10 Facts About The Ocean

1 The ocean is home to nearly 95 percent of all life.

With so much going on well below the surface, it's easy to forget that the oceans are teeming with life. In fact, 94 percent of life is aquatic, according to the USA Science & Engineering Festival. That means those of us who live on land are part of a very, very small minority.

2 Coral produces its own sunscreen.

Too much sunlight can damage the algae that live inside coral in shallow water. To protect the algae, which are a main source of sustenance for the coral, the corals fluoresce. This creates proteins that act as a sort of sunscreen for the algae.

3 There's enough gold in the ocean for us each to have 9 pounds of it!

There's around 20 million tons of gold dispersed throughout the oceans. It is, however, diluted pretty much to a pulp—its concentration is only a few parts per trillion, according to the National Ocean Service. The ocean floor also has undissolved gold embedded in it, but it's not cost-effective to mine it. However, if the ocean's gold were equally distributed among every person on earth, we'd each receive nine pounds of gold.

4 There's an ice sheet larger than the continental United States.

Just two vestiges of ice remain from our planet's last ice age: the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The latter of the two is staggering in size. Clocking in at 5.4 million square miles, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC), it's roughly the size of the continental United States and Mexico combined!

5 Sharks have their own underwater "café."

It turns out, humans aren't the only creatures in need of a winter vacation. In 2002, scientists discovered an area in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, partway between Baja California and Hawaii, where typically coastal great white sharks will migrate to in the winter. The scientists named the spot the White Shark Café and some sharks hang around the area for months before heading back to the coast for warmer weather.

6 The planet's longest mountain range is underwater and is 10 times longer than the Andes.

The longest mountain range above water is the Andes, which is about 4,300 miles long. The actual longest mountain range on Earth, however, is the Mid-Oceanic Ridge, which snakes between all continents and clocks in at around 40,390 miles long.

7 The Pacific is wider than the moon.

At its widest point, from Indonesia all the way to Colombia, the Pacific Ocean is wider than the moon, by quite a lot. This expanse of ocean is 12,300 miles across, which is more than five times the diameter of the moon!

8 One iceberg could supply a million people with drinking water for five years.

A large iceberg from Antarctica contains more than 20 billion gallons of water, which could conceivably supply one million people with drinking water for five years. But this piece of information isn't just a great way to illustrate how massive these icebergs are.

A company in the United Arab Emirates is actually planning to begin towing icebergs from Antarctica to the coast for exactly this reason. The country receives, on average, just four inches of rainfall each year, and is at risk of serious drought in the next 25 years, but may be able to solve the problem with this iceberg water solution.

9 Pressure at the bottom of the ocean would crush you like an ant.

In the Mariana Trench (35,802 feet below the surface), which includes the deepest point on the planet, the water pressure is eight tons per square inch. If you made your way down there, it'd feel like you were holding up nearly 50 jumbo jets.

10 Water at the bottom of the ocean is incredibly hot.

In these deepest parts of the ocean, the water temperature may only be 2º to 4º Celsius, with the exception of water coming out of hydrothermal vents in the seafloor. The water released from these vents can be up to 400º Celsius (750º Fahrenheit). It's the intense pressure at these depths—the same pressure that would crush you—that keeps the water from boiling.

Music: Moment of Truth - The Surf Teens