Oceans are captivating water bodies known for housing an array of sea creatures. Yet, being the deepest water body of all, the question arises: how deep is the ocean exactly?
Scientists currently estimate that the ocean is 2.3 miles deep on average, but many regions are significantly shallower or deeper.
Trenches
The deepest regions of the ocean are trenches. One of these zones was sampled near the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which may be the deepest place in the ocean. The Challenger Deep is over 7 miles deep.
The Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep is the deepest point in the ocean known so far, at around 11 kilometers – deeper than Mount Everest is tall. The trench is located in the Pacific Ocean’s western hemisphere.
Zones of the Ocean
There are four primary oceanic zones in which plants and animals exist. Intertidal, neritic, open ocean and benthic zones are the four primary zones. These zones are home to the world’s greatest ecology.
Intertidal Zone
The area of the seafloor between high and low tide is known as the intertidal zone. It connects the two worlds of land and ocean. The intertidal zone includes tide pools, estuaries, mangrove swamps, and rocky coastal regions.
Neritic Zone
The neritic zone is the water above the continental shelf. Small fish, green turtles, sea cows, seahorses, and tiny shrimp live in an underwater forest of kelp and verdant meadows of seagrass.
Open Ocean Zone
The open ocean zone extends beyond the continental slope and comprises 65 percent of the ocean’s water. Photosynthesis occurs in the sunny zone. The majority of species in the open ocean dwell in the sunlight zone.
Benthic Zone
The whole seabed is included in the benthic zone. There are around 200,000 plant and animal species that reside here. They can be found on the continental shelf and the continental slope.
Measuring the Ocean’s Depth
More than 500 years ago, explorers began creating nautical charts to indicate how large the ocean was. However, calculating how deep it is is far more difficult.
Sonar
Sound is the most frequent and fastest method of gauging ocean depth. Sonar technology, which stands for sound navigation and range, allows ships to survey the topography of the ocean floor.
The technology delivers sound waves to the ocean below and times how long it takes for an echo to return. The “echo” is the sound wave that bounces off the seafloor and returns to the sonar equipment.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses multi-beam echo sounders (MBEs), a type of sonar that puts out fast sound waves in a fanlike configuration to survey the bottom of the ocean floor.
Radar and Satellite
Radar is another option, however, it is slower than sonar. Radar, like sonar, involves putting out a form of a wave that pings off an object and reflects back. The distinction is that radar employs radio waves.
A radar altimeter is a device used for estimating the distance between land and air by measuring the time taken by radio waves to reflect from the surface back to a satellite.
The Conclusion
The ocean is much deeper than we know and its depth can be measured using technological means such as sonar, radar, and satellite.
