Let’s Take a Break in the Ocean

You can’t walk everywhere, least of all on the Oceans and Seas of our planet. But that doesn’t mean they do not interest me.  There are many facinating sights and phenomenon discovered and many more to be discovered.

The exact spot of technically the bluest part of our Oceans is that surrounding Easter Island.  Why bluest?  Without going into deep long detail ….. This area has the lowest concentration of clorophyll and thus the clearest water.  In the colour spectrum red light is absorbed best by water, yellow/green least and thus blue penetrates.

The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean and it’s deepest point it is 11.03 km (6.85 miles) deep.  The water pressure down there is over 8 tonnes per sq inch.  To give an idea how deep that is..  If you placed Everest from above sea level and put the base at the bottom of the trench, you would still have over 2 km (6800 ft) of water above the summit.  However, due to the same reasons Everest is not the furthest point away from the Earth’s centre (as stated in previous post), the Earth not being a complete sphere makes parts of the Arctic seabed closer.

We all think of Mountains here on land but under the Oceans are a series of mountain ranges seperating the tectonic plates.  The longest of which is The Mid Atlantic Ridge. 10,000 km (6,200 miles) long approx from North of Greenland to the South Atlantic.  There are still snow tops on it – Parts of this ridge actually rise out of the ocean.  A well known part being Iceland!

I suppose it will be impossible to work out the biggest wave ever but the biggest ‘recorded’ wave that has hit land happened at Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958. a staggering 1720 feet high!  An earthquake measuring 8.3 had hit close by and when the debris hit the water it sent this wave/tsunami crashing into the bay.  The picture below was taken a few weeks later.  The clear land around the bay and on the rock faces was originally covered in vegetation.  The water marks helped scientists work out the wave height.

Blue holes, magnets to divers, wonderful to look at, are caused when the area was above water and a sinkhole formed deep into the rocks.  When the sea level changes they become submerged and have now become the attractions we know today.  The deepest (below) is Dean’s Blue Hole (Long Island, Bahamas) with a total depth of 202 m (663 feet).

Another notable and famous one for its picture setting and diving adventure is The Great Blue Hole (Belize). It’s perfectly circular shape and wide diameter makes it stand out.  It’s depth is 400 feet (123 m).