The Deep

Introduction > What is the deep? > Where is the deep?

The ocean dominates the southern hemisphere, covering almost 80% of the surface. There is less ocean in the northern hemisphere, but it still covers 61% of the surface. The Pacific Ocean is the largest water body on the earth, covering almost a third of the earth's surface (a massive 180 million square miles).

On average the ocean is 4000 metres deep, and over 84% of the ocean bottom is found deeper than 2000 m. The greatest depth reached by a human free diver is just 214 m. Even breathing sophisticated mixtures of gases, the deepest human dive is currently 318 m and the dive took over 12 hours!

Diving to the depths of the deep-ocean is impossible, and scientists rely on some sophisticated technology to investigate the deep sea. To visit abyssal depths of several thousand metres, expensive and technologically advanced submarines are needed.

Visit the deep, use the scaleable map to zoom through some of the deepest

oceans in the world. The continental shelves are represented as bright yellow, the

deepest areas as dark blue, and oceanic ridges as aqua blue.