15 #MOST #BIZARRE #Secrets and #Facts
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00:00Today, I'm counting down the 15 weirdest facts about the ocean. Let's start with number 15
00:05Do you know the longest mountain range is underwater?
00:08While the longest mountain range above water is the Andes at
00:126,760 kilometers long, the longest mountain range in the world is beneath the ocean
00:17It's known as the mid-oceanic ridge. It snakes between all continents and it clocks in at about
00:2465,000 kilometers long. So in other words, it's nearly 10 times longer than the Andes
00:30Number 14. The Pacific Ocean is wider than the moon
00:35So sometimes it can be pretty hard to visualize exactly how large the oceans are. If you want a quick and easy reference
00:42Look up at the moon in the night sky
00:44While it may look massive at a sizable 3,400 kilometers in width, the Pacific Ocean comes in at
00:5119,000 kilometers in width. This makes the Pacific more than five times larger than Earth's beloved little satellite
00:59Number 13. Most species are aquatic
01:02All right, there's a lot of species on land, but that pales in comparison to the amount in the oceans
01:08That's because a whopping 94% of the world's species are underwater
01:13Making the watery realm the most diverse place on the planet
01:17You know, if that wasn't crazy enough some studies even suggest that 91% of the species that exist under the sea have yet to be discovered
01:25Number 12. The Earth's largest structure
01:28While we may have large buildings like the Burj Khalifa and massive industrial spaces like the Tesla Gigafactory
01:35The world's largest structure by surface area is located underwater
01:39That structure is none other than Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The whole thing was formed using coral and it's a massive
01:47348,000 square kilometers in surface area. This makes it multiple times larger than any human-built structure on the planet
01:55Number 11. It's better than a museum
01:58So over the years different countries have created museums to commemorate their history
02:02However, over that same period of time many ships have sunk beneath the ocean and by our count the number sits at about 3 million
02:10This is because according to some estimates there are more artifacts in underwater shipwrecks than there are in museums
02:16Making these watery wrecks of massive importance to the cultural heritage of mankind
02:21However, given the remote watery location of these wrecks
02:24It's more than likely that many of the artifacts below the surface are in pretty crummy condition
02:31Number 10. The world's largest waterfalls
02:34If you know your geography, then you know that Venezuela's Angel Falls is the world's tallest waterfall above land with a drop of over
02:43975 meters
02:44However, this pales in comparison to the Denmark Strait Cataract
02:49Located between Greenland and Iceland this underwater waterfall drops an astonishing
02:543,500 meters making it almost four times larger than its South American counterpart
02:59It's also far stronger too with a flow rate of more than 3.4 million cubic meters of water per second about
03:0550,000 times the flow of Niagara Falls. Now, it might seem strange to have a waterfall in the ocean
03:11Like where exactly would the water fall to? This phenomenon is possible due to the differences in water temperature and density
03:18In the Denmark Strait, dense cold water meets less dense warm water. When they converge, the colder denser water
03:24Sinks below the warmer and flows over a massive drop in the ocean floor
03:28Now some companies have suggested harnessing the energy of these underwater waterfalls to create renewable energy
03:34The idea is that a submerged apparatus inside of it could collect the energy in a tank and convert it directly into electricity
03:41However, whether this technology can be feasible on a commercial scale is yet to be determined
03:46If you want to see an underwater waterfall for yourself, you can visit the small African island nation of Mauritius
03:52Now while not exactly a waterfall in the same technical sense as the Denmark Strait Cataract
03:56This Mauritian version is fueled by an optical illusion
03:59Thanks to the island's location and underwater topography, the area's sand and silt deposits slide down a slope and drop into the abyss
04:07The results look like a waterfall and it's well worth visiting on a trip to the beautiful and often underrated country of Mauritius
04:15Number nine, the ocean's loudest noise was a mystery
04:19So as you might imagine, a lot goes on under the ocean and sometimes those things can cause loud noises
04:25To date, the loudest one we have on record is a sound known simply as the bloop
04:30In 1997, researchers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
04:35Were targeting underwater volcanic activity in the South Pacific when they recorded a strange yet powerful sound
04:41Using underwater microphones spread out about 3,200 kilometers apart across the Pacific
04:46They recorded numerous instances of the noise, which was unlike anything they ever heard before
04:51It was an ultra low frequency sound and throughout the summer
04:55It was heard multiple times yet
04:57It hasn't been heard since. At a loss, the researchers called it the bloop and soon everyone from scientists to internet conspiracy theorists began
05:05Hypothesizing. Those who guessed were split into two camps. The first believed the bloop came from an animal
05:11While the second thought it had to do with ice movements
05:14The animal camp was headed by researcher Christopher Fox and in a private interview with David Wollman of Fox News, Wollman reported that
