimated volume of 1.332 × 10 9 km 3. [20]
The world ocean covers an area of 3.618 × 10 8 km 2 with a mean depth of 3682 m, resulting in an estimated volume of 1.332 × 10 9 km 3. [17] If all of Earth's crustal surface was at the same elevation as a smooth sphere, the depth of the resulting world ocean would be about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi).