Page 189 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

189

The Oceans

We live in a watery world. Approximately 71 per cent of our planet’s

surface is covered by ocean.This immense body of water is usually

divided into the liquid equivalent of continents – the Pacific, the
Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic Oceans.

he largest of these is known as the Pacific and it regular rainfall lowers the salt levels. Similarly, freshwater
covers a colossal third of our planet’s surface. Next rivers and streams flowing into the Arctic make it the least
Tcomes the Atlantic, the so-called ‘big pond’, which salty of all five oceans.
divides the Old World of Europe from the New World of Within this great, global ocean, which also varies in
the Americas.The Indian Ocean, known as Ratnakara temperature across the globe, different forms of life have
(‘the creator of pearls’) in ancient Sanskrit, comes next in found their own solutions to the problems of survival,
terms of size.The smallest, shallowest and coldest of these many of which are strikingly familiar. If we were to peer,
bodies of water is the Arctic – which is often considered down, into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, we’d
to be a sea rather than a true ocean. find ‘flocks’ of dazzlingly coloured fish, flitting from reef
In reality, of course, such divisions mean very little. to reef, like tropical birds in some, vast, sunken rainforest.
These great ‘wet continents’ are all part of one gigantic By contrast, a glance into the depths of the cool, grey
body of water, which stretches from Pole to Pole and Atlantic, would reveal ‘herds’ of aquatic herbivores, being
coast to coast. stalked by the ocean equivalents of lions, tigers and bears.
We all know that the oceans are saltwater, but just how Yet, within this rich and mostly unexplored world, life
salty it is varies across the globe. Near the equator, the also comes in many strange and startling shapes.

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.