Ocean trivia Question: 1 How much of the Earth is covered by ocean? View the answerHide answer 70%. Perhaps the Earth should be called Ocean? Question: 2 Can you find a lake underneath the ocean? View the answerHide answer Yes! You can find bodies of brine (highly dense salt water) trapped in deep ocean crevices. These underwater lakes of brine can be highly toxic to marine life. Question: 3 True or false - does coral produce it's own sunscreen? View the answerHide answer True! The algae that lives within coral is easily damaged by UV light. To combat this, the coral polyps produce fluorescent pigments that help block some of this sunlight. Question: 4 How many known species of fish live in the ocean? View the answerHide answer 228,450, at least until the next scientific survey! Question: 5 Where is the highest tide found in the world? View the answerHide answer The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada. The unique shape of the bay causes the change from high to low tide of up to 13 meters! Question: 6 How long is the Mid Ocean Ridge? View the answerHide answer 65,000kms! The boundary between many of the tectonic plates exists underneath our oceans. The Mid Ocean Ridge is an unbroken chain of mountains that is easily the longest mountain range on Earth. Question: 7 True or false - there are more historical artefacts still under the sea compared with those kept in museums. View the answerHide answer True! There are 100,000's of shipwrecks all over the world that are still yet to be fully explored, let alone the ones that have not yet been discovered. Question: 8 What is the largest living mammal? View the answerHide answer The Blue Whale, weighing in at 140,000 kg. Question: 9 True or false - there more gold in the ocean than on land View the answerHide answer True! One study found there is only about one gram of gold for every 100 million metric tonnes of ocean water in the Atlantic and north Pacific That doesn't sound like much, but remember that there is a lot of ocean water. There are some estimates that place the amount of gold in the water at 20 million tonnes, worth over $700 trillion dollars! Question: 10 Most of the Earth’s oxygen is made by one kind of living thing. Which kind of living thing is it? View the answerHide answer Plankton. Plankton are tiny living things that live in the water, but can’t swim. They just kinda hang out and move around with the water currents. Phytoplankton take carbon dioxide and sunlight, and make their food. One of the products of this photosynthesis is oxygen. 70% of Earth’s oxygen is made this way. Question: 11 True or false: We find more shark-tooth fossils than shark-bone fossils. View the answerHide answer True. This is for two reasons. Firstly shark teeth never run out: when they lose a tooth they ALWAYS get a new one to replace it. Secondly, you cannot find shark-bone fossils because sharks have no bones. Instead their skeleton is made of cartilage, like your ears or the end of your nose. Question: 12 What is deepest recorded scuba dive? View the answerHide answer 324.25 meters! Ahmed Gabr dived to this amazing depth in the Red Sea off the coast of Dahab, Egypt in 2014. No doubt this record will be broken but at the time of writing we're very impressed :) Question: 13 From how far away can a blue whale hear sounds? View the answerHide answer 160 km. This number has actually decreased from the 1940s at 1600km, possibly due to noise pollution in the ocean. Other whale species have also gone to communicate in higher frequencies since 100 years ago, possibly for the same reasons. Question: 14 Which country has the longest coastline? View the answerHide answer Canada, due to the number of northern islands. Question: 15 How are the tides formed? View the answerHide answer Ocean tides are caused by gravity from the Sun and Moon acting on the water. The height of the tide is dependent on the position of the Sun and Moon relative to the Earth. Question: 16 What formation on Earth can have the names tabular, blocky, wedge, dome, pinnacle, dry dock, growler or bergy bit?​​​​​​​ View the answerHide answer Icebergs Question: 17 Is a tsunami and a tidal wave the same thing?​​​​​​​ View the answerHide answer No. Tsunamis are caused by water displacement as a result of an undersea earthquake or a landslide. Tidal waves are caused by the moon & Sun's gravitational pull combined with prevailing winds and water currents. Question: 18 True or false - the Pacific Ocean is not as wide as the Moon View the answerHide answer False! The Pacific Ocean covers 30% of the Earth's surface, with the widest point between Indonesia and Colombia at about 5°N latitude, where it stretches approximately 19,800 km. In comparison, the width of the Moon is 3,474.2 km. Question: 19 What type of plate boundary is mostly found at ocean ridges? View the answerHide answer Divergent plate boundaries. Question: 20 What is world's largest living structure? View the answerHide answer The Great Barrier Reef, 2,600km, east of QLD in Australia Question: 21 How far can sea turtles migrate? View the answerHide answer A very long way! The World Widlife Fund has notes that one female leatherback was recorded as having travelled more than 19,312km in a round-trip across the Pacific Ocean, from Indonesia to the United States and back again. Question: 22 What is the name given to the deepest part of the ocean? View the answerHide answer The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, which extends about 11 kilometres below sea level. Question: 23 Which is the largest ocean in the world? View the answerHide answer The Pacific Ocean. Question: 24 What does 'Pacific' Ocean mean in latin? View the answerHide answer Tepre Pacificum, aka “peaceful sea, named by explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520. Question: 