05:21Fox's hunch is that the sound nicknamed the bloop is most likely to come from some sort of animal because its signature is a rapid
05:28Variation in frequency similar to that of sounds known to be made by marine beasts. There's one crucial difference
05:33However, in 1997 bloop was detected by sensors up to 4,800 kilometers apart
05:38That means that it must be far louder than any whale noise or perhaps more likely something like that is much more efficient at making
05:45a sound
05:46While this possibility was intriguing others instead pin the cause on ice movements
05:51The idea is that the sound originated from an ice quake which happens when a glacier experiences large movement or disintegrates rapidly
05:59This theory is supported by the fact that the bloop was consistent with noises generated by ice quakes and by large icebergs scraping the ocean floor
06:07After balancing out both options in 2012 the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
06:12Officially reported the iceberg hypothesis. This has become the most widely accepted explanation
06:20Number eight its deepest point is deeper than Mount Everest at a height of
06:268,849 meters Mount Everest is the highest point on earth for reference
06:30It's about as tall as 11 Burj Khalifa's stacked on top of each other
06:34However on the inverse side of things the deepest point on earth could easily swallow up Mount Everest
06:40It's known as the Mariana Trench
06:42This point is located about 200 kilometers east of the Mariana Islands in the West Pacific in terms of size
06:48It's about twenty five hundred and fifty kilometers in length
06:5169 kilometers in width and about ten thousand nine hundred and thirty five meters in depth
06:56This is so deep that if you drop Mount Everest inside of it
06:59Its peak would still be more than a kilometer underwater now beyond the depth. It's got some other fascinating features down there
07:07Sunlight does not reach the bottom and the pressure is so intense that it's the equivalent to the weight of 48 jumbo jets per square
07:13Inch this means that only the most extreme creatures can exist within it
07:18While many are poorly documented some such as the barreleye fish and deep-sea dragonfish are pretty incredible
07:24Now despite the remote location the trenches seen its fair share of explorers the first descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench took place
07:31on January 23rd 1960
07:33The Trieste a craft that was French built US Navy operated Swiss designed and Italian named made the descent
07:41Swiss ocean engineer Jacques Piccard and US Naval officer Don Walsh completed the journey making it a true international achievement
07:49After that, there was a 52 year gap where nobody made it to the bottom until March 26
07:542012 when Canadian filmmaker James Cameron reached the bottom using the submersible deep-sea challenger
08:00He made it all the way on his own
08:02Establishing a new world record for a solo descent
08:05Victor Vescovo revolutionized the journey to the bottom by commissioning an innovative submarine known as the DSV limiting factor
08:12At a cost of 37 million dollars. It certainly wasn't cheap
08:15However, since its creation, it's brought at least 21 new explorers to the bottom of the trench
08:20Well, despite its success in 2022 Vescovo sold it to American billionaire Gabe Newell's inkfish ocean exploration research organization
08:28And to date it's been put in a support role for inkfishes undersea operations
08:34Moving on to number seven the biggest waves are beneath the surface
08:39When you think of an ocean massive waves inundating a beach are probably what come to mind
08:44However, the reality is is that the biggest waves aren't visible to the naked eye
08:49Instead they happen inside the water never breaking their head above the surface
08:53These currents are known as internal waves and in short their movements that happen at the boundary between the two layers of ocean
09:00You see while the ocean may look uniform different parts of it are actually denser than others
09:04Think of it like the layers of an onion as a result internal waves will only go ever between the two layers
09:09The interesting thing about these internal waves is that they have a series of different causes
09:14Many are created by the tides as both the gravitational pulls of the Sun and the moon can create underwater currents
09:20Another cause can be ocean stratification
09:22When two different layers of ocean mix denser cooler water will often meet warmer lighter water creating an internal wave
09:29Now what's crazy about these internal waves is they can be absolutely massive
09:33It's not uncommon for them to reach heights of up to a hundred meters and stretch for several kilometers for reference the waves of the
09:402004 Indian Ocean Tsunami came in at just half that height and were far shorter
09:45Beyond being underwater though
09:47These waves are also different from normal ones because they're far slower than their above-water counterparts
09:52And while this may make them sound safe
09:54They can actually wreak havoc while the internal waves are no threat to boats on top of the water
09:59They can cause significant damage to submarines one tragic example happened in
10:042021 when a submarine in Indonesia with 53 people on board suddenly sank
10:09Well, no one knows why exactly this happened
10:11The leading theory is is that an internal wave pushed the submarine below its crush depth
10:16Causing the vessel to collapse under the weight of the ocean's pressure. So while the internal waves are an interesting phenomenon
10:22They're also incredibly powerful and in some circumstances
10:25incredibly deadly
10:28Number six, did you know most volcanoes erupt underwater?
