life on Earth as we know it would be nothing without the almighty power and
serene nobility of our oceans as they say the sea is a cruel mistress and
since the dawn of civilization we've relied on her endless bounty to give
life and bear witness to the rise and fall of countless empires always within
the mortal reminder that the power and the seven seas is both awesome and
incomprehensible to humanity but despite the massive important that the oceans
have played on our planet in this hypothetical situation we're going to be
pulling the plug on the ocean bed and seeing what our planet would be like
without the deep blue sea wait what I didn't agree to this
hello Internet what's going on and once again welcome back to the most
inquisitive channel on YouTube life's biggest questions as per usual I'll be
your disembodied flowing voice Jack Finch as today we curiously ask the
question what if we drained the oceans roll the clip for the curious I want you
that clip was from 2018 s the Meg because come on the Meg is completely
ridiculous and this is a ridiculous hypothetical scenario about the bottom
of the oceans and it's also important to note that if we did drain the deep blue
sea that we better damn well be prepared to face some ticked off giant squid that
wondered where the hell all of his ocean just went oh and also probably a
Megalodon yeah and Cthulhu more than likely anyway let's try not to think
about all of the strange alien nasties that are lurking down on the deepest
dank is darkest ocean bed because first we have to figure out how would even
drain the oceans in the first place they're more importantly where the hell
are we going to put all of this water now obviously this is going to take
quite a bit of hypothetical macgyvering but fear not because luckily for us we
have the strange and wonderful power of the human brain first and foremost it's
important to note that around 97% of all of the Earth's water resides within our
oceans and more than 70% of the surface of our planet is covered in the deep
blue sea in fact in 2010 a group of scientists and researchers used
satellite measurements to estimate the volume of our oceans and it turned out
to be a massive naught point three billion cubic miles or 1.3 3 2 billion
cubic kilometres for the met system users amongst us if you can't
tell already that's a hell of a lot of water for us to drain and it quickly
becomes apparent that this isn't exactly the same strong in the park as draining
a bathtub rubber duckies aside it's also important for us to specify the means in
which we're drain in the oceans and so in this hypothetical situation we'll go
out on a limb and say that suddenly out of nowhere a plug hole the size of I
don't know a London double-decker bus emerges at the bottom of challenger deep
the deepest point in the Mariana Trench which just so happens to be the deepest
known point in the entirety of the seven seas also don't worry about where their
water's going let's just say it's dropped into the void of space
yeah that works right you may also think uh-oh that's really bad we just sprung a
leak and this thing is going to be over in the snap of an incidence the planet
destroyed civilization in bruinz humanity wiped off the map forever but
actually even with the plughole of that size it would be nothing in comparison
to the unimaginable magnitude of our oceans the amount of ocean coverage on
our planet is absolutely huge and even going at incredible speeds massive rate
of drainage the water level of our planet would drop by less than a
centimetre per day in fact if our planet did spring a leak it would actually take
hundreds of thousands of years for our oceans to drain which strangely is kind
of a comforting thought isn't it but that's no fun at all so
let's say that particular double-decker bus sized rain started popping off in
dozens of different regions of the ocean bed let's speed things up a bit right
well actually yes yes it would but still in comparison to the abs of you mammoth
volume of our oceans it would still take a couple of thousand years to drain and
that wouldn't even be any cool apocalyptic whirlpools until at least
several hundred years into the draining process just like how a bathtub doesn't
start swirling until more than half of the water has been emptied nevertheless
as the ocean bed became ever expanding and that 1.3 billion cubic kilometres of
ocean water surged through the planetary plug holes the landscape of our planet
would gradually turn into an oasis of Earth after just a 50 meter drop in the
level of our oceans the results would be earth-shattering or well earth revealing
yeah I guess drop of 50 meters Islands both small and large such as the UK New
Guinea Java Borneo and the islands of sri lanka would become completely
connected to their neighbors the Netherlands of Europe a country that has
been at the beck and call of the sea for thousands of years and their attempt to
hold it back would finally be able to gasp their head above water finally
treading on the low sea level surface that has been covered throughout the
course of their civilization at 100 metres drained things get ever more
interesting when a huge new island off the coast of Nova Scotia would be
exposed the former site of the grand banks of Newfoundland a group of
previously underwater plateaus that whilst they were underwater were
considered one of the richest fishing grounds in the world all those fish
though yeah they've just got sucked down a plughole probably as the water levels
continue to fall many inland bodies of water such as the Black Sea which cease
shrinking and remain vastly unchanged by the drainage of the oceans this is
because many inland bodies of water would cease to be connected to the ocean
and some of their basins would cut off from the rest of the drainage for the
vast majority of these bodies of water they would eventually become landlocked
and just stop draining so yeah it's not all doom and gloom humanity would still
have a water source kind of the waters are surging now though and at 200 metres
entire new islands would begin to emerge across the Pacific and the majority of
the Asian coast Indonesia for one would become a great big blob all of its
islands becoming one mass at 500 metres Japan would become connected to Russia
via the Korean Peninsula which is an insane Thor in itself isn't it with one
kilometer of our ocean levels gone New Zealand would suddenly become absolutely
huge it's kind of good news for the Arctic though kind of and at 1 kilometer
its ocean would be cut off from the rest of the drainage and become isolated for
all time albeit much much smaller things also get really really weird when we
reach 3 kilometers worth of drain ocean depth and suddenly the vast majority of
those underwater mid-ocean ridges would become Wow mountain ranges towering high
above the new earth that they surround it
completely new rugged land would become accessible that before was the only
privilege of subterranean planet Earth for the most part we would pretty much
have undeterred access to every shipwreck throughout the course of our
civilizations history currently is estimated that anywhere up to 3 million
undiscovered shipwrecks lie at the bottom of the ocean bed so that's a lot
of gold to potentially plunder but the biggest question is would there be
anyone left alive to find it now there is no denying that draining the oceans
would undeniably result in the complete collapse of our ecosystem and thus
likely the extermination of our species however it actually isn't all doom and
gloom because humanity may well be in for a slight chance of survival with
this one remember those inland oceans I mentioned
previously Wow yet they could potentially still Harbor and support
life albeit life that has pretty much already been brought close to extinction
if a small reduced population could survive close to places such as the
Great Lakes of North America albeit a much smaller version then there's a
chance that pockets of survivors could thrive long enough to discover just
exactly what the oceans had left behind who knows given enough time an entirely
new civilization could emerge from the lakes capable of harnessing water during
the most impossible of circumstances well given enough time the Mariana
Trench would have been drained completely potentially waiting for this
brave new civilization to plummet it's rocky depths and climb on down to the
abyss to see what all the fuss was about there'd be free to roam and explore
perhaps giving light to the one question that our species has always strived to
answer what lies at the bottom of the ocean yeah it's probably Cthulhu isn't
it well there we have it our long and short answer to the question what if we
drain the oceans most of us would die there'd be a few survivors civilization
would be rebuilt and we'd have to fight giant squid monsters for buried treasure
well when you put it like that sign me
up what do you guys think let us know your
thoughts down in the comment section below as well as any interesting
insights you have to offer before we depart from today's video though let's
first take a quick look at some of your more creative comments over the past few
days Steven Matthews says short answer we die long answer we die my answer I am
making a Mima of the hiss hey buddy hold on a minute there that's
my line well I can't blame me for the ingenuity good job Steven Matthews good
job well on that note I'm fortunate that's all we've got time for in today's
video chess sticking around all the way until the end if you were a fan in this
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