World Ocean. Origin of the ocean. The world's oceans and its importance in ensuring life on earth. What does sea water consist of?

About 2/3 of the Earth's surface is occupied by the World Ocean, which is divided into oceans, seas, bays, straits, bays, etc.

Inland bodies of water include rivers and lakes located on continents and islands. In a person’s life they play a large, often decisive role, being:

— means of communication (messages), main transport arteries;

— sources of food resources, energy, raw materials and materials;

- a place of rest, resolution of conflicts (wars).

About 60% of all world freight and passenger transport between countries and continents is carried out along rivers, seas and oceans. And also within continents along inland waterways. Sea freight transportation is the most efficient.

One railway car can hold » 40-70 tons of cargo; train of 50 cars » 2500 tons. A vessel with an average carrying capacity of 40-50 thousand tons can accommodate about 20 such trains, not to mention supertankers (up to 700 thousand tons) and ships with a larger carrying capacity.

The World Ocean contains huge reserves of industrial raw materials:

Ø water itself, salts dissolved in it, hydrogen isotopes deuterium, tritium, heavy water used in nuclear energy, etc.;

Ø ferromanganese nodules, ores of other metals, polymetals;

Ø offshore oil and gas.

In addition, the energy of the ocean is inexhaustible: ebbs and flows, waves, changes in salinity, temperature (all this can be a source of energy).

All this forces a person to study and master the water element, creating facilities:

Ø movement on water;

Ø penetration into the depths of the ocean;

Ø transportation of goods by water;

Ø extraction of seafood, industrial raw materials and energy from the ocean;

Ø maintenance of ships and port facilities.

As society develops, production specialization and internationalization of the world economy occur. The role of cargo turnover is increasing, and sea transportation - many times over. More and more advanced vessels and means of exploring the World Ocean are required.

Fishing vessels are being improved and more narrowly specialized for the production of certain types of seafood (trawlers, seiners, crab fishermen, tuna fishermen, etc.). In addition, the most complex and advanced combat vessels (ships) are being created for combat operations at sea.

Floating marine structures are also being created: berths, ports and even... spaceports. Human activity is increasingly moving to the sea: there are experimental organizations attempting to live under water (Cousteau, US laboratories). In Japan, artificial islands are made from waste and used to build housing on them.

Illustrations of technical developments to harness ocean energy:

Ø tidal stations;

Ø wave devices on the water surface;

Ø temperature settings;

Ø installation of the use of salinity changes, etc.

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Report: The importance of the world's oceans

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORLD OCEAN

The importance of the World Ocean for humans and all living things is so great that it is difficult to appreciate it. Since ancient times, the World Ocean has been one of the main sources of food and a condition for life on Earth. It not only has a rich and varied flora and fauna, but also a large reserve of minerals. Today, the World Ocean is the richest source of resources on the planet. The ocean is used not only for the extraction of biological and mineral resources, but also serves as a space for the development of shipping, and is also a healing and health environment.

Recently, the possibilities of developing the territory of the World Ocean for recreation and tourism have been growing. Thus, the ocean gives away all its wealth to humanity, so at this time there is a problem of its rational use.

The low temperature of the World Ocean and its enormous thermal inertia play a crucial paleogeographical role. The deep layers are not only a long-term heat regulator of the Earth system.

Changes in the heat exchange between the deep ocean masses and the surface masses, as well as the distribution of surface currents, can change over the course of decades, i.e. extremely quickly, taking into account the size of the World Ocean, which can lead to an equally rapid change in the natural situation.

Water has a huge heat capacity, which allows it to accumulate heat in the summer, saving the surrounding areas from the heat that is destructive to all living things.

In winter, the ocean releases the heat accumulated in the summer, saving all living things from freezing. In addition, the ocean is a source of moisture (precipitation).

Oceans, seas, and fresh water bodies are the most important source of food for the world's population.

The fish catch is constantly increasing (at the beginning of the century - 3 million tons per year, now - more than 80 million tons). The seas and oceans are not only sources of fish, but also sources of valuable raw materials and fuel. Oil and coal are extracted from under the seabed. Manganese ore, cobalt, nickel and other types of metals are found in the water in the form of nodules that can be collected and brought to the surface. Also, many useful substances are dissolved in sea water.

Sea water, which is also a component of the World Ocean, contains many mineral resources and elements included in the periodic table. Sodium, chlorine, bromine and magnesium are extracted from sea water.

Due to the growing world population, more energy is required, which was the impetus for using the oceans as a source of electricity.

In addition to extracting various resources from waters, the World Ocean also performs a transport function, being one of its main links.

In recent years, there has been an obvious development in the global economy and shipping. It is important to note here that global shipping volumes reached a record high of 6.76 billion tonnes.
The total deadweight of the world fleet was 895.8 million tons. Not only freight, but also passenger transportation is carried out across the World Ocean.

RESOURCES OF THE WORLD OCEAN

According to many ocean scientists, the World Ocean is a huge storehouse of various natural resources, which are quite comparable to the resources of the earth's land.

Firstly, such wealth includes sea water itself.

Its volume is 1370 million km3, or 96.5% of the entire hydrosphere. For every inhabitant of the Earth there is approximately 270 million m3 of sea water. This volume is equal to seven reservoirs such as Mozhaiskoye on the Moscow River. In addition, sea water contains 75 chemical elements: table salt, magnesium, potassium, bromine, uranium, gold.

Sea water is also a source of iodine.

Secondly, the World Ocean is rich in mineral resources that are mined from its bottom. The most important are oil and gas produced from the continental shelf.

They account for 90% of all resources obtained today from the seabed. Offshore oil production accounts for approximately 1/3 of the total volume. It is expected that by the year 2000, half of all oil produced on Earth will be of marine origin.

Significant oil production is now taking place in the Persian Gulf, the North Sea, and the Gulf of Venezuela. Extensive experience in the development of underwater oil and gas fields has been accumulated in Azerbaijan (Caspian Sea), USA (Gulf of Mexico and California coast).

The main wealth of the deep ocean floor are ferromanganese nodules containing up to 30 different metals.

