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New Estimates Say Earth's Oceans Smaller Than Once Believed

Velcroman1 writes with this snippet from Fox News: "Using lead weights and depth sounders, scientists have made surprisingly accurate estimates of the ocean's depths in the past. Now, with satellites and radar, researchers have pinned down a more accurate answer to that age-old query: How deep is the ocean? And how big? As long ago as 1888, John Murray dangled lead weights from a rope off a ship to calculate the ocean's volume — the product of area and mean ocean depth. Using satellite data, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute set out to more accurately answer that question — and found out that it's 320 million cubic miles. And despite miles-deep abysses like the Mariana Trench, the ocean's mean depth is just 2.29 miles, thanks to the varied and bumpy ocean floor."

4 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. I estimate by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    It's bigger than a breadbox.

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    1. Re:I estimate by rubycodez · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      yeah, you should see the size of my loaf

    2. Re:I estimate by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      That's not what she said...

  2. So the Global Doom Mongers ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    failed to realize that the orbits of TOPEX/POSEIDON and JASON-1 and -2 are not managed and allowed to decay.

    As the satellite orbit decays, i.e. gets closer to Earth, the ocean appears to be heigher than before,

    A very simple explanation to all the psycho-babble bullshit about global mean sea level rise (GRL is full of psycho-babble these days, and for the fullfilment of psycho-babble).

    On a related subject, when the oil-shit from the Gulf of Mexico washes ashore on the British Isles, and the Brits are having a chilly, a.k.a. cold summer, BP will have to answer to the Queen Mum, who by that time will be one Royal PISSED OFF Queen Mum.