Oceans cover most of the Earth's surface, so what would happen if we sucked all the ocean water off our planet?
Former NASA planetary scientist James O'Donoghue edited a video created in 2008 by NASA physicist and animator Horace Mitchell by slowing it down and adding a water-loss indicator to help us see what Earth would look like if that water were gone and the rest of the planet was revealed.
Here is the video slowed down:
After the sea water receded, a lot of underwater scenery was revealed in just the first ten meters.
The first to be exposed are the continental shelves – the underwater boundaries of the continents, including the bridges that ancient humans used to migrate from one continent to another. Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancestors could travel from Europe to the UK, from Russia to the US, and from Australia to the surrounding islands.
When the last ice age occurred, a lot of ocean water was locked up in ice, similar to the large ice sheets at the poles that formed land bridges. Each of these bridges allowed humans to migrate. When the ice age ended, the ocean filled in these roads.
By removing that water we can witness a glimpse into the ancient world of our human ancestors.
After the sea level dropped by 2,000 to 3,000 meters, the longest mountain range on Earth gradually appeared, more than 90% of which is under the sea. It is a mid-ocean mountain range, more than 60,000 kilometers long and spanning the entire globe.
By the time the water level has receded more than 6,000 meters, most of the ocean has disappeared. But to drain the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, the ocean level would need to recede another 5,000 meters.
The video shows us that the ocean floor is as rich and interesting in geography as the continents, says O'Donoghue.
He added that draining the seas not only explores the ocean floor but also helps us learn about the ancient history of mankind.
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