Frequently Asked Oceanography Questions

General | Atmospheric | Biological | Chemical | Geological | Physical

• How much of the Earth's surface area is ocean?
  
• How deep are the oceans?
  
• What is the minimum structural, metabolic, and genetic equipment of a postprotobiont that one would consider to be a true primitive cell?
  

• What are "westerly wind events?"
  
• Why is it cold on the mountains and hot near the sea shore in most tropical areas?
  

• Can dolphins talk?
  
• How do plants grow at the bottom of the ocean floor without sunlight?
  
• How do sea creatures live with all of the water pressure?
  
• What kinds of animals and plants live in the Indian Ocean?
  
• Why don't all the fish at the bottom of the ocean have some kind of light or glowing body part?
  
• What species live the deepest under the ocean?
  
• What kind of fish live near underwater volcanoes?
  
• How many kinds of coral live in the ocean?
  
• How do sea creatures adjust to heat and pressure?
  
• What is the difference between stingrays and manta rays?
  
• Does the giant squid eat the black sea dragon?
  
• What is the strangest sea creature that lives near the ocean floor that you have come across?
  
• Has the giant squid ever been seen?
  
• How large is the largest giant squid?
  

• Why are the oceans salty?
  
• What does the surface salinity look like in Elliot Bay?
  
• How is dissolved organic carbon distributed in the oceans?
  
• What is the pH of ocean water near thermal vents?
  

• Are any ancient hydrothermal vents visible on land due to changing sea level, uplift and/or plate movement?
  
• Who needs marine geologists, anyway?
  
• How was the Mariana Trench formed?
  
• What is the highest rift valley?
  
• What happens when an underwater volcano erupts? Does the lava harden immediately?
  
• Do any sea creatures live in volcanoes?
  
• Which state has the longest Continental Shelf?
  
• Does the ocean lose a great deal of water when a trench is formed?
  
• How is the depth of a trench measured?
  
• Where is the biggest underwater volcano?
  
• When people drill for oil how does it affect the ocean?
  
• Why is the ocean floor different in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans?
  
• What is the depth below sea level of the deepest known point in the rift of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR)? How wide is the widest place in the MAR rift valley?
  
• What happens to the plants and fish when earthquakes happen underwater?
  
• How often do earthquakes happen on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
  
• How do underwater volcanoes affect the ocean floor?
  
• When a volcano erupts does the lava come out and kill sea creatures?
  
• Do volcanic eruptions change the ocean floor?
  
• What is the smallest trench?
  
• How long have seamounts been around to be flattened so much? Do seamounts still erupt?
  
• What is the purpose of the continental shelf?
  
• How do underwater volcanoes form?
  
• Why doesn't the water pressure crush the sediment?
  

• How hot is the water that comes out of deep sea volcanoes through hydrothermal vents? I'm sure at that high pressure the water can be significantly hotter than 212 degrees Farenheit. How hot is it?
  
• What is the oldest ocean and how did the oceans get there?
  
• What is the coldest temperature recorded?
  
• If there are underwater rivers that cause trenches, are there underwater currents?
  
• Why don't sea creatures freeze when the ocean temperature is below freezing?
  

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