They were discovered on the bottom of the World Ocean back in the 70s of the 19th century by the English research vessel Challenger. The largest volume of ferromanganese nodules is found in the Pacific Ocean (16 million tons).

km). The first experience in nodule mining was undertaken by the United States in the Hawaiian Islands.

Thirdly, the potential of energy resources in the waters of the World Ocean is enormous. The greatest progress has been made in the use of tidal energy. It has been established that the best opportunities for creating large tidal stations exist in 25 places on Earth. The following countries have large tidal energy resources: France, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, USA, Russia.

The best opportunities of these countries are explained by the fact that the tide height here reaches 10-15 m. Russia ranks one of the first places in the world in terms of potential tidal energy reserves. They are especially large on the coasts of the White, Barents and Okhotsk seas. Their total energy exceeds the energy generated today by the country's hydroelectric power plants.

In some countries of the world, projects are being developed to use the energy of waves and currents.

Fourthly, we must not forget about the biological resources of the World Ocean: plants (algae) and animals (fish, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans). The volume of total ocean biomass is 35 billion.

tons, of which fish account for 0.5 billion tons. As on land, there are more and less productive areas in the World Ocean. They cover areas of the shelf and peripheral part of the ocean. The most productive in the world are the Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk, and Japanese seas. Oceanic spaces, characterized by low productivity, occupy almost 2/3 of the ocean area.

More than 85% of the biomass used by humans is fish. A tiny share comes from algae.

Thanks to fish, mollusks, and crustaceans caught in the World Ocean, humanity provides itself with 20% of animal proteins. Ocean biomass is also used to produce high-calorie feed meal for livestock.

In recent years, the cultivation of certain species of organisms on artificially created marine plantations has become increasingly widespread throughout the world.

These fisheries are called mariculture. The development of mariculture takes place in Japan (pearl oysters), China (pearl oysters), USA (oysters and mussels), France (oysters), Australia (oysters), the Netherlands (oysters, mussels), Mediterranean countries of Europe (mussels). In Russia, in the seas of the Far East, seaweed (kelp) and scallops are grown.

The rapid development of engineering and technology has led to the involvement of ocean resources in economic circulation, and its problems have become global in nature.

There are a lot of these problems. They are associated with ocean pollution, a decrease in its biological productivity, and the development of mineral and energy resources.

Ocean use has particularly increased in recent years, dramatically increasing the pressure on the ocean. Intensive economic activity has led to increasing water pollution. Accidents of oil tankers, drilling platforms, and the discharge of oil-contaminated water from ships have a particularly detrimental effect on the environmental situation in the World Ocean. The marginal seas are especially polluted: the North, Baltic, Mediterranean, and Persian Gulf.

The waters of the World Ocean are polluted by industrial waste, household waste and garbage.

Severe pollution of the World Ocean has reduced the biological productivity of the ocean.

For example, the Sea of Azov is heavily polluted with fertilizers from fields. As a result, the fish productivity of this reservoir has noticeably decreased. In the Baltic Sea, severe pollution has destroyed all biological life in 1/4 of its water area.

The problem of the World Ocean is a problem for the future of the entire civilization, since its future depends on how wisely humanity resolves them.

Addressing these challenges requires concerted international efforts to coordinate ocean use. In recent years, a number of international agreements have been adopted to limit ocean pollution.

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The role of oceans and seas in human life

The planet on which we live can more rightly be called an “ocean planet” than a “earth planet.” After all, the area of the World Ocean is more than 2 times larger than the area of all land. If all the continents were covered with water from the World Ocean, a layer 9 times thick would form. km! There are 1,370 million in the oceans. km 3 water! There is a lot of water on Earth, and this affects its entire nature.

The oceans are the regulator of the Earth's climate. It accumulates heat in summer and releases it in winter. The water of the surface layer of the World Ocean, heating up in the tropical region, moves to northern latitudes and southward, to Antarctica, and in the depths, cold water moves from high latitudes to the equator. If there were no such exchange of water masses between the tropics and high latitudes, then the tropical heat and polar cold would be so strong that the life of most living creatures living in these latitudes would become impossible.

The climate features of coastal countries are associated with sea currents.

Currents cool or warm the climate. So, in Norway at 60° N. w. the average annual air temperature is the same as in New York, which lies at 20°, i.e. 2160 km further south. This is explained by the influence of the warm North Atlantic Current, which passes off the coast of Norway. A branch of this current warms both the Barents Sea and our northern port of Murmansk, which therefore usually does not freeze.

The air temperature throughout northern Europe depends on this current. Thanks to the North Atlantic Current, the average annual air temperature in England is 15°, and in Norway 20-25° higher than the temperature for the corresponding latitudes on the other side of the ocean.

At the same latitudes, on the east coast of Canada, where the cold East Greenland Current passes, a lot of ice from the Arctic Ocean is carried out.

In the north Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the Soviet Union, there is a cold current that has a cooling effect on the climate of coastal areas. At the same latitudes in the Pacific part of Canada it is much warmer.

The sea is the arena of work for millions of people.

To equip one sailor or fisherman for a voyage, 20 people work on land and in ports: in shipyards, net-knitting and rope factories and other enterprises.

More than 100 million people, residents of the coasts, are in one way or another connected with the sea. Since ancient times, oceans and seas have been a road connecting different countries. And today, maritime transport plays a huge role in the economic and cultural life of peoples. More than 65% of the world's transport cargo turnover is carried out by the sea fleet. Sea transport is 40% cheaper than rail. Huge tankers with a displacement of 55-210 thousand tons replace 50-200 trains of 50 cars each.

With the development of technology, the speed of the navy increases.

For example, hydrofoils reach a speed of 100 km at one o'clock.

During the Soviet era, about 65% of all cargo and more than 14 million passengers per year were transported by the sea fleet. Leningrad, Murmansk, Odessa, Vladivostok and many other cities quickly developed as ports connecting our country with the whole world.

The development of port cities in other countries is also associated with international transport of goods and passengers. In New York, for example, the berthing line for ships exceeds 900 in length km.

Ocean water is an inexhaustible reservoir of various chemical mineral raw materials. All chemical elements of Mendeleev’s periodic system are dissolved in it, even gold and radioactive elements.

Water is an excellent solvent. On average at 1 T sea water dissolved 35 kg various salts, but relatively few of them are mined so far. This is a matter for the future.

