Amplify’d from svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
Three fifths of the Earth's surface is under the ocean, and the ocean floor is as rich in detail as the land surface with which we are familiar. This animation simulates a drop in sea level that gradually reveals this detail. As the sea level drops, the continental shelves appear immediately. They are mostly visible by a depth of 140 meters, except for the Arctic and Antarctic regions, where the shelves are deeper. The mid-ocean ridges start to appear at a depth of 2000 to 3000 meters. By 6000 meters, most of the ocean is drained except for the deep ocean trenches, the deepest of which is the Marianas Trench at a depth of 10,911 meters.
Animation of the draining of the Earth's oceans. The first frame indicates no decrease and the second frame drains all water above sea level. Each subsequent frame represents a 10 meter drop in the level of the Earth's oceans. The high resolution frames labeled 'Mask' can be used with the individual images below to create higher resolution versions of this animation.
Duration: 34.0 seconds
Available formats:
1024x512
MPEG-4
20 MB
1024x512
PNG
629 KB
320x160
PNG
214 KB
160x80
PNG
60 KB
80x40
PNG
16 KB
1024x512
Frames
(NoDates)
4096x2048
Frames
(Mask)
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Animation of ocean draining with sea level annotation.
Duration: 34.0 seconds
Available formats:
1024x512
MPEG-4
20 MB
1024x512
PNG
635 KB
1024x512
Frames
(Dates)
320x160
PNG
215 KB
How to play our movies
Shaded relief image of the Earth's topography and bathymetry
Available formats:
4096 x 2048
PNG
10 MB
320 x 160
PNG
248 KB
Next Generation Blue Marble image for July subsampled to match the shaded relief map.
Available formats:
4096 x 2048
PNG
4 MB
320 x 160
PNG
131 KB
Land-sea mask matching the Blue Marble image above.
Available formats:
4096 x 2048
PNG
320 KB
320 x 160
PNG
43 KB
Read more at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Geophysical Data Center, 2006, 2-minute Gridded Global Relief Data (ETOPO2v2) - http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/fliers/06mgg01.html
The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC) and NASA's Earth Observatory.
See this Amp at http://1.usa.gov/nHXFIb