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NOAA National Ocean Service: 4 ideas worth knowing

4 ideas from NOAA National Ocean Service, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• Everest isn't the point on Earth closest to space — an Ecuadorian volcano is

  Earth bulges outward at the equator, so a point near the equator starts out farther from the planet's center before any mountain is added. Measured from Earth's core, the summit of…

  — NOAA National Ocean Service, Which mountain peak is closest to space?

• Earth's biggest waterfall is completely underwater

  Between Greenland and Iceland, cold water from the Nordic Seas sinks beneath warmer Atlantic water and plunges roughly 3,500 metres — several times taller than any waterfall on lan…

  — NOAA National Ocean Service, Where is Earth's Largest Waterfall?

• The only sea on Earth with no coastline is bounded entirely by ocean currents

  Every other sea is defined at least partly by land, but the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic is ringed only by currents: the Gulf Stream to the west, the North Atlantic Current t…

  — NOAA National Ocean Service, What is the Sargasso Sea?

• The longest mountain range on Earth is almost entirely underwater

  The global mid-ocean ridge system winds for roughly 65,000 km around the planet, longer than the Andes, Rockies, and Himalayas put together, yet more than 90% of it lies submerged …

  — NOAA National Ocean Service, What is the longest mountain range on earth?

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