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Friday, January 25, 2008

What are the animals found in the depth of the ocean?


What are the animals found in the depth of the ocean?

Extraordinary looking life forms have been discovered in the depths of the ocean. Starfish have been found living in deep ocean trenches. Tubeworms, clams, mussels and sponges are also inhabitants of the deep. Some whales can also go down to a depth of 1134 metres.

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What are surface currents?


What are surface currents?

Surface currents are the horizontal movement of seawater at the ocean’s surface. They are powerful currents that are driven by the wind, and they help to spread heat around the world. Because the Earth is spinning, the currents to the north of the equator move to the right, or clockwise direction. The currents to the south of the equator move to the left or anti clockwise direction.

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What are sponges?


What are sponges?

Sponges are in fact the simplest of animals, having no head, moth, limbs, heart or lungs. Strange, but true! They are just hollow blobs of jelly, made of minute cells, and coloured red, green, brown or orange. Tiny horny needles stiffen the sponge’s body and give it shape.

Water containing oxygen and minute particles of food enter the sponge’s body through the tiny holes on its side. Digestive cells absorb the food and oxygen and let out the waste. The used water is spurted out by these cells through a single outlet like a volcano. Baby sponges hatch from eggs inside the parent, which spurt out the young ones in the same volcanic fashion. Scientists have carried out experiments on these strange organisms and came out with strange findings. They separated the cells of the sponge by sieving them. But when left in a dish of water, they come together again to build a new sponge or numerous sponges.

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What are smokers?


What are smokers?

Deep down in the ocean, scalding water from the Earth’s red hot interior, gushes out of cracks in the sea bed. The water contains chemicals which settle on the ocean floor to build tall structures that are called chimneys, because they look like chimney stacks. The chemicals in the boiling water that is gushing out, also makes the water turn black, so that it looks like smoke billowing out of a chimney. These chimneys are also called smokers.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

What are shock waves?


What are shock waves?

If the explosion takes place underwater, the energy produce results in an enormous shock waves that moves outward very rapidly. Shock waves can also form due to steepening of ordinary waves. The best-known examples are ocean waves that rise higher and higher rapidly as they enter shallow water, to finally form huge breakers on the shore.

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What are seaweeds?


What are seaweeds?

Seaweeds are large sized algae that are found in the sea, or on the seashore. They are normally green, brown or red in colour or grow in the shallow areas of the sea where they can get sunlight. The kelp is a type of algae that is brown in colour and grows about 18 metres down in the sea. Red algae grow at depths of 30 to 60 metres. Some seaweeds float near the surface with the aid of air-filled bladders. Seaweeds provide grazing for many varieties of sea life and oxygenate the water.

Although called a weed, seaweed is edible. ‘Alginates’ from seaweed is used to set ice-creams. It is also extremely useful as a source of iodine. Seaweed is used on land as a fertilizer.

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What are Pinnipeds?


What are Pinnipeds?

Pinnipeds are mammals that are fin-footed. They use their limbs as paddles or flippers. They are all carnivorous, or flesh eaters. The ancestors of Pinnipeds lived on land many millions of years ago. They later took to the sea, and adapted themselves to life in the water. However, Pinniped babies are still, born on land, and take to the water only later on.

Pinnipeds are expert swimmers and divers. They have big eyes that are useful for seeing in the dim dark depths of the sea. They have sharp backward pointing teeth, so that they can catch their prey and push it down their throat. Pinnipeds have bodies that are sleek, and have a thick layer of fatty blubber. This blubber keeps them warm in the coldest water. The blubber also helps them to stay afloat, and stores food too.

The three main types of pinnipeds are the walrus, sea lion and seal. There are about30 different kinds of these mammals, and they are found mainly in the icy waters of the Arctic and Antarctic, though a few do live in warmer waters and fresh water lakes.

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What are Oceanic Islands?


What are Oceanic Islands?

Some islands are actually the summits of undersea mountain ridges and volcanoes that rise from the depths of the ocean. Sometimes, these islands are pushed up by the activity of undersea volcanoes. They are far away from the land, and are called Oceanic Islands. The Hawaiian Islands are Oceanic Islands that are very old. An oceanic island, Surtsey, was formed as recently as 1963 off the coast of Iceland. Sailors watched in amazement as the sea boiled furiously and a vast heap of volcanic material rose above the water.


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What are mermaids?


What are mermaids?

In ancient times sailors would often claim to have seen beautiful women with long, long hair and tails like a fish. These creatures who wee half fish and half women were called mermaids.

Mermaids would attract sailors by singing sweetly. According to legend, a sailor who fell in love with mermaid was sure to lose his life in the ocean. On the other hand, if a sailor caught a mermaid, she would grant him three wishes In return for setting her free.

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What are gyres?


What are gyres?

Currents flow around the oceans in giant loops called gyres. A gyre can consist of several currents, some warm, some cold.

In the northern hemisphere- that is, above the equator- the water in a gyre flows in a clockwise direction, which is the same direction as the moving hands of a clock. Below the equator, in the southern hemisphere, the water in a gyre flows in an anti-clockwise direction or the direction opposite to the movements of the hand of clock.