11. Our Oceans and Seas

Did you know that Seawater covers two-thirds of the Earths surface!

That is a lot of water.

Can you name all the oceans?

• Arctic Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Indian Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Southern Ocean

Have you ever wondered why the oceans are salty?

This is caused by runoff by salts and other minerals from rocks on land. The rain lands on the rocks and slowly erodes the rocks and they are carried away by rivers and streams, eventually reaching the oceans.

Some of it also comes from the cracks on the seafloor we were finding out about earlier.

We have already learned a lot this week about the ocean floor and what's going on down there when the plates move but what about the actual oceans?

If you had a mini submarine-like in the video earlier in the week what do you think you would find? What would you go looking for?

Do you think there are some creatures still to be discovered? In actual fact, we have only explored around 5% of the world's oceans. We know more about the moon and mars!

The reason for this is they are so deep in some places that it is too dangerous to dive to those depths.

Can you think of a way around this? What could be invented to allow man or machine to explore the deep ocean floor!

What about underwater drones? Is there such a thing?

Check out this video, if you are brave enough, and find out about the most dangerous creatures in the oceans. Warning - it is quite scary!

There are many creatures living in our own seas - have a look at this link - which do you like best?

We at the Dundee Science Centre think Jellyfish and Octopus come out top of the list of lovely creatures of the oceans and seas.

See what you can find out about Jellyfish there are many different types and shapes.

Some Fun Facts

What did you find out?

What do you think of the Jellyfish we found on a beach in Scotland?