25 Where is the Bermuda Triangle? View the answerHide answer In the Caribbean Sea. There is a rough triangular shaped area east of Florida and north of the Dominican Republic. There are many superstitions which describe this area as causing unexplained disappearances of boats and ships, however the most likely explanation for these tragedies are poor weather. Question: 26 What is highest recorded ocean wave? View the answerHide answer There is a bit of debate here. The highest recorded wave by a buoy was 19 meters between Iceland and the United Kingdom in 2016, however there have been ship observations of up to 29 meters. The height of an ocean wave is measured from the crest of one wave to the trough of the next. Question: 27 What is the highest recorded tsunami? View the answerHide answer 30 meters! This was actually from a landslip in Lituya Bay, Alaska , where the collapsing land pushed a wave up the sides of the bay. What is wilder is that this wave went up the sides of the slopes, snapping trees that were 524 meters above the waterline! Love Science? Subscribe! Join our newsletter Receive more lesson plans and fun science ideas. PROGRAMS COURSES SHOP SCIENCE PARTIES Calendar of Events HIGH SCHOOL Science@Home 4-Week Membership 12PM: March 2024 Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 29, 2024 12PM - 12PM Price: $50 - $900 Book Now! PRIMARY Science@Home 4-Week Membership 2PM: March 2024 Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 22, 2024 2PM - 2PM Price: $50 - $900 Book Now! Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 PM Jan 18, 2024 2PM - 3PM Price: $50 Book Now! Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 AM Jan 18, 2024 9AM - 11AM Price: $50 Book Now! Lego Robotics, Sydney Olympic Park Jan 2024 Jan 24, 2024 9AM - 12PM Price: $50 Book Now! 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Yes! You can find bodies of brine (highly dense salt water) trapped in deep ocean crevices. These underwater lakes of brine can be highly toxic to marine life.
True! The algae that lives within coral is easily damaged by UV light. To combat this, the coral polyps produce fluorescent pigments that help block some of this sunlight.
The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada. The unique shape of the bay causes the change from high to low tide of up to 13 meters!
65,000kms! The boundary between many of the tectonic plates exists underneath our oceans. The Mid Ocean Ridge is an unbroken chain of mountains that is easily the longest mountain range on Earth.
True! There are 100,000's of shipwrecks all over the world that are still yet to be fully explored, let alone the ones that have not yet been discovered.
True! One study found there is only about one gram of gold for every 100 million metric tonnes of ocean water in the Atlantic and north Pacific That doesn't sound like much, but remember that there is a lot of ocean water. There are some estimates that place the amount of gold in the water at 20 million tonnes, worth over $700 trillion dollars!
Plankton. Plankton are tiny living things that live in the water, but can’t swim. They just kinda hang out and move around with the water currents. Phytoplankton take carbon dioxide and sunlight, and make their food. One of the products of this photosynthesis is oxygen. 70% of Earth’s oxygen is made this way.
True. This is for two reasons. Firstly shark teeth never run out: when they lose a tooth they ALWAYS get a new one to replace it. Secondly, you cannot find shark-bone fossils because sharks have no bones. Instead their skeleton is made of cartilage, like your ears or the end of your nose.
324.25 meters! Ahmed Gabr dived to this amazing depth in the Red Sea off the coast of Dahab, Egypt in 2014. No doubt this record will be broken but at the time of writing we're very impressed :)
160 km. This number has actually decreased from the 1940s at 1600km, possibly due to noise pollution in the ocean. Other whale species have also gone to communicate in higher frequencies since 100 years ago, possibly for the same reasons.
Ocean tides are caused by gravity from the Sun and Moon acting on the water. The height of the tide is dependent on the position of the Sun and Moon relative to the Earth.
No. Tsunamis are caused by water displacement as a result of an undersea earthquake or a landslide. Tidal waves are caused by the moon & Sun's gravitational pull combined with prevailing winds and water currents.
False! The Pacific Ocean covers 30% of the Earth's surface, with the widest point between Indonesia and Colombia at about 5°N latitude, where it stretches approximately 19,800 km. In comparison, the width of the Moon is 3,474.2 km.
A very long way! The World Widlife Fund has notes that one female leatherback was recorded as having travelled more than 19,312km in a round-trip across the Pacific Ocean, from Indonesia to the United States and back again.
In the Caribbean Sea. There is a rough triangular shaped area east of Florida and north of the Dominican Republic. There are many superstitions which describe this area as causing unexplained disappearances of boats and ships, however the most likely explanation for these tragedies are poor weather.
There is a bit of debate here. The highest recorded wave by a buoy was 19 meters between Iceland and the United Kingdom in 2016, however there have been ship observations of up to 29 meters. The height of an ocean wave is measured from the crest of one wave to the trough of the next.
30 meters! This was actually from a landslip in Lituya Bay, Alaska , where the collapsing land pushed a wave up the sides of the bay. What is wilder is that this wave went up the sides of the slopes, snapping trees that were 524 meters above the waterline!
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