The Ocean Realm
Oceans are powerful and hide mysteries within its depths. Water is part of everything and very old. 70% of Earth is water and the same amount of water is in our bodies.
The oceans’ influence reaches the atmosphere. The hydrosphere is the water world. The coral reefs are over 1025 square miles. The Great Barrier Reef started three million years ago. The corals grew taller and larger and time passed on. It provides a stability for marine life.
The parrot fish helps make sand by crushing parts of the coral reef with its jaws. The vents on the ocean floor help filtrate water. The ocean floor is not plain or flat like scientists thought. The vents give clues as to how life had first formed. The early oceans were acidic and dense.
The sky was red due to the chemicals Earth gave off. Scientists believed the Earth was once a snowball. The magma helped melt the ice. However, not so soon, another snowball event happened. After a while, sharksroamed the oceans.
The continents formed Pangea and dinosaurs were born. However, 225 million years ago, Pangea broke up due to the fact that Earth is not solid, but broken up into plates. As the plates shifted, the oceans changed. The Mariana Trench is a subduction trench. 12 million years ago, the ocean was in constant motion.
The Atlantic and Pacific oceans were connected between North America and South America. The pathway was called the Central American Seaway. Later on, the Isthmus of Panama was born. It cut off the free exchange between the two oceans. Due to this change, the Earth had an arctic ice cap. The ice reflected the sun’s rays back into the atmosphere, temperatures dropped, and the ice caps became a key part of the powerful engine that drives the entire world’s system.
It’s called the thermohaline ocean conveyor belt. That shows why the world’s seas are actually one ocean. When arctic temperatures freeze the sea water, the salt is locked out of the ice. The denser saltier water pushes downward into the ocean and hits south. The Gulf Stream and the Atlantic are so powerful that it transports about 40 million cubic yards of water every second.