10:31Now when you think of volcanoes massive spurts of lava and ash coming out of a rocky top or probably what comes to your mind
10:38However, the reality is is that 80% of volcanoes erupt underwater
10:42Most of these volcanoes are found in the Pacific in an area known as the Ring of Fire
10:47Located across the eastern and western coastlines of the Pacific in a u-shaped ring
10:51There are thousands of volcanoes within this chain now due to the location these volcanoes behave differently than their above-water counterparts
10:58Because they erupt into water instead of air the sheer weight of the water above them creates very high pressure
11:05This makes explosive eruptions almost impossible
11:08So most of what's expelled moves along the seafloor and what are known as passive lava flows
11:13They can still pack a punch from time to time with the help of larger quantities of magma and shifts in tectonic plates
11:19Many volcanic eruptions have managed to create entirely new islands while this process has happened countless times over the millennia
11:26One of the most famous islands created in recent memory is Surtsey
11:30Located off the coast of Iceland Surtsey was formed by a series of underwater volcanic eruptions between
11:351963 and 67 it grew to a maximum size of 2.7 square kilometers and ever since its formation
11:42It's slowly been chipped away by the elements now standing at about 1.4 square kilometers
11:47However, while Surtsey may be one of the coolest volcanic islands
11:50It's not the most recent that title belongs to Nijima in October of 2023 Nijima
11:55Which translates to New Island in English was found off the coast of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima
12:01While it grew for some time it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared by March of 2024
12:06It was no longer visible. So while underwater volcanoes can be powerful their creations are sometimes rather fickle
12:14Number five. Did you know the world's most remote place is in the ocean?
12:18Given how massive the oceans are it's not too surprising that the world's most remote place is also located on the high seas
12:25It's known as the pole of inaccessibility or Point Nemo for short and it lies in the South Pacific Ocean
12:32This remote point is equally far away from the three closest points of land. It is
12:392,688 kilometers away from
12:41Doocy Island part of the Pitcairn Islands Motonui one of the Easter Islands and Maher Island part of Antarctica
12:48As you might imagine there's no real reason to spend any time here
12:51In fact, the area is so remote that no regular marine or air traffic routes are within 400 kilometers of it
12:58As a result, there are times when the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are Point Nemo's closest human beings
13:05Additionally, you would not be able to sustain yourself for long here
13:08Even if you were to catch rainwater and fish for food Point Nemo is relatively lifeless
13:14Its location within the South Pacific Gyre blocks nutrients from reaching the area and it's so far from land that it almost gets no
13:20Nutrient runoff from any coastal waters
13:23However, it is precisely because of its status as a far-off dead zone that it sees a lot of action from above
13:29Even before its designation as the world's most remote spot this area in the South Pacific was known as a perfect
13:35Out-of-the-way place for countries to deposit space junk over the years about 300 decommissioned space vessels
13:41Mostly Soviet or Russian have been steered here with some of the most famous including Russia's Mir space station and the European Space Agency's
13:49Jules Verne and
13:50Interestingly Point Nemo soon to have a high-profile visitor in
13:542031 the International Space Station is said to be decommissioned when this happens the plan for it is to crash into Point Nemo
14:02So that it can be as far as possible from any humans and while it might be cool to witness the massive splash for your safety
14:08I'd suggest staying as far away as possible
14:12Number four, did you know the ocean is filled with gold?