A lot of table salt is extracted from sea water in India, Italy, France, Spain, and the United States. It is evaporated in special artificial evaporation pools, into which the access of sea water is temporarily stopped. Already, a quarter of the world's salt production comes from seawater. There are large reserves of rock salt on land, but they will eventually be exhausted.

The World Ocean will forever remain an inexhaustible source of table salt. We can safely say that humanity is not in danger of being left without salt.

In a number of countries, sea water is becoming the main source of magnesium production. In the USA, more than 250 thousand tons of magnesium are produced from sea water. T per year, which is over 50% of the demand for this metal.

In England, 4/5 of magnesium requirements are met by processing seawater. The extraction of magnesium from the sea is also developed in Italy, France, Tunisia and other countries.

Bromine practically cannot be extracted from minerals, so the only source of its production is sea water. Although at 1 T sea water contains only 65 bromine G, but this is 40 times more than its average content in the earth’s crust. Bromine reserves in the World Ocean reach 90 thousand billion. T.

The global production of bromine from seawater is currently 100 thousand tons. T, and it increases with demand. The first plant for producing bromine from sea water was built in our country back in 1916; in Crimea.

Since then, bromine production has increased significantly. Marine bromine is produced in the USA, Canada, Brazil, France, Japan, India and other countries.

Bromine is used for medicinal purposes; it is included in many dyes, photographic preparations, and is added to fuel for internal combustion engines. Potassium is also extracted from seawater, which is used mainly as fertilizer.

Its extraction is developed in England, Japan and other countries.

The technology for obtaining useful substances from ocean waters is not yet available. poorly designed. It is very difficult to extract minerals from seawater, and often you have to spend much more money than to extract them on land. But these are only “for now” and “yet.” Extraction methods are rapidly improving. If the development of ocean waters is carried out comprehensively, that is, several useful substances are simultaneously extracted from them, this will greatly reduce the cost of production.

Man will then be able to use the enormous reserves of substances that are dissolved in the waters of the World Ocean. The water, which will be freed from the chemical elements dissolved in it, will be used to irrigate fields and supply cities. According to calculations of the All-Union Institute of Galurgy (Salt Institute), with complex processing of sea water for every 10 thousand. T table salt is 1700 T raw gypsum, 370 T potash fertilizer, about 2000 T magnesia, 26 T bromine and other substances.

Some elements contained in sea water were first discovered in the body of living beings and only then in sea water.

Thus, in England, the element niobium was discovered in the body of ascidians, and then in negligible quantities in the water of Plymouth Bay, from the bottom of which these ascidians were taken. Marine animals have the ability to absorb and concentrate various rare substances in their bodies.

Mollusks, for example, absorb a lot of copper, ascidians - vanadium, radiolarians - strontium, jellyfish - zinc, tin, lead, algae and sponges - iodine. Laminaria algae concentrate a lot of aluminum, some bacteria - sulfur, iron and other substances.

Over time, it may be possible to find “biological ways” to extract rare substances from seawater.

Shallow lagoons will be artificially populated with organisms that absorb nickel, cobalt, cerium, cesium, uranium, thorium, vanadium, molybdenum, radium, and then from their bodies a “concentrate” of one of these substances will be extracted by chemical methods on an industrial scale. Iodine has long been obtained from seaweed that grows in shallow waters near the shore.

Expeditions of Soviet scientists on the Vityaz discovered thousands of square miles of bottom in various areas of the ocean, dotted with iron-manganese nodules.

These are hard nodules ranging in size from a pea to a cobblestone the size of two fists. In addition to manganese and iron, which make up the bulk of the nodules, they contain copper, nickel, cobalt and many rare elements. The process of accumulation of various substances in nodules is not precisely known, but the scale of this phenomenon is striking.

For example, cobalt reserves on the continents are estimated at millions of tons, and in nodules on the ocean floor there are thousands of times more.

In addition to the oceans, there are especially many nodules in the Kara Sea. They are also found in the Baltic and Barents seas.

The total reserves of iron-manganese nodules are colossal: 200 billion. T. In the Pacific Ocean - 100 billion. T, and the rest in the Atlantic and Indian.

In the USA, a plan has been drawn up for the extraction of iron-manganese nodules in the amount of 5 thousand tons. T per day. Specially equipped ships will trawl them from the bottom at depths of 4-5 km. The ore will then be transported to nearby ports, where factories will be built to process this valuable raw material.

The subsoil of the sea contains many valuable substances, such as oil.

In our country, an increasing area of the coastal waters of the Caspian Sea is covered with overpasses and sites from which oil is drilled and extracted from the depths of the seabed.

Some towers are located many kilometers from the coast. Offshore oil fields are widely developed on coastal shallows in the Caribbean Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico. The offshore oil fields off the coast of Venezuela have become especially famous.

The sea itself helps to use some of the Earth's treasures, scattered in its depths in small quantities. Waves, running onto the shore, destroy it and grind the debris.

As they roll down, they carry pebbles, sand, and silt with them. In this case, heavier material settles near the shore. The fragmentary material contains such valuable and rare elements as vanadium, titanium, radioactive ones, etc.

Over many millennia, sea waves have done such a job of sorting various particles that a person cannot do even with the help of perfect washing sieves.

Masses of these valuable substances are concentrated on beaches and in coastal sediments.

In some places, such as southern India, the concentration of radioactive substances in coastal sands is so high that they serve as raw material for the nuclear industry.

The ocean contains huge reserves of fish, edible shellfish, crustaceans and algae.

The total global catch per year is 45 million. T(according to the UN). Of these, only 10% is mined in fresh waters, the rest - in the seas and oceans. First place in the industry

fish occupy 85%, then whales - 6%, mollusks and crustaceans - 8% and algae - 1%. Most fish are caught in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, the richest fishing areas are located near the coasts of Africa, South America, Indonesia, and Australia.

The Atlantic and Pacific oceans provide 88% of the world's fishery, the southern part of the Arctic Ocean (Barents, Norwegian, Greenland seas) - 7%, the Indian Ocean - 5%.

In marine fishing, herrings (herrings, sardines, anchovies) are of main importance. More than 14 million of them are mined. T in year. Second place is occupied by cod fish - more than 5 million. T, further mackerel and tuna - more than 2 million. T, then flounder - more than 1 million. T. Salmon production reaches 500 thousand. T.

