Seas

50 Pages·2013·31.428 MB·English

by  Nick Hunter

TRAVEL
EXPLORER GUIDES
SEAS
Nick Hunter
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CONTENTS
EXPLORERTRAVELGUIDES
Don’t forget
All at sea .............................................4 These boxes will
give you handy
Where to start ....................................6
tips and remind
you what to
Who’s going with you? .....................12
take on your sea
adventures.
Exploring seas and oceans ..............14
Seeing the sights ..............................20
Amazing facts
Interview with an ocean explorer ...26
Ocean life ..........................................28 Check out these boxes
for amazing sea facts
Interview with a marine biologist ...32 and figures.
Human-made marvels .....................34
Are the seas changing? ....................38
Who’s who
World map of oceans .......................40
Find out more about
Timeline ............................................42 sea experts and
explorers of the past.
Fact file ..............................................43
Glossary ............................................44
Conservation
Find out more ...................................46
Learn about
Index .................................................48
conservation issues
relating to seas.
Some words are shown in bold, like this. You
can find out what they mean by looking in
the glossary.
EXPLORERTRAVELGUIDES
ALL AT SEA

You are about to set sail on an expedition. On your travels,
you will be surrounded by water stretching away on all sides
as far as you can see. Sometimes these waters may be calm
and beautiful; at other times, the water will be whipped up by
storms into huge waves that could smash your ship to pieces
on rocky coasts. Get ready to explore the world’s oceans.
Storms at sea are one of the biggest dangers you’ll face on your travels.
Amazing facts
Your journey will also take you to the pitch black of the deepest parts
of the seabed, more than 10 kilometres (6 miles) below the surface.
44
The five oceans
Turn the page...
Seas and oceans cover almost three-
quarters of our planet. They are all
linked together but we divide them
into five oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic,
Indian, Southern, and Arctic Oceans,
as well as the seas and bays around
the edge of these oceans.
Finding new lands across the ocean
has fascinated people ever since
Find out about the
they first began to explore. But the
different kinds of
seas themselves also hold amazing
seas on pages 6–7.
secrets, such as beaches and cliffs
and an amazing variety of living
things. There’s loads to explore, so
where should you start?
Don’t forget
You’ll need a lot of equipment Learn about exploring
for your trip: under the sea on
pages 18–19.
• Safety equipment, including
a liferaft and lifejacket
• A Global Positioning System
(GPS), compass, and charts
of the ocean so you know
where you are and don’t
crash into a rock
• Plenty of food and drinking
water. The sea is full of
water but it’s much too salty
Why is the lionfish so
to drink.
dangerous? Find out
• A sturdy boat and scientific
on page 29.
instruments such as sonar
for exploring the ocean.
55
EXPLORERTRAVELGUIDES
WHERE TO START
You may live close to the sea. Even if you live further away,
you can always follow a river, as almost all rivers eventually
flow to the sea. The world’s seas and oceans are very
varied, so you’ll need to decide which kind of sea you
want to explore.
Take a trip to the tropics
Tropical oceans are many people’s favourite. They are found near the
equator. These warm seas are teeming with life, especially around
colourful coral reefs. Tropical seas are often dotted with beautiful
islands, so you should make time to go diving or snorkelling.
In warm seas, you can find amazing tropical islands where you can
relax after a hard day exploring.
6
Cold comfort Amazing facts
Colder seas are also fascinating
The Dead Sea between Israel and
in their own way. These are
Jordan gets its name because
where you’ll see majestic whales,
it’s the world’s saltiest body of
the largest mammals on Earth.
water. The Dead Sea is so salty
In the Arctic and Southern
that almost nothing can live in it.
Oceans, you need to look out for
giant icebergs, which can sink
even the biggest ships.
The most dangerous part of an iceberg could be below the ocean’s surface.
You can only see the very tip of it sticking up above the water.
Conservation
Much of the Arctic Ocean is covered with thick ice, but things are
changing. Earth’s climate and oceans are getting warmer because
of the gases humans release into the atmosphere from cars and
industry. The area covered by ice is getting smaller all the time.
This is bad news for animals such as polar bears. 7
EXPLORERTRAVELGUIDES
Beneath the waves
The surface of the oceans is only the beginning. If you have the right
equipment, you can discover a whole world beneath the waves.
The deep ocean is divided into several zones, each of which has
something different for the intrepid explorer.
Ocean zones
coast shelf break Sunlight Zone
0–200 metres (0–650 feet)
Twilight Zone
200–1,000 metres (650–3,280 feet)
Abyssal or Midnight Zone
below 1,000 metres (3,280 feet)
shelf
slope
rise
abyssal plain
continental margin
0 200 km 400 km 600 km 800 km 1,000 km
(120 miles) (250 miles) (370 miles) (500 miles) (620 miles)
Average distance offshore
Each layer of the ocean gets colder, darker, and more inhospitable.
Don’t forget
Make sure you take the right equipment to explore beneath
the waves:
• An Aqua-Lung enables you to breathe underwater.
• A wetsuit, mask, and flippers will help you to see and move
more easily.
• In the deep ocean, you’ll need a special armoured diving suit
or submarine to protect you from the high pressure.
8
EXPLORERTRAVELGUIDES
Ocean zones
The shallowest zone covers the Who’s who
first 200 metres (650 feet) below
the surface. Sunlight reaches Auguste Piccard (1884–1962)
designed his own bathyscaphe,
this zone so plants can grow. The
which he used to explore the
seabed close to land is part of this
deep Atlantic Ocean. His son
zone. The next zone goes down
Jacques (1922–2008) went
to depths of around 1,000 metres
one better in 1960. He and
(3,280 feet) and is often called
American Don Walsh became
the Twilight Zone. There is some
the first people to descend
light at the top, but at the bottom
10,602 metres (34,783 feet)
of this zone is total darkness.
into the Mariana Trench in
Below this is the abyss of very cold
the Pacific Ocean, the deepest
and dark water extending to the
point in the world’s oceans.
bottom of the ocean. Even here,
you can find some living things.
The Trieste was the submersible used to explore the Atlantic by Swiss
scientist Auguste Piccard.
9