14:15While the world's oceans may look nothing like the dark earthy depths of a gold mine
14:20The reality is is that their homes to enormous amounts of the valuable gold rock
14:25Now while estimates as to how much gold actually exists in our oceans varies
14:30But what is clear is that the quantities are pretty high
14:33In fact, according to our best estimates the figure is about 20 million tons far outstripping the current global gold supply
14:39Which sits at about two hundred and forty four thousand tons
14:42However, since all this gold is located in tiny concentrations within the water
14:47Extracting it is the challenging thing
14:50Of course that hasn't stopped people from trying and to date our most effective method would likely be gold dredging
14:56This process involves using a vessel with a giant scoop to remove sediment from the ocean floor
15:01That sediments then process to extract the gold
15:03However, it's not only expensive but it's also harmful to the environment after all the dredging process can damage marine habitats and release toxins into the water
15:12Thankfully, there are also other less invasive methods of extracting gold from the ocean
15:16Some methods have been proposed including using magnetic nanoparticles or bacteria to collect gold particles
15:22It's also worth noting that the cost of extracting gold from the ocean is way higher than removing it from the earth
15:27So until we are low on gold reserves on land
15:30It's likely that serious efforts will be made to find more of the stuff underwater unless a major technological breakthrough happens
15:37It is worth noting that the ocean isn't the only place on earth with unreachable gold
15:42According to some scientists the earth's core is believed to contain vast amounts of the precious metal by some estimates as much as 1.5
15:50quadrillion tons
15:52However, because it's located about 2,900 kilometers below the surface reaching it with today's technology would simply be impossible
15:59Given how far away the hot core is it's more than likely that even future
16:04Technology will not be able to reach it at least within the next few hundred years
16:08So while earth may have a lot of hidden gold the sad reality is you won't be getting your hands on it anytime soon
16:15Number three. Did you know they'll soon be more plastic than fish?
16:20While this is probably the saddest statistic on this list
16:23It's estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than there are fish
16:28This is mostly thanks to our massive rates of plastic dumping
16:32According to Conservation International as a collective humans dump 8 million metric tons of plastic into the ocean each year
16:39For reference, that's about as heavy as the weight of 1.8 million African elephants
16:44So the situation has gotten so bad that it's believed that about 50% of turtles and 90% of seabirds have
16:50Plastic in their stomachs, which can in turn lead to massive health problems. Now this leaves us with an obvious question
16:57How do we get rid of all the plastic?
16:59Well, the project is gargantuan to date our best hope may be a nonprofit known as the ocean cleanup ever since 2013
17:07They've been behind a push to clean up 90% of the plastic in the world's oceans and in order to do so
17:13They have some pretty cool plans
17:14The first part is to clean up the plastic currently in the ocean now rather conveniently most ocean plastic
17:20accumulates in one of five ocean garbage patches
17:23There are two in the Pacific two in the Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean
17:27The largest one is the Great Pacific garbage patch that's located between Hawaii and California
17:33While some of its made up of large pieces that are easy to pick up
17:3694% of it consists of micro plastics that are highly diluted and found in areas spending millions of square kilometers
17:43So with the help of a massive u-shaped barrier the team at ocean cleanup will pinpoint hot spots and garbage patches and collect
17:50massive amounts of plastic
17:51Once full this system is emptied onto a boat which takes the plastic and recycles it at the moment ocean cleanup
17:58It's constantly trying to update this barrier machine and while they've been using it since 2019
18:02They plan to have their third edition of it out running soon
18:06The second part of the plan is to prevent more plastic buildup by going to the source by ocean cleanups judgment
18:12This source can be mostly pinned down to rivers
18:15Now while there are thousands of rivers that empty out into the ocean just 1% of these rivers are responsible for 80% of the pollution
18:22in the ocean's waters
18:23to date ocean cleanup has a few proprietary machines that specialize in river cleanups with these including the
18:29Interceptor original the interceptor barrier and the interceptor tender
18:33The hope is that all these machines combined can cause a lot of the plastic that seeps into the ocean to be picked up
18:40recycled and reused
18:42Number two, did you know that there's a shark cafe if you've watched Nat Geo shark week?
18:48Then you know that sharks are pretty dangerous located across the world's oceans
18:52They range from relatively docile small reef sharks to massive great whites and generally speaking
18:59It's only these larger sharks that you really have to worry about and while there are several places around the world where you should be wary
19:05The one place that you should absolutely avoid at all costs is white shark cafe
19:10It's located about halfway between Baja, California and Hawaii
19:14This remote patch of the Pacific is notable for being a hangout for sharks
19:18Now the area first came to attention of scientists in 2002
19:21The story goes that researchers at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station were hooking up a satellite
19:27Tracking tags to great white sharks when they noticed something strange in the six-month period after they were tagged
19:33Three of the four sharks made their way over to a 250 square kilometer long area
19:38They nicknamed white shark cafe
19:41This was pretty weird for a few reasons first and foremost great white sharks are solitary hunters
19:47So for them to congregate at a random spot in the ocean seems kind of strange
19:51What was even weirder is the activity the shark tags tracked?