Far Eastern salmon, chum salmon, pink salmon, chinook salmon, and red salmon are caught in particular abundance.

It is a favorite food in China, Japan, India and other countries. Despite the perfection of modern fishing technology - powerful vessels, various nets, acoustic instruments with which fish are detected, fishing can still be called hunting - a person searches the seas and oceans for fish or whales, overtakes prey and catches it.

Among the marine inhabitants there are many “smart” ones that are easy to train, for example, dolphins, which could “herd” schools of fish no worse than shepherd dogs in sheep pastures. Then the fishermen will direct the movement of the fish schools. Perhaps electrical devices will be created to limit the dispersion of schools of fish. Using acoustic devices, people will call fish or whales. And the fish population will change in different areas. Soviet scientists have already accumulated experience in acclimatizing fish.

But this is only the beginning of a lot of work to improve and increase the richness of game animals in the oceans and seas. It is necessary to use “useless” animals (starfish, sea urchins and other voracious creatures) as food for birds and to fertilize fields.

The ocean contains enormous reserves of energy. As is known, under the influence of gravitational forces coming from the Sun and Moon, sea ebbs and flows arise on Earth.

Water approaches the shore twice or once a day, often flooding vast areas.

The water level in some places rises by several meters.

This regular movement of water contains enormous reserves of energy. Now this ocean energy is gradually beginning to be used. A tidal hydroelectric power station has already been built in France. They are designed in the USSR and in other countries. The big disadvantage of such power plants is uneven operation: they do not operate at full capacity around the clock. But they can be included in the energy system. Several tidal power plant projects are being developed in the USSR: in Lumbovskaya Bay, on Murman, at the mouths of pp.

Mezen and Kuloy and in the eastern part of the Mezen Bay, and then in the Penzhinsky Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk, where tides reach 13 m height. The ocean is closely connected with the surrounding continents and with the space extending above it, especially with the Sun and Moon.

448 thousand tons evaporate from the surface of the World Ocean every year. km 3 water. Of these, 107 thousand km 3 falls over land.

This is how the ocean moistens lands far from its shores. Watered by it, the earth turns green, grain ripens in the fields, vegetables in the gardens, fruits in the orchards. And no matter how far from the seashore the place where we live is, everywhere we receive the gifts of the ocean.

They lie on store shelves in the form of packets of salt, barrels of fish, neat cans of canned food and many other products. You walk down the street and admire the cladding of the houses: white limestone slabs. The “homeland” of limestone is the deep sea. An airplane is flying high in the sky. The metal alloy from which it is built includes magnesium extracted from sea water. There are particles of the great oceans everywhere.

People are already using many of its riches, but they do not constitute even a thousandth of what can be extracted from its depths.

The time will come when a person, armed with perfect technology, will master all the riches of the underwater world.

Underwater seafood

The pharmacy sells seaweed and dragee candies, which contain seaweed. You can buy canned vegetables with seaweed at the grocery store. Sea kale is one of 70 types of seaweed that are suitable for consumption.

In varying quantities, algae contains the same nutrients, vitamins and mineral salts that we find in vegetables. Residents of the Irish Sea coast use the brown seaweed porphyra as a seasoning for their food. Seaweed is a common part of the diet of the Chinese and Japanese living near the seashore.

In Japan, they are not content with “wild” algae and are creating underwater plantations.

Algae are grown and harvested on them. From one hectare you can collect 3-4 times more algae than hay from a good meadow. Most edible algae grow in cold waters. In some countries, cold-loving algae are successfully acclimatized in warm waters. Seaweed is mixed into livestock feed and used as fertilizer. Algae processing products are widely used in the food industry, for example in the production of ice cream, creams and candies; in the textile industry - to fix the color of fabrics.

There are more than a dozen substances obtained from algae and widely used in various industries. Not long ago, special self-propelled mowers moving along the bottom were designed and successfully used to collect the “underwater harvest.” Unfortunately, due to their scope, they cause great damage to the ecology of the seas and oceans.

The role of the World Ocean in the life of the Earth. The influence of the ocean on climate, soil, flora and fauna of land. The characteristic properties of water are salinity and temperature. Ice formation process. Features of wave energy, tidal movements of water, currents.

Cryosphere of the World Ocean

Characteristics and changes in the ice cover of the World Ocean.

Ice cover of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Properties of sea ice: salinity, porosity, density, heat capacity, heat of phase transitions, thermal conductivity. Varieties and drift of ice.

course work, added 07/26/2015

Resources of the World Ocean and prospects for their use

Brief description of the mineral resources of the planet's oceans.

Causes of environmental problems. Efforts of the world community to prevent harmful effects on the waters of the World Ocean. Energy of ebbs and flows. Glaciers of Antarctica and the Arctic.

course work, added 03/31/2014

Resources of the World Ocean

Liquid, gaseous, dissolved and solid mineral resources.

The largest oil and gas basins on the Atlantic shelf. Energy potential of ocean currents. Phytoplankton and zooplankton. Development of the resources of the World Ocean.

abstract, added 04/16/2013

Mineral resources of the World Ocean

The main features of the relief of the bottom of the World Ocean.

Resources of the World Ocean. Continental shelf, slope, continental foot. Liquid ore. Storerooms of the ocean floor. Deep-sea ore sediments of hydrothermal origin. Subsoil of the seabed.

course work, added 12/16/2015

Secrets of the Oceans

Oceans, seas, continental reservoirs and ice.

The watery shell of the earth. Different zones of the ocean floor. Shelf zone and continental slope zone. The wealth of the ocean, sea fish. Fresh water reserves and its consumption. Water levels in different parts of the ocean.

presentation, added 02/26/2012

Oil and gas resources of the World Ocean

General characteristics, resources and trends in the development of the World Ocean.

Analysis of reserves, prices and economic significance of the world's largest oil and gas fields, prospects for their use. Types of water pollution in the World Ocean and ways to combat them.

course work, added 07/22/2010

Indian Ocean. Features of nature

History of development and exploration of the Indian Ocean. The main features of the ocean floor topography. Continental margins of the Indian Ocean.

