Interesting Facts About Oceans

INTERESTING FACTS
The world ocean contains some

5,000,000,000,000,000 (5
quadrillion) kg of salt.
If the oceans water evaporated
completely, leaving its salts behind,
the dried residue could cover the
entire planet with an even layer 45
meters thick.
INTERESTING FACTS
Compared to fresh water, less heat is
necessary to raise the temperature
of seawater by 1 oC.
The salts present in sea water act as
a sort of antifreeze, i.e., freezing
point of sea water becomes lower
with increasing salinity. Sea ice
therefore forms at a lower
temperature than ice at freshwater
lakes.
INTERESTING FACTS
Sea water evaporates more slowly
than fresh water.
The pressure exerted on a biological
membrane when the salinity of the
environment is different from that
within the cells, called osmotic
pressure, rises with increasing
salinity.
INTERESTING FACTS
Ocean is a sort of Earth tea every
element present in the crust and
atmosphere is also present in the
ocean, though sometimes in
extremely small quantities.
Only 14 elements have
concentrations in sea water larger
than 1 ppm.
About 0.024% of the water in the
oceans vaporizes each year.
INTERESTING FACTS
If the water evaporating from ocean
were not replaced by precipitation
and runoff from land, it would dry up
completely in about 4167 years.
Earths ocean is more than 4 billion
years old.
Most gases in the air readily dissolve
in sea water at oceans surface.
INTERESTING FACTS
Gases dissolve most readily in cold
water.
Concentration of oxygen by mass in
sea water is, on the average, 6 ppm.
Sea water is slightly alkaline. Its pH
value is about 8. Deep cold sea water
below 4500 meters has a pH of
around 7.5. A drop to pH=7 occurs at
the deep ocean floor.
INTERESTING FACTS
The highest temperatures on land,
exceed 50 o C and lowest are ,
somewhat less than -90oC a
difference of nearly 140oC.
On the ocean surface, the range is
from -2oC to 32oC a difference of
only 34oC.
Oceans thermal inertia is much
greater than lands.
INTERESTING FACTS
The top 1 meter of ocean water absorbs
71% of red light.
The dimming light becomes bluer with
depth because the red, yellow and orange
wavelengths are being absorbed.
Ninety-nine percent of blue light is
absorbed at a depth of 254 meters
whereas the same amount of red light is
absorbed in the top 4 meters.
ATMOSPHERE
Air is never completely dry.
A 1 cm2 column of air, extending from sea
level to the top of the atmosphere weighs
about 1.0336 kg. One m2 column of air of
the same height weighs some 10336 kg.
Humid air is less dense than dry air.
Winds, cyclones and other such
phenomena as well as currents and waves
at sea ar powered by energy coming from
sun.
ATMOSPHERE
Sun releases an enormous amount of
energy per second.
The radiation of energy from the
visible surface of sun, called
photosphere, is governed by Stephen
Boltzmann law:
M = T4
A very tiny fraction (1/2200000000)
of this enormous energy is
intercepted by the earth.
ATMOSPHERE
This very tiny fraction amounts to, on an
average, 7 million calories per square meter
per day at the top of the atmosphere.
Of this energy incident just outside the
atmosphere, assumed to be equivalent to 100
arbitrary units, 51% is absorbed by water and
land. Of the rest, 6% is backscattered by
clouds, 20% reflected by clouds,4% reflected
by water and land surface, 16 % absorbed by
water vapour, dust and CO 2, and 3% is
absorbed by clouds.
ATMOSPHERE
The energy coming from the sun is all short
wave energy. The fraction backscattered and
reflected is also short wave energy.
The energy absorbed (70%) is reradiated back
to the space as long wave energy.
Twenty three (23%) percent of energy
absorbed by water is consumed as latent heat
of vaporization and forms clouds which
together with 3% directly absorbed is emitted
by clouds as long wave energy (26%).
ATMOSPHERE
Near surface emission of long-wave radiation
constitutes 21 % of which 15% is absorbed by
water vapour and CO2 and 6% is radiated back
to space.
Seven percent (7%) of the absorbed energy at
the surface heats the air in contact with land
and which then re-radiates it back to space.
This combined with radiation of 16% absorbed
earlier and 15% long wave energy absorbed
and then re-radiated, makes up 38%.
ATMOSPHERE
Thus the total energy going back to
space is 70% (26%+38%+6%) and
30% short wave energy reflected
earlier makes 100%. Thus energy
input is equal to output. This means
that earth is in thermal equilibrium.
Although, as a whole, the heat
budget is in balance, it is not for
different latitudes.
ATMOSPHERE
Sunlight striking polar latitudes spreads
over a greater area, filters through more
atmosphere, and approaches the surface
at low angle, favoring reflection.
Opposite is the case in tropical latitudes.
Tropical regions receive significantly more
solar energy than the polar regions.
Mid-latitude area receive more heat in
summer than in winter.
ATMOSPHERE
Water and air transport heat from equatorial
regions to higher latitudes and thus help to
equalize the polar tropical heat imbalance.
In equatorial regions, the air becomes warmer
and humid due to evaporation from ocean.
This warm and humid air, being lighter, rises.
At high altitudes the air spreads both
northward and southward. It also cools and
forms clouds resulting in heavy rains in
equatorial regions giving rise to rain forests.
ATMOSPHERE
As this air reaches 30o north and south, it
loses all its moisture, becomes heavy and
sinks. This there is no moisture, no clouds
form or rain occurs, giving rise to deserts.
On reaching the surface of sea part of this
air returns towards equator and part goes
to high latitudes.
This air, moving near the surface, picks up
moisture from sea surface. The northward
moving air results in westerly winds.
ATMOSPHERE
This westerly wind is met with cold
air coming from polar regions. These
two different air masses meet at
about 50o 60o latitude with air from
poles being heavier. This
phenomenon gives rise to much of
the mid latitude weather.

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What are some interesting facts about the composition of seawater?

How does the salinity of seawater affect its freezing point?

INTERESTING FACTS

The world ocean contains some

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