WEBVTT - How Deep Is the Ocean? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.880 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey, 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:11.120 brain Stuff, Lauren Volga bomb here. To know the ocean 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.880 is to know some mind boggling numbers. About of Earth's 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.400 surface is covered by water. All that liquid takes up 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.880 a lot of space, more than three D thirty two million, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.440 five hundred nineteen thousand cubic miles. That's about one billion, 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:33.519 three D eight six million cubic kilometers. The official website 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.840 of the U s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.680 that there's enough water in the oceans to fill over 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:46.400 three hundred and fifty two quintillion gallon sized milk containers. Now, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.360 let's go out on a limb and assume that you 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.120 don't have that many spare milk jugs just lying around. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.280 Here's another visual. In theory, you could use the ocean 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.840 to cover the entirety of the United States, including Alaska 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.440 and Hawaii, in a column of water measuring over eighty 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.680 two miles tall or about a hundred thirty two kilometers. 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:12.039 Pardners for using a four letter word, But dang, it's 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.959 no surprise that some of the most frequently asked questions 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.120 about our ocean involve its depths, how deep is the ocean, 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.280 where's the very deepest part of it, and what's the 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.520 ocean's average depth. You'll learn the answers in this episode, 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.640 and you won't even need to pack your scuba gear. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.840 Strictly speaking, Earth only has one ocean. They're all connected, 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.480 after all, but the five major regions within this giant 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.399 body of water are all called oceans in their own right. 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.880 There's the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:49.160 the Arctic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. Together they make 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.720 up what's known as the global ocean. That's what people 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.280 usually mean when they start talking about the ocean as 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.920 a whole. It's also what we were referring to in 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.680 both of the hypothetical visualizations described Abbed earlier. Of course, 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.920 the depth of the ocean isn't uniform. It varies a 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.400 great deal based on geography. At any random spot on 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.040 the map, the distance between the ocean floor and the 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.800 water surface of above may be influenced by canyons, undersea, 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:20.639 mountain ranges, or a host of other features. Using tools 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.560 such as sonar, radar, and satellite technology, the scientists have 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.040 calculated that the global ocean has an average or mean 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:32.639 depth of approximately twelve thousand, seven hundred and eighty five ft. 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:37.320 That's three thousand, eight hundred and ninety seven. That works 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.880 out to around two point four miles or three point 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:45.280 nine kilometers. But we can also compare the five separate 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:49.519 oceans different depths. Twenty nineteen study published in the journal 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.960 Earth Science Reviews did just that, and they found that 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.160 the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean is in a 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:59.400 trench called the Malloy Hole. It's located some eighteen thousand, 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:03.080 six hund feet or five thousand, six hundred seventy below 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.000 the surface. The deepest part of the Indian Ocean is 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.799 probably an unnamed part of the Java Trench, situated twenty 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.799 three thousand, nine hundred feet or seven thousand, two hundred 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:19.280 nine under water. As for the Southern Ocean, which encircles Antarctica, 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:23.519 its deepest locality can be found within the South Sandwich Trench, 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.280 at a depth of twenty four thousand, two hundred feet 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.800 or seven thousand, three hundred and eighty meters. The deepest 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.160 part of the Atlantic Ocean seems to be a Puerto 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.560 Rico trench site known as the Milwaukee Deep. It has 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.920 a depth of seven thousand, six hundred feet or eight thousand, 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:45.000 four hundred meters. And what about the Pacific Ocean. We've 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.240 saved the best for last. In the western part of 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.400 the Pacific, there's an archipelago called the Mariana Islands. Just 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.440 to the east of that, there's a yawning underwater chasm 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.960 that adventurers and science fiction writers can't get enough of. 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.480 It's name is the Mariana Trench, and it contains the 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.720 very deepest place in not only the Pacific, but in 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.120 the entire global ocean as well, a site that's called 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:14.960 Challenger Deep. Measuring its exact depth has proven tricky, but 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.120 by a rather conservative estimate, which the twenty nineteen study endorses, 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.839 the sea floor here may rest at an incredible thirty 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.040 five thousand, eight hundred and forty feet. That's ten thousand 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:32.400 below the water's surface. That means that Challenger Deep is 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.039 even deeper than Mount Everest is tall. The peak of 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.200 that Himalayan landmark is only around twenty nine thousand feet 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:43.240 above sea level, or eight thousand, eight hundreds But both 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:47.760 Earth's tallest mountains and such extreme trenches are formed by 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.960 the same actions. The movements and interactions of Earth's tectonic plates. 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.280 Today's episode is based on the article how Deep is 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.360 the Ocean on how stuff works dot Com written by 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.240 Mark Mancini. A brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.280 and partnership with how stuff works dot com, and it's 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.679 produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.599 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:14.920 listen to your favorite shows.