Origins

Origins

There are thought to have been two primary sources for the primordial water that formed Earth's oceans, with debate as to their relative importance. One is outgassing of steam from the Earth's interior, which contributed to the atmosphere and, once the young planet had sufficiently cooled, produced rain; the other is the large numbers of comets which impacted with the Earth and added their water to it.

Exploration

Map of large underwater features. (1995, NOAA)Travel on the surface of the ocean through the use of boats dates back to prehistoric times, but only in modern times has extensive underwater travel become possible.

The deepest point in the ocean is the Mariana Trench located in the Pacific Ocean near the Northern Mariana Islands. It has a maximum depth of 10,923 m (35,838 ft) [1]. It was fully surveyed in 1951 by the British naval vessel, "Challenger II" which gave its name to the deepest part of the trench, the "Challenger Deep".

Much of the bottom of the world's oceans is unexplored and unmapped. A global image of many underwater features larger than 10 km was created in 1995 based on gravitational distortions of the nearby sea surface.

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