Gee Whiz Ocean Quiz
Questions
1. T/F: The interconnected waters of the oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface.
2. How long would it take a river, the size of the Amazon, to drain the oceans? 3, 10,000 or
200,000 years (Circle one.)
3. T/F: The oceans contain more than 90% of all the water on Earth.
4. T/F: A cubic mile of seawater contains only water.
5. The oceans contain enough salt to cover all the continents with a layer 5, 50, 500, or
5000 feet thick. (Circle one.)
6. T/F: Human blood, excluding the cells and proteins, has the same general composition
as sea water.
7. The average depth of the oceans is 200, 1200, 6400, or 12,300 feet (Circle one.)
8. T/F: If the tallest mountain on land, Mt Everest (29,028 feet tall) were sunk in the
deepest part of the ocean, Everest would stick up out of the water.
9. T/F: The floor of the oceans off our coasts is flat.
10. The average temperature of the oceans is 23, 38, or 66 Fahrenheit. (Circle one.)
11. T/F: More plants and animals live in the air and on land than in the oceans.
12. T/F: Squid have the largest eyes, proportionally, of any animal.
13. Which ocean has the greatest average depth? Pacific or Atlantic (Circle one.)
14. Barrel sponges are plants, animals, or fungi. (Circle one.)
15. The largest animals ever to live on Earth is the blue whale, elephant, or brontosaurus
(Circle one.)
16. T/F: Crabs release only a few eggs each season.
17. The U.S. has a tidal shoreline of 26,000, 88,000, or 124,000 miles (Circle one.)
18. T/F: The population of the U.S. is concentrated near the coasts.
19. T/F: Recreational saltwater fishing is less destructive than industrial fishing.
20. T/F: Lagoons, estuaries, and saltwater marshes have no economic value.
21. T/F: “Red tides” are caused by chemicals, released from the ocean floor.
22. T/F: The sea has always been the same level.
23. T/F: Sperm