What The Earth Would Look Like If All The Oceans Dried Up (GIFs)

nightqueen

Dec 16, 2019 7:19 PM EST

Earth is covered in 71% water, which is pretty evident when looking at it from space. But have you ever thought about what Earth would look like with no water? One planetary scientist pondered these questions and came up with this cool animation of the Earth's water drying up. Don't worry - it won't happen soon. Want to read about more interesting things? Check out these educational GIFs about the planets.

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via Giphy

Dr James O'Donoghue, the person behind the animation, was inspired to make it after seeing one of NASA's older animations imagining the water on Earth disappearing down a drain. This animation shows a gradual drop in sea level, revealing the structure of the land currently under water.
via Giphy

The animation quickly reveals continental shelves (the edges of continents that lie under the ocean) almost immediately, at a depth of 140 meters. The mid-ocean ridges start to appear around 2,000-3,000 meters, as well as land bridges that linked many countries during the last Ice Age, connecting Britain to Europe, Russia to Alaska, and Asia to Australia. Land bridges allowed humans and animals to migrate without boats, allowing us to imagine how mass migrations have happened over the past millennia.
via Giphy

By 6,000 meters, almost all of the ocean is drained except for the Mariana Trench (which is 10,911 meters deep). Beyond that, the entire ocean floor is exposed with it's ridges and valleys and mountains. Considering that Mt Everest is only 8,848 meters tall, it's safe to say that there would be some gigantic mountains to scale if humans ever tried to walk across the ocean bed. But that won't be happening anytime soon, so you'll just have to enjoy this animation and have a swim at the beach.