00:00So, the distance from New York to Lisbon, on the other side of the Atlantic, is well
00:05over 3,000 miles.
00:07At the average walking speed for a human, you could trek there in a month and a half.
00:12That's not counting the rest stops and much-needed sleep.
00:15Buying an airline ticket or boarding a ship aren't just better options, but the only
00:20travel possibilities right now.
00:22But if this long journey on foot became possible one day, would you be up for the challenge?
00:28The most obvious obstacle is all that water in the Atlantic Ocean.
00:32It covers around a fifth of the Earth's surface.
00:36All the oceans take up around 70% of our planet.
00:39When you open the tap or buy a bottle, you are drinking a tiny percentage of potable
00:44water.
00:4597% of Earth's water is located in oceans.
00:48It's all saltwater, and it's not drinkable.
00:51Add this 2% of water trapped in glaciers and ice sheets, and you get less than 1% of
00:56water that we actually drink.
01:01When you put these percentages into numbers, you'll need a long sheet of paper to write
01:05them all down.
01:07The US Geological Survey estimates that there are over 330 million cubic miles of water
01:13in the world.
01:14It's essential for sustaining all life forms, including humans.
01:18Oceans play a vital role in regulating air temperature around the globe.
01:22If they didn't have any water, the area around the equator would be scourged.
01:27This imaginary line that divides our planet in half runs through 13 countries in total,
01:32such as Brazil, Kenya, and Indonesia.
01:36The world's oceans are critical for our planet's water cycle.
01:39You know, like the one you learned about in school?
01:42It rains from the clouds and water eventually ends up in rivers that empty into the oceans.
01:47Then sunlight warms up this vast body of water so it evaporates into the atmosphere
01:52to form new clouds.
01:54Then the cycle starts over.
01:56This process shapes the global climate.
01:58That's why, for example, the Mediterranean is so popular for the summer holidays.
02:03The region is temperate.
02:08If we take the oceans out of the equation, the water cycle stops.
02:12The area where they once sat would turn into a huge dust bowl.
02:16There would be dirt as far as the eye could see.
02:19Since there is no more evaporation, clouds won't form.
02:22Rain would become scarce.
02:24Humans would soon run out of sources of drinking water.
02:27The landscape of our planet would turn into a vast desert.
02:31Imagine a Sahara-like terrain stretching across the surface of our planet.
02:36Everything would become so dry that fires would break out easily.
02:41These are hardly the ideal conditions for a long trek between continents, but let's
02:45imagine you were able to survive all this.
02:48You start walking across the desert land that was once the Atlantic Ocean.
02:53What would that journey be like?
02:55You would encounter a landscape different from the one above the waterline.
02:59Everything below the waves is taller and deeper than the world we know.
03:03This is the land of extremes.
03:06Take for example the highest mountain on the planet.
03:09If you were thinking about the Himalayas and its tallest peak, Mount Everest, you are correct.
03:14Well, kind of.
03:17This mountain range is the highest when you measure it from the sea level.
03:21Just above 29,000 feet in height.
03:24But when you measure the height of the mountain from its base to the peak, then the Himalayas
03:29drop to second place.
03:30The highest mountain on Earth is actually Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
03:34It's a dormant volcano.
03:36In the local language, its name translates as White Mountain.
03:40Nearly half of it lies under the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
03:44Its full height is close to a mile higher than Mount Everest, at 33,500 feet.
03:51We can't appreciate its scale right now, but if the Pacific dried up, we would be able
03:55to stand at the base of this giant.
03:59The bottom of the Atlantic hides a similar mountain range.
04:01It's the largest geological feature on the planet.
04:05We can't see it because the mid-Atlantic ridge is almost completely submerged.
04:09It rises from the ocean floor to a height half of that of Mount Kilimanjaro.
04:17The width of the massive underwater range reaches one-tenth of Earth's diameter.
04:21The only visible sections of the mid-Atlantic ridge are islands such as Iceland and the
04:26Azores.
04:28The remotest inhabited island in the world also belongs to the visible part of this geoformation.
04:34Perhaps the only thing more impressive than its size is the date of the discovery of its
04:39ridge.
04:40Scientists charted it out in the 1950s.
04:43That's pretty recent when you consider our civilization is thousands of years old.
04:48This shows how little we know about what's hiding under the surface of our oceans.
04:52UNESCO estimates that humans have explored only 5% of Earth's oceans.
04:57It seems hard to believe, but more people have been to the Moon than at the bottom of
05:02the ocean.
05:03The deepest place on our planet lies in the Mariana Trench.
05:10The discovery of the mid-Atlantic ridge revealed the secret behind the formation of continents
05:14and oceans.
05:15When you know the truth behind their origins, you'll know what to expect on your imaginary
05:20trek across the Atlantic.
05:23The ridge sits right between North America and Europe.
05:26But you need to think of these landmasses not as continents but as tectonic plates.
05:32These are huge chunks of Earth's outer layer.
05:34It's called a lithosphere, and it's mostly comprised of rock.
05:38There are around 15 to 20 such ginormous plates on our planet.
05:42They float on a layer of partially molten rock.
05:45Well, they don't actually float, but that's the term scientists use to best describe their
05:50instability.
05:55Tectonic plates are constantly on the move.
05:58They can bump into each other.
05:59In this case, one plate goes down while the other one is lifted.
06:03This creates vast amounts of energy.
06:06On the surface, we get earthquakes and volcanoes.
06:09Tectonic forces gave our planet its familiar shape.
06:12That's how the Himalayas formed 40 to 50 million years ago.
06:16Around that time, the Indian plate shifted northward.
06:20It bumped into the southern part of the Eurasian plate.
06:23Since the two plates were composed of a similar type of rock, they each refused to go under
06:27the other.
06:28The only possible direction was up.
06:31This process is still not over.
06:33The range grows by a third of an inch every year.
06:39A similar thing is happening with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
06:42It is widening at an annual rate of 1.5 inches.
06:46And there's an interesting side effect of this process.
06:49Do you remember the time when you were building sandcastles?
06:52In order to build the keep, you needed to dig up a lot of sand around it.
06:57As the castle grew in size, the hole around it became bigger.
07:00The same thing is happening in the Atlantic Ocean, but on a much larger scale.
07:05As the ridge is getting wider and wider, the two coasts are drifting away from each other.
07:10The North American plate and the Eurasian plate are moving apart.
07:14This means that your imaginary trip in a world without oceans might take longer.
07:19For every year you wait, you'll need to cover an extra inch.
07:24That doesn't seem like much today, but give it some time, and you might not have to embark
07:28on a cross-continental journey after all.
07:31The continents will come to you.
07:37Evaporation is not the only way to drain an ocean.
07:39The coast on each side of an ocean might simply close in on it.
07:43This is what scientists believe will happen to the Pacific.
07:46Some 50 million years from now, give or take, you wouldn't be able to recognize the Earth's
07:51largest ocean.
07:53Geologists ran a series of computer simulations to see where North and South America are headed.
07:59The answer is to the North Pole.
08:01This is where they'll merge with Asia in the distant future.
08:04The new supercontinent will completely change the shape and size of the Pacific Ocean.
08:10Geologists have a name ready for this landmass – Amasia.
08:16That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
08:21and share it with your friends.
08:22Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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