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New Estimates Say Earth's Oceans Smaller Than Once Believed

Posted by timothy on from the deeper-than-my-love-for-you dept.

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."

6 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. How about some metric figures? by Edisman · · Score: 5, Informative

    For all you metric fans out there, the volume 320 × 10^6 cubic miles is approx. 133.4 × 10^7 cubic km with an average depth of 3.69 km.

    1. Re:How about some metric figures? by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      For all you metric fans out there, the volume 320 × 10^6 cubic miles is approx. 133.4 × 10^7 cubic km with an average depth of 3.69 km.

      Yes, but that's meaningless to most people, it's a VLN without context. For all you fans of real, visceral numbers you can relate to, that volume (1.33 x 10^9 km^3) is approximately equal to the amount of water in the earth's oceans.

      Hope that helps you to understand the magnitude of the number. Glad to be of service.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  2. Re:Evaporation? by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Informative

    earth will become one giant desert

    Raise worms
    Produce spice
    Profit!

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
  3. Re:Paging Captain Nemo by DamienNightbane · · Score: 5, Informative

    The title "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" refers to the distance traveled, not the depth.

  4. Re:I estimate by ascari · · Score: 5, Funny

    640 billion people? I suppose new estimates say Earth's population is larger than once believed...

  5. Re:I estimate by c6gunner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe FOX got it from a real news source, but I don't trust FOX.

    That just means you're being brainwashed by a different news sources. You shouldn't trust ANY of them.