An Alternate history: What If We Drained the World's Oceans?What if we got the way to drain all the Earth's oceans into some magical portal at the bottom of the Mariana Trench?
What If We Drained the World's Oceans?
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| What If We Drained the World's Oceans?- whatifhub.com |
How much liquid is that, exactly? Well, if you could put all that water into Olympic-size swimming pools, you'd need this many of them.
Even if we opened a portal about the area of a basketball court, it would take us hundreds of thousands of years to drain the oceans.
They handle over a billion cubic km (321 million cubic miles) of water!
But... what if we had a pump strong enough to drain all the oceans in a second? What would happen then?
Sure enough, swimmers, pirates, cruise passengers - everyone out on the ocean would feel the effects immediately. Within a second, boaters and swimmers in shallow water would crash onto the bottom.
They'd get away with several broken bones. Deep-ocean ships wouldn't be so lucky. A Titanic-sized liner would hit bottom in 30 seconds and smash into tiny parts.
What would the ocean look like without water
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| What If We Drained the World's Oceans?-whatifhub.com |
The same thing would happen to just about every large ship on the ocean within the first minute. What about all the sea creatures?
You already know the answer. It would literally be raining fish since all the whales, dolphins and other big aquatic creatures curiously exploring the surface would be dropping to the ocean floor.
As for those already near the bottom - they'd be fortunate not to get sucked down the drain along with the water. But what comes next is where the real trouble begins. Our oceans have two life-supporting roles.
Drain the oceans deepwater disasters
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| What If We Drained the World's Oceans?- whatifhub.com |
First - they control global temperatures by receiving energy from the sun. They push hot tropical waters north and south and circulate cold waters back to the equator.
This way no place on Earth gets too hot or way too cold. Global climate control.
Second - oceans feed the water cycle, evaporating into the clouds and raining back to Earth.
The moment the oceans disappeared, the Earth would shift into a vast desert. Go ahead and throw away your umbrella because it's never going to rain again.
Wait, what about all the lakes and rivers? Can't we get by with those? Well, without the seas, the world loses 97% of its water.
The small amount of liquid left would not be enough to sustain the water cycle. The pools of drinkable water would evaporate pretty quick.
In a matter of days, people and most creatures would die from dehydration. Plants would have a few weeks before they began decaying in the dry air.
Within several months, forests would begin massive die-offs. And all this dry, dead vegetation would eventually ignite.
drain the ocean summary
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| What If We Drained the World's Oceans?-whatifhub.com |
In a matter of years, most of the world's forests would be burned down. As these huge bonfires sparked all across the planet, the environment would become less and less oxygenated.
If there were still people at this time, the unbreathable atmosphere and scorching temperature would wipe us out for good.
All in all, the Earth would finish up just like Venus. Cooked.
So why not take a few times off and enjoy a little seaside vacation while you can?
Isn't it time to explore how your WHAT IF scenario would turn out?
* This article was originally published here
