Category: Oceanography

The Largest Mass Extinction of Life Upon Earth

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There have been 5 mass extinctions throughout Earth’s tumultuous history. 99.9% of all species which have ever lived on Earth have gone extinct. 252,000,000 (252 million) years ago, Earth suddenly turned toxic to life. Nearly 96% of species worldwide, rapidly became extinct, a period referred to as the “Permian-Triassic Extinction Event”, and less often called the “Great Dying”. This mass extinction was caused by the eruption of super volcanos, leading to the land drying up, the ocean acidifying, every forest dying, and nearly all plant life perishing. Everything alive today is descended from the species which made it through this age

The Center of the World and the Reason It Will Not Exist During the 22nd Century

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Kiribati (pronounced “kir-ah-bas”) in the Pacific Ocean is in the center of the world because it is the only country which is in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere as well as the east and the west of the International Date Line; no other country has that designation. Kiribati is located upon the equator, which historically has been devoid of cyclones, however global weather patterns are shifting due to climate change and the equatorial zone is now subject to the path of cyclones. Climate predictions have definitively and conclusively demonstrated that Kiribati will be completely submerged beneath the ocean by the end of the 21st century

Inventions and Discoveries Developed Simultaneously Throughout History

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In 1922, a pair of Columbia University sociologists named William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas published a paper entitled “Are Inventions Inevitable?” which stated that Ogburn and Thomas discovered 148 examples of documented simultaneous invention. This phenomena occurred in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray filed for a patent for the telephone on the same day with Bell’s unit having a separated listening and talking piece whilst Gray’s unit having a single listening and talking unit built into a conical structure. Other notable examples include Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace who came up with the Theory of Evolution simultaneously, Carl Scheele and Joseph Priestly who discovered oxygen at the same time, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz who discovered and developed calculus at the same time, Dmitri Mendeleev and Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois who discovered and developed the periodic table at the same time, and Orville and Wilbur Wright and Samuel Langley who invented the airplane during the same period of time. Knowing this, it would seem that the phenomena of simultaneous invention and discovery seems to be exceedingly common for human beings throughout history

The Reason the Coriolis Force Does Not Affect the Way Water Flows Within Drainage

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Both clockwise and counterclockwise flowing drains can be found regardless of the hemisphere in which they are observed. The Coriolis force is too weak to affect such small bodies of water, which is why this occurs. The effect is more measurably observed in large bodies of water like the ocean which is where hurricanes and typhoons begin to emerge. The reason the Coriolis effect takes place is because of the northern and southern pole. If observed from the northern pole, the Earth rotates counterclockwise however when viewed from the southern pole, the Earth appears to rotate clockwise. The analogy of a spinning disc helps to illustrate this image. From the top, a disc appears to spin clockwise as it plays the content stored upon it, but if viewed from below, that same disc would appear to the observer as if rotating counter clockwise

The Original Version of the Statue of Liberty

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The Statue of Liberty was provided as a gift to the U.S. from the French public to celebrate the U.S. French alliance during the Revolutionary War. This gift however was not originally designed for the U.S., as its sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (pronounced “fred-reek ah-goost bar-told-ee”) had traveled to Egypt to pitch the idea of an enormous woman like the Statue of Liberty, standing at the entrance of the Suez Canal. This original design was to be veiled to comply with then Egyptian values, and holding a lantern representing Egypt carrying the light of progress into Asia. Initially the Egyptian government liked this idea but because the cost was exorbitantly high, plans were eventually scrapped. Bartholdi redesigned his concept to depict a Roman goddess which is more European and therefore palatable to the U.S. conscious. In addition to this, Bartholdi also wanted to ensure that this new design represented freedom, not progress, to reflect American sentiment during this period

Analogs of the Christian Bible’s Epic of Noah’s Ark

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In London, England in 2014, Dr. Irving Finkel, one of, if not the worlds most foremost authoritive upon cuneiform writing, published a book entitled “The Ark Before Noah” which states that a 3700 year old Sumerian tablet translated by Finkel depicts the Christian biblical story of Noah and the flood which drowned the world. This tablet is at the very least 1000 years older than that of the Biblical epic. In the Christina Bible, Noah is warned of a cataclysmic flood by God. A similar story exists in ancient Indian Vedic texts in which King Manu was forewarned by Lord Vishnu in the form a fish, of a great flood impending, with Manu constructing a large boat and ultimately surviving. In the Babylonian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh, the protagonist Utnapishtim (pronounced “ut-nah-pish-tim”) is advised of an impending flood by the god Enki (pronounced “en-kee”). In ancient Aztec culture, a sacred male and female couple hide within a hollow tree with corn while holding steady as the deluge of a great flood envelops the Earth. Ancient Celtic, Norse, and Chinese mythology also account similar stories in which a great flood occurs and only some survive. The common denominator between all of these stories is intervention by a force which knew ahead of time of the impending cataclysm

The Loudest Animal Upon Earth

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Blue whales communicate at volumes up to 185 decibels, and can be heard tens of kilometers away and possibly even hundreds of kilometers away. It is believed that the U.S. Navy’s Sound Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) transmitters can produce sounds underwater up to 215 decibels. To provide a frame of reference, the Saturn V rocket launch produced a sound of 200 decibels, loud enough to kill a human being. The blue whale is the loudest animal within the ocean in terms of continuous, sustained sound

The Reason Icebergs Sink Ships

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The reason that an iceberg is able to cut into the side hull of a ship (e.g. Titanic etc.) or any other marine vessel is dual fold. The first reason is because steel becomes more brittle, the colder it gets. Steel created during the early 20th century was not tempered as steel is during the modern day. The second reason is because of inertia, weight, and force. An iceberg can slash through steel the same way a tree can rip through a vehicle that has hit it. An iceberg is a large, immovable object, so whether the hull is comprised of wood or titanium, the ice will always win out as it has more inertia and mass. To provide a frame of reference, bone is incredibly strong and tensile, however if a brick which is harmless while at rest, slams down from a height above the arm, the force it imparts is enough to break said bone

The Country With the Most Vegetarians Per Capita and the First Notation of Vegetarianism Within Western Literature

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The country with the most vegetarians per capita is India, with 39% of the country identifying as vegetarian and/or vegan, a value which equates to 276,000,000 (276 million) people. This is primarily due to the dominant religion within India which is Hinduism, a faith which 79.8% of the country subscribes to, and to a lesser extent, Sikhism, a faith which promotes vegetarianism and is subscribed to by 1.7% of the country. Mexico trails India for the second spot internationally with 19% of the country identifying as vegetarian and Brazil takes the third spot with 14% having adopted this diet. The first time vegetarianism is mentioned within recorded western history is by the Ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras around 500 BC, however it is unclear if this is the first recorded text worldwide

The Reason it is Impossible to Store, Purchase, and/or Sell Live Tuna

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It is virtually impossible to store, purchase, and/or sell tuna fish live as tuna die shortly after capture. This is due to the fact that tuna breathe using ram-gill ventilation, which means that they must constantly stay in motion to have water pass over their gills and feed their body with oxygen. Motion is required continuously, exerted during both hours spent awake and time spent asleep. As the tuna is in motion, water flows into its mouth and over its gills and gill filaments, diffusing oxygen into the tunas bloodstream while simultaneously releasing carbon dioxide. This function is performed equally well at both slow and high rates of speed as long as consistent motion is achieved