Sunda Island Arc. Flora and fauna.

Surface water circulation in the northern Indian Ocean.

course work, added 07/10/2015

Water cycle: water in the atmosphere

Evaporation is the process by which water from the ocean or from the Earth's surface enters the atmosphere. Air saturation with water vapor, condensation process. The main types of clouds, their classification by shape, content of water droplets and ice crystals.

abstract, added 05/13/2010

Comprehensive physical and geographical characteristics of the Pacific Ocean

Geological structure and topography of the Pacific Ocean bottom.

Underwater continental margins. Mid-ocean ridges and ocean floor. Distribution of water salinity, climate and currents. Phytoplankton of the Pacific Ocean, its fauna, rich mineral deposits.

abstract, added 03/19/2016

Biological resources of the World Ocean

The main elements of the bottom topography, salinity and temperature of the waters of the World Ocean.

Biological resources, volumes of use and geographical distribution across the oceans. Share of aquaculture in fish and shellfish production. Features of fishing.

From space, the Earth has been described as "blue marble." Do you know why? Because most of our planet is covered by the World Ocean. In fact, almost three-quarters (71%, or 362 million km²) of the Earth is ocean. Therefore, healthy oceans are vital to our planet.

The ocean is unevenly distributed between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. contains about 39% of the landmass, and in the Southern Hemisphere the lands occupy approximately 19%.

When did the ocean appear?

Of course, the ocean arose long before the advent of humanity, so no one knows exactly how it happened, but it is believed that it was formed due to water vapor present on Earth. As the Earth cooled, this water vapor eventually evaporated, formed clouds, and fell as rain. Over time, rain flooded the lowlands, creating the first oceans. As water flowed from land, it picked up minerals, including salts, which formed salt water.

Meaning of the ocean

The ocean is extremely important to humanity and the entire Earth, but some things are more obvious than others:

Provides food.
Provides oxygen through tiny organisms called phytoplankton. These organisms produce approximately 50-85% of the oxygen we breathe and also store excess carbon.
Regulates the climate.
It is a source of important products we use in cooking, including thickeners and stabilizers.
Provides opportunities for recreation.
Contains such as natural gas and oil.
Provides a "road" for international trade. More than 98% of US foreign trade occurs across the ocean.

How many oceans are there on planet Earth?

Map of all the oceans and continents of the Earth

The main part of the hydrosphere of our planet is considered to be the World Ocean, which connects all the oceans. There are currents, winds, tides and waves that constantly circulate around this ocean. But to simplify, the world's oceans were divided into parts. Below are the names of the oceans with a brief description and characteristics, from largest to smallest:

Pacific Ocean: is the largest ocean and is considered the largest geographical feature on our planet. It is the west coast of America and the east coast of Asia and Australia. The ocean extends from the Arctic Ocean (in the north) to the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica (in the south).
Atlantic Ocean: is smaller than the Pacific Ocean. It is also shallower than the previous one and America in the west, Europe and Africa in the east, borders the Arctic Ocean in the north, and connects with the Southern Ocean in the south.
Indian Ocean: is the third largest ocean. It borders Africa in the west, Asia in the north, and Australia in the east, and borders the Southern Ocean in the south.
Southern or Antarctic Ocean: was designated as a separate ocean by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000. This ocean includes the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and it surrounds Antarctica. In the north it does not have clear outlines of islands and continents.
Arctic Ocean: this is the smallest ocean. It is the northern coasts of Eurasia and North America.

What does sea water consist of?

The salinity (salt content) of water varies in different parts of the ocean, but averages around 3.5%. To recreate sea water at home, you need to dilute a teaspoon of table salt in a glass of water.

However, the salt in seawater is different from table salt. Our table salt is made up of the elements sodium and chlorine, and salt in seawater contains more than 100 elements, including magnesium, potassium and calcium.

Ocean water temperatures can vary greatly and range from -2 to +30°C.

Ocean zones

As you study marine life and habitats, you will learn that different marine organisms can live in different areas, but the two main ones are:

Pelagic zone (pelagil), considered the "open ocean".
The benthic zone (benthal), which is the ocean floor.

The ocean is also divided into zones based on how much sunlight each receives. There is a plant that receives enough light to ensure the process of photosynthesis. In the dysphotic zone there is only a small amount of light, and in the aphotic zone there is no sunlight at all.

Some animals, such as whales, sea turtles and fish, can occupy multiple zones throughout their lives or during different seasons. Other animals, such as barnacles, are able to remain in one area for almost their entire lives.

Ocean habitats

Ocean habitats range from warm, shallow, light-filled waters to deep, dark, cold areas. The main habitats are:

Littoral zone (littoral): This is a coastal area that is flooded with water during high tides and dried out during low tides. Marine life here faces serious challenges, so living organisms must adapt to changes in temperature, salinity and moisture.
: another habitat for organisms along the coast. These areas are covered with salt-tolerant mangroves and provide important habitat for several marine species.
Sea herbs: They are flowering plants that grow in marine, fully saline environments. These unusual marine plants have roots with which they attach themselves to the bottom and often form “meadows”. The seagrass ecosystem is capable of supporting hundreds of species of organisms, including fish, shellfish, worms and many others. Grasslands store more than 10% of the oceans' total carbon, as well as produce oxygen and protect coastal areas from erosion.
: coral reefs are often called the "forest of the sea" due to their high biodiversity. Most coral reefs are found in warm tropical and subtropical areas, although deep-sea corals exist in some cold habitats. One of the most famous coral reefs is.
Deep sea: Although these cold, deep and dark areas of the ocean may seem inhospitable, scientists have proven that they support a wide range of marine life. These are also important areas for scientific research, as about 80% of the ocean is more than 1,000 meters deep.
Hydrothermal Vents: They provide a unique, mineral-rich habitat that is home to hundreds of species, including organisms called (which carry out the process of chemosynthesis) and other animals such as clams, clams, mussels, crabs and shrimp.
Kelp forests: they are found in cold, fertile and relatively shallow waters. These underwater forests include an abundance of brown algae. The giant plants provide food and shelter for a huge number of marine species.
Polar Regions: located near the polar circles of the Earth, north of the Arctic and south of the Antarctic. These areas are cold, windy and have wide variations in daylight throughout the year. Although these areas are apparently uninhabitable for humans, they are characterized by rich marine life, and many migratory animals travel to these areas to feed on krill and other prey. Polar regions are also home to iconic animals such as polar bears (in the Arctic) and penguins (in Antarctica). The polar regions are coming under increasing scrutiny due to concerns about temperature rises likely to be most noticeable and significant in these areas.

