If you know what's good for you, you're drinking lots of water every day. But when you're enjoying Eden water from a water cooler in London, the UK or Scotland, how much do you think about this element that makes up so much of our planet? Here are some interesting and fun facts about the world's oceans:
When Tina Turner sang River Deep, Mountain High perhaps that phrase should have been 'Ocean Deep' because the deepest part of the ocean is far, far deeper than the deepest river. In case you're interested, the deepest river is the Zaire (or Congo) River at around 750 feet. That pales in comparison to the depth of the deepest part of the ocean. The lowest point on earth is in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean and it comes in at 35,979 feet deep. Just to give you an idea how deep that is, compare it with the height of Mount Everest which is a paltry 29,002 feet high.
If you're wondering what it's like at the bottom of the ocean forget all the footage you have seen of Jacques Cousteau's exploration of the blue waters. Light can't get any further than 330 feet under the surface of the water. That means that the deepest part of the ocean is pitch black - spooky! And did you know that although humans live on land there are more creatures on earth living in the water? That's because aquatic life represents up to 80% of all life on Earth. Many of these life forms have still not been classified. Some estimates suggest that there may be as many as 50 million marine species that are still to be correctly identified or discovered.
Maybe it's the depths, maybe it's the darkness, but we still don't know a lot about what lies under the sea. We actually know more about the surface of planets in space than we know about the ocean floor. The amount of ocean explored so far comes to less than 5% of the total. And what we do know about may blow all our ideas about geography and geology out of the water, if you'll forgive the phrase. For example, the ocean is home to a mountain range which covers 23% of the Earth's surface and has some peaks that are higher than those in the Alps. This is called the Mid-Oceanic Ridge and it was only explored in 1973. The ocean also features volcanoes, hot springs and other geographical features that we are accustomed to seeing on land. Eden water in your water coolers is sourced from underground aquifers across the UK, supplying beverages to offices across the country.