19:55The tags found that the males would bob up and down as much as a hundred and twenty times per day
20:00Reaching depths of up to 1,400 feet
20:02Meanwhile females dove to even deeper waters with this activity primarily happening during daylight
20:07Even stranger after more studies were conducted
20:10It was found that as much as 20% of California's great white shark population migrates to this special spot
20:16Now it turns out the reason why these sharks meet up here is to grab a bite to eat
20:21You see while it was once believed that white shark cafe was a dead zone filled with very little food
20:26It turns out that the depths between 200 meters and several kilometers
20:29There are tons of light-sensitive animals such as squid phytoplankton and small fish
20:35According to research scientist Salvador Jorgensen of Monterey Bay Aquarium quote
20:39It's the largest migration of animals on earth a vertical migration that's timed with the light cycle during the day
20:45They go just below where the light is and at night they come up near the surface to warmer more productive waters under the cover
20:52Of darkness and quote now while we may have a lot more clarity on these sharks
20:56That doesn't mean that all the questions have been answered
20:59After all, it still is unknown why female sharks don't display the same diving behavior as their male counterparts
21:05According to Jorgensen, it could be related to mating or it could be simply that they're eating something different
21:10However to date nobody really knows for sure
21:14Number one, did you know icebergs could give us drinking water?
21:18Have you ever tried to drink a bit of sea or ocean water? You've quickly find yourself gulping down a large load of salt
21:25However, it turns out that while seawater is not drinkable
21:28Iceberg water is you see as icebergs age the pockets of brine inside them drain out
21:34Eventually the iceberg water becomes fresh enough for us to melt and drink and while it may seemed far-fetched for us to break apart
21:41Icebergs and then turn them into drinking water. The idea has been floated around for quite some time
21:46No pun intended in 1956 oceanographer
21:49John Dove Isaacs became one of the first to articulate the idea when he suggested
21:54Capturing an 8 million ton iceberg in the Southern Ocean and towing it to San Diego, California
21:59then in
22:011977 the first major international conference addressing this issue was held and while the concept was held as being possible
22:07The belief was that high fuel costs would make the entire project unviable from an economic standpoint
22:12Since then though technology has advanced and efforts have been made to make iceberg water a reality
22:18You see it's been suggested that icebergs could be towed to water
22:22Scarce areas of the world in order to increase their freshwater supply
22:26However, there's a catch these icebergs would have to be dealt with quickly
22:30That's because given the warm waters of Cape Town's oceans if an iceberg were to be moored off the coast
22:35It would melt away within weeks or even days if not quickly harvested
22:40Therefore it's been calculated that if no measures were made to protect an iceberg upon arrival
22:44It would have to start its journey in Antarctica measuring at a whopping five kilometers in length
22:49However, given how much water shortages are ramping up
22:52It soon may be necessary to use expensive insulation materials in order to facilitate these iceberg journeys
22:59Of course
22:59There are some groups that are not all that fond of iceberg harvesting for example tour
23:04Operators in the region that take tourists on rides to see the icebergs say that this business is destroying their livelihood
23:11Environmentalists also have raised some alarm bells
23:13You see when the iceberg is broken apart the surrounding ocean water becomes fresher and the iceberg releases nutrients such as nitrates
23:20phosphates iron and sulfur
23:22This causes the denser saltier water to sink as a nutrient-rich water reaches the surface
23:27This is a problem because it destroys local ecosystems of krill and algae
23:31It makes it more difficult for ice fish to hunt and animals such as seals and polar bears to survive
23:37Now if all that wasn't bad enough moving icebergs would destroy their ability to sequester carbon dioxide
23:43Thereby having an impact on global warming. Worse still as these massive hunks of frozen freshwater move
23:49They would have an impact on the warmer waters that they'll come into contact with
23:53So while the iceberg harvesting may seem cool, it likely creates a lot more problems than it solves
24:00Thanks for watching everyone. I'll see you next time
24:03Thank you to our channel members