Facts about the oceans

Scientists have studied the surfaces of the Moon, Mars and Venus better than the ocean floor of the Earth. However, the reason for this is not at all indifference to oceanography. It is actually more difficult to study the surface of the ocean floor, measuring gravitational anomalies and using sonar at close ranges, than the surface of a nearby moon or planet, which can be done using a satellite.

Needless to say, Earth's ocean is unexplored. This complicates the work of scientists and, in turn, does not allow the inhabitants of our planet to fully understand how powerful and important this resource is. People need to understand their impact on the ocean and the ocean's impact on them—humanity needs ocean literacy.

The Earth has seven continents and five oceans, united into one World Ocean.
The ocean is a very complex object: it hides mountain ranges with more volcanoes than on land.
The fresh water used by humanity directly depends on sea water, through.
Throughout geological time, the ocean dominates the land. Most rocks found on land were deposited underwater when sea levels were higher than they are today. Limestone and siliceous shale are biological products that formed from the bodies of microscopic marine life.
The ocean forms the coast of continents and islands. This happens not only during hurricanes but also with constant erosion, as well as with the help of waves and tides.
The ocean dominates the world's climate, driving three global cycles: water, carbon and energy. Rain comes from evaporated seawater, carrying not only water, but also solar energy that brought it from the sea. Ocean plants produce most of the world's oxygen, and currents carry heat from the tropics to the poles.
Life in the oceans has allowed the atmosphere to receive oxygen since the Proterozoic eon, billions of years ago. The first life arose in the ocean, and thanks to it, the Earth retained its precious supply of hydrogen, locked in the form of water, and not lost in outer space, as it otherwise would have been.
The diversity of habitats in the ocean is much greater than on land. Likewise, there are larger groups of living organisms in the ocean than on land.
Most of the ocean is desert, with estuaries and reefs supporting the world's largest number of living organisms.
The ocean and people are inextricably linked. It provides us with natural resources, and at the same time can be extremely dangerous. From it we extract food, medicine and minerals; trade also depends on sea routes. Most of the population lives near the ocean, and this is the main recreational attraction. Conversely, storms, tsunamis and changes in water levels threaten residents of coastal areas. But, in turn, humanity has a negative impact on the ocean, as we continuously use it, change it, pollute it, etc. These are issues that concern all countries and all inhabitants of our planet.
Only 0.05% to 15% of our ocean has been studied in detail. Since the ocean makes up approximately 71% of the Earth's surface, this means that most of our planet is still unknown. As our dependence on the ocean continues to grow, marine science will become increasingly important to maintaining the health and value of the ocean, not just to satisfy our curiosity and needs.

The ocean can be different: calm and gentle, roaring and raging. But, no matter what it is, there is always mystery and mystery in it. Its depths still hold many secrets today. The mysterious life in the ocean attracts and attracts researchers to this day.

Its history is inseparable from the history of living organisms. There are so many white spots in it! We can assume that filling them began quite recently and will continue for many, many years. Only now is the search for an answer to the question of what the role of the ocean in the life of the entire planet begins.

Birth and development

More than four billion years ago, a major event occurred - the Ocean was born. As a result, the appearance of our planet has changed radically. An atmosphere emerged and a climate formed. First life began in the ocean, and then on land. Now it occupies most of the entire surface of the planet.

How did it all begin? It is assumed that water came out of stones and ore, from the bowels of the Earth. Under high pressure, it was squeezed out from inside the planet in the form of water vapor. The hot steam cooled down and cooled the Earth. It fell as precipitation.

Over time, a huge ocean was formed from small puddles and lakes. He changed the appearance and climate of the planet so that the origin of life became possible.

The importance of the ocean in human life

To assess the role the World Ocean plays in the life of humans, animals, plants, and the planet, it is enough to know the following:

Half of the oxygen needed for breathing for all living on the planet is produced by ocean vegetation.
Water heats up and cools down slower than land. This property leads to the fact that most of the solar energy is retained by the ocean. It is a kind of accumulator of heat entering the planet, preventing the Earth from becoming too hot or cold. The planet constantly maintains a comfortable temperature.
The ocean controls the climate. Warm and cold currents provide certain weather on different continents.
It is a supplier of moisture to land. Thanks to him, rain falls, irrigating the land. Ocean water evaporates, enters the atmosphere, is carried by the wind, and falls as precipitation onto the land.
It contains the main biomass of the planet. The ocean is food for people and animals, medicine, and strategic raw material for industry.

The emergence of life

It is assumed that life in the ocean began with beta cells. Over time, protein bodies appeared - the original organisms. The ocean was filled with stromatolites, which learned to use the energy of the sun. They were the first to use photosynthesis for nutrition. Millions of years of their work have allowed us to saturate the atmosphere with the necessary amount of oxygen.

And animals that appeared later used stromatolites as food. Now these ancient protein organisms have disappeared. They remained only in the form of stone monuments to the progenitors of life.

Who lives in the ocean

All living organisms of the World Ocean are divided into three fundamentally different groups:

Plankton. It exists only in water, its dimensions range from fractions of a millimeter to a meter.
Nekton - fish, squid, crabs, mammals.
Benthos. Lives at the bottom.

As you can see, the inhabitants of the ocean are diverse, their species vary depending on the depth at which their life takes place. But how many of them are there? Biologists give only an approximate answer to this question - more than 200 thousand. After all, the ocean has not been fully explored and scientists regularly discover more and more new species. Especially closer to the bottom, at great depths.

Most of all living creatures are distributed in the upper layers, close to the coast, on the shelves. Thanks to solar energy, there are the most comfortable living conditions here. Good lighting is necessary for plants to photosynthesize. The diversity of plants provides food for fish, crabs, and mollusks.

Away from the shore, on the surface, plankton dominates. It is the main food not only for fish, but also for mammals. And at the bottom you can find crayfish, mollusks, lobsters, and crabs. Even at the greatest depths there is life.

The connection between the ocean and life on Earth

Some people think that the life of mankind will be eternal. However, science knows several stages in the development of our planet, after which a huge number of living beings inhabiting it disappeared. Life on Earth and the life of the seas and oceans are firmly and forever connected with each other. There is an established fact of their mutual influence.

If climate warming occurs, the water temperature at depth and surface equalizes. The water cycle stops happening. Bacteria multiply intensively on the surface of seas and oceans, blocking the access of oxygen. All life perishes in water. Hydrogen sulfide is released. As it spreads over land, it poisons the plants and animals of the land.

Alas, this has already happened. Scientists associate these phenomena with the disappearance of a number of plants and animals, which occurred on Earth at least four times. Today, the problem of warming is widely discussed. Many countries around the world have come together to combat climate change.

Ocean protection

Marine and ocean fish are still prey. They are hunted on a large scale. Consumption of fish products reaches record highs. But life in the ocean is rich and inexhaustible only at first glance. Many species of plants and fish are on the verge of extinction. Therefore, increasing attention is being paid to protecting the oceans.

Thus, whale hunting has been prohibited for several decades. Limited permission remained only among the northern peoples. For them, whale hunting is vital. There are also regulations for catching crabs and harvesting certain varieties of algae.

There is an acute problem with the use of toxic chemical compounds in agriculture. When sewage flows through rivers, it pollutes the ocean and kills its inhabitants.

Accidents on ships carrying oil, fertilizers, and hazardous chemicals have a significant impact on the level of pollution.

Various scientific research and geological surveys do not go unnoticed. Mechanical and electromagnetic waves harm ocean inhabitants. Affect reproduction and offspring.

Finding out what life is like in the ocean and seas, and how much it needs protection, is the responsibility of all developed countries. The future depends on his condition. As much as the ocean is protected, so is humanity protected!

There is a fair assertion that people have incorrectly named our planet, giving it the name Earth, while it should have been called Ocean, because more than 70 percent of its area is occupied by water. In the entire solar system, only the Earth has a sufficient volume of water and thermal conditions, which, when combined, ensure the existence of a vast ocean.

The aquatic environment - the hydrosphere - occupies a significant part biosphere- the area of life consisting of land, air and water. The main part of the hydrosphere is the ocean. Water and substances dissolved in it are found in seas, rivers, lakes and glaciers, and are also hidden at different depths underground.

A diver explores the continental rift in Silfra, Iceland, 2010.
The photo won the top award in the Diving category at the 4th Indonesian International Underwater Photography Competition.

The role of the World Ocean in the life of the Earth is difficult to overestimate. The ocean is the cradle and source of life on our planet. More than half of the oxygen needed for respiration is produced during photosynthesis in the upper layer of ocean waters. If the interaction between the ocean and the sun were suddenly interrupted, all life on Earth would cease.

The ocean is a heat accumulator, climate creator and regulator. Its role in maintaining climate constancy is enormous. It is the interaction of the World Ocean and the atmosphere that determines the weather on our planet.

The ocean is a convenient and cheap road that connects continents and islands, industrial centers, agricultural areas, and sources of raw materials. Tens of thousands of ships carry out sea transportation of passengers and all kinds of cargo, transporting hundreds of millions of tons of cargo annually.

The ocean is an inexhaustible treasure trove of chemicals. Almost all elements of Mendeleev’s Periodic Table are dissolved in seawater alone. It contains literally everything - from table salt to uranium and gold. Countless riches lie hidden at the bottom of the World Ocean. Coal, iron ore, tin, and sulfur are extracted from the primary deposits of the seabed. Alluvial deposits of tin, platinum, and rare earth elements are already being developed in the beach and coastal zones. Serious attention is paid to the development of deep-sea ore deposits. There are large deposits of phosphorites on the shelf and continental slope of the World Ocean. The vast bottom plains of the ocean are covered with ferromanganese nodules, in the development of which the first steps are already being taken. The extraction of building materials - sand, gravel, shell rock - is in full swing.

The most valuable minerals currently extracted from wells at the bottom of the seas are undoubtedly oil and gas. To date, global offshore oil production has accounted for 30 percent.

And finally, the ocean is an inexhaustible source of renewable energy. These are the reserves of heavy hydrogen contained in the water - deuterium - the thermonuclear fuel of the future, and the energy of sea waves, currents, tides, temperature differences between deep and surface waters...

Since time immemorial, the ocean has served as a source of food for humans, who obtained fish, crustaceans, mollusks, marine animals and plants from it. Over the centuries-old history of mankind, the methods and tools of coastal fishing have remained almost unchanged. In oceanic fisheries, which catch fish far from the coast, enormous changes have occurred. Especially in recent decades. A real revolution in the development of ocean fishing was made by the invention of the steam engine and internal combustion engine, the use of synthetic materials for the manufacture of fishing gear, and the equipping of fishing vessels with fish-finding equipment. Modern trawls, purse seines, and longlines are quite complex engineering structures that make it possible to catch large quantities of fish - up to several tens of tons in one trawling!

For a long time there was an opinion that the ocean's fish resources were inexhaustible. This has been greatly facilitated by the rapid increase in global fisheries catches, especially in recent years. If over the century, from 1850 to 1950, the catch of sea fish and other ocean products increased 10-fold, increasing by an average of 25 percent per decade, then from 1950 to 1960 it doubled! A subsequent doubling of the global catch occurred from 1960 to 1970. World fish production by this time approached 100 million tons.

Since 1970, the pace of global fish and seafood catches has begun to slow down, despite the ever-increasing intensity of fishing. In some traditional fishing areas, fish production began to decline, the species composition of catches changed, the average size of fish decreased, and some commercial species were under threat of destruction.

Thus, humanity has seen firsthand the limited fish resources of the seas and oceans.

Most scientists involved in determining the annual fish production of the ocean agree that it is 100 - 200 million tons. The amount of annual fish catch achieved so far (about 100 million tons) is close to the amount that can be removed from the ocean without disturbing the natural reproduction process.

One of the most pressing problems on Earth is the problem of providing the population of our planet with a sufficient amount of protein food, some of which people take from the ocean, catching sea animals. This problem becomes even more important if we take into account the natural increase in the population of our planet. Thus, according to scientists’ forecasts, the Earth’s population will approach 6 billion people by the beginning of the third millennium. It is known that a person’s physiological need for fish averages 20 kilograms per year.

How to ensure the natural reproduction of biological resources in the seas and oceans?

Some prospects for increasing fish catches lie in fresh waters, but they so far provide only a tenth of the world's catch. The possibilities for expanding fisheries in the seas and oceans are much richer.

Great importance is currently attached to the development of scientific methods of fishing that take into account the peculiarities of the biology of commercial fish species, the nature of their distribution, age composition, numbers and other indicators. Not the last word also belongs to the improvement of fishing gear and fish processing technology.

The development of new areas and fishing grounds is of particular importance. First of all, this applies to fishing for the inhabitants of the upper layer of the ocean - the epipelagic zone, such as mackerel, flying fish, small tuna, and squid. Promising fishing is for small-sized fish - luminous anchovies, gonostomids, living in the intermediate layer of ocean waters - the mesopelagic zone. Significant successes have been achieved in the development of deep-sea rises of the World Ocean with relatively large fishing depths - 800-1000 meters, where powerful accumulations of grenadiers, sunfish, smoothheads and other species of fish have been discovered.

Decisive importance in increasing the volume of catch of biological resources of the World Ocean will belong to objects of a lower trophic level than fish, for example, Antarctic krill, which is now fished by many countries.

Until now, when speaking about the possibilities of increasing the catch of fish and seafood, we only meant the rational use of the natural food resources of the World Ocean, showing some ways to improve that traditional “gathering or hunting”, which until recently was, in fact, fishing. Scientists in many countries are working on how to move from “gathering and hunting” to marine farming.

According to some scientists, the transition of the fishing industry from fish production to the cultivation of marine plants and animals can cause changes in human civilization, in importance not inferior to the emergence of agriculture, when man moved from “gathering and hunting” to cultivating the soil. Such a reorganization of the fisheries industry will, in essence, be a “blue revolution”. The onset of such a revolution is not far off. Successful experiments on artificial fish breeding have already been carried out. Work is underway to increase the biological productivity of sea waters by raising deep, nutrient-rich layers to the surface. The creation of artificial reefs, the breeding of new, more productive species of plants and animals, the achievements of genetics and ethology, the science that studies animal behavior - these are the ways of continuous and human-controlled growth of the ocean's gifts.

The future of humanity is closely connected with the use of the resources of the World Ocean. The growing needs for mineral raw materials, energy and food resources are forcing people to turn their attention to the ocean more and more often. The problems of the development of the World Ocean are complex, closely interconnected and must be solved comprehensively, by the combined efforts of various specialists from all countries. The ocean belongs to everyone, and we are all responsible for its fate!

The world ocean occupies 3/4 of the Earth's surface (area 361 million km2, or 70.8%) and contains 96.4% of the volume of water in the hydrosphere (1.38 billion km3).
The world ocean is part of the biosphere, a geographical object with a special geological and geomorphological structure, a special nature of heat and mass exchange with atmospheric air, sedimentary deposits of the bottom and flora and fauna peculiar only to it.

The world ocean is the main link in the water cycle in nature. It determines the Earth’s water balance and is an important source of renewal of water bodies on the earth’s surface and atmospheric moisture. The world ocean is the cause of many processes and phenomena that have occurred on the earth's surface and are currently occurring, and is an active participant in them. It is associated with the interaction of atmospheric air and ocean waters, the formation of climate. It absorbs almost half of the solar energy falling on its surface and spends it on heating water. The heated waters of the equatorial latitudes reach the polar regions with ocean currents, give up their heat and act as a “heating system” of the planet.
The role of the World Ocean is great in ensuring the stability of the gas composition of the atmosphere, the biochemical cycle of chemical elements, and the process of photosynthesis. At any point on land, living organisms, including humans, are constantly influenced by the World Ocean, so in general it is difficult to overestimate its importance in the Earth’s ecological system.

We all know that ocean waters are salty. The average salinity of the World Ocean is 35 0/0O (ppm), in other words, 1000 grams of ocean water contains 35 grams of dissolved salts. If we isolate the salts of the World Ocean, their total mass will be 48 billion tons. If these salts were evenly distributed over the earth's surface, we would get a layer 133 m thick. The chemical composition of these salts contains 76 elements of the periodic table. It should be noted here that the salinity of sea water may change, but the ratio between salts never changes, it is constant.

Most of the “living matter” in the World Ocean are planktons, which, in their chemical data, repeat the salt composition of sea water. The birth, death and decomposition of plank tones are in balance, so there is no excess of organic matter in the ocean. The World Ocean contains approximately 2000 billion tons (2 trillion) of organic matter in dissolved form. In the open ocean, 1 liter of water contains up to 2 mg of dissolved organic matter. In inland seas, especially off continental coasts, the concentration of dissolved organic substances reaches up to 10 mg per liter.

The largest volumes of gases dissolved in sea water are oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide. Oxygen is of great importance for life in the ocean. There is quite a lot of dissolved oxygen in the World Ocean; its concentration in sea water is 1.5 times greater than the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. In the World Ocean, 35 billion tons of oxygen are consumed annually and the same amount is returned to the water due to the green plants of the ocean and atmospheric air.

Every year 27,080 million tons of various substances enter the World Ocean with river flows, glacial melt, groundwater, and winds. Most of them come with the flowing waters of rivers: solid particles - 17444 million tons, dissolved substances -3403 million tons. Other agents account for: moraine materials from glaciers - 2393 million tons, dust particles from winds - 2000 million tons, substances brought by groundwater - 1000 million tons. These substances have been entering the ocean in approximately the same volumes for a long time and will continue to do so in the future. But in recent years, substances of anthropogenic origin have been increasingly added to the natural flow of substances into the ocean. The ocean is a natural collector, since all substances, except gases, that are in motion eventually end up in the ocean. Ocean waters are polluted only due to the influx of anthropogenic substances. Ocean pollution is one of the global environmental problems of our time. Preserving the purity of the waters of the World Ocean means preserving the purity of the biosphere.