How much do you know about the world’s oceans? Try this quiz and see how well you do.
1. The Atlantic Ocean covers roughly how much of the Earth’s surface? One-quarter; one-third; one-fifth; one-seventh.
2. What does the name ”Atlantic” mean? Sea of Atlas; Sea of Angels; Sea of Atlantis; Sea of salt water.
3. Which of the world’s oceans is the only one bigger than the Atlantic? The Pacific; the Arctic; the Indian; the Algean.
4. What man is given credit for much of the early Atlantic Ocean knowledge? Ferdinand Magellan; Sir Francis Drake; Henry the Navigator; Indiana Jones.
5. What is the name of the deepest location in the world’s oceans? Java Trench; Mariana Trench; Puerto Rico Trench; The Sandwich Trench.
6. True or false: The oceans of the world contain nearly 20 million tons of gold.
7. If the ocean’s total salt content were dried, it would cover the continents to a depth of: Two feet; three-and-a-half feet; five feet; none of these.
8. The Pacific Ocean is the earth’s largest, covering how many square miles? 45,000,000 square miles; 63,000,000 square miles; 70,000,000 square miles; 74,000,000 square miles.
9. True or false: The earthquake of 2004 that launched the horrific Indian Ocean Tsunami produced 23,000 more energy than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
10. Even though the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world, it was the last ocean discovered by the European sailors. Who’s credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean?
ANSWERS:
1. One Fifth. 2. Sea of Atlas. 3. The Pacific. 4. Henry the Navigator. 5. Mariana Trench, in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, at 36,070 feet. On Monday, March 25, 2012, James Cameron’s “vertical torpedo” sub broke the surface of the western Pacific, carrying the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker back from the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep—Earth’s deepest, and perhaps most alien, realm. We will see more of this adventure in future National Geographic movies. 6. True. 7. 5 feet. 8. 70,000,000 square miles. It was named by explorer Ferdinand Magellan. 9. True. 10. The Europeans discovered it in 1513, when Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, ventured in this region. However, the natives from the nearby areas, such as the Maori people of New Zealand, were known to venture in this ocean with their canoes way before the Europeans reached it. The ocean derived its name from the phrase “tepre pacificum,” meaning “the peaceful sea.”