…courtesy of MarineBio:
- Sharks bite roughly 70 people each year worldwide, with perhaps 6-10 fatalities, according to data compiled in the International Shark Attack File (ISAF). This is far less than the number of people injured each year by elephants, bees, crocodiles, lightning or many other natural dangers.
- Of the more than 500 or so shark species, about 80% grow to less than 1.6 meters in length and are unable to hurt people or rarely encounter people.
- Almost any shark 1.8 m or longer is a potential danger, but three species have been identified repeatedly in fatal bites: great whites, tigers, and bull sharks.
- An estimated 50-80% of all life on earth is found under the ocean surface and the oceans contain 99% of the living space on the planet.
- The oceans cover 71% (and rising) of the Earth’s surface and contain 97% of the Earth’s water. Less than 1% is fresh water, and 2-3% is contained in glaciers and ice caps.
- 90% of all volcanic activity occurs in the oceans.
- The speed of sound in water is 1,435 m/sec – nearly five times faster than the speed of sound in air.
- Earth’s longest mountain range is the Mid-Ocean Ridge more than 50,000 km in length, which winds around the globe from the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic. It is four times longer than the Andes, Rockies, and Himalayas combined.
- The top ten feet of the ocean hold as much heat as the entire atmosphere.
- The lowest known point on Earth, called the Challenger Deep, is 11,034 m deep, in the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific. To get an idea of how deep that is, if you could take Mt. Everest and place it at the bottom of the trench there would still be over a mile of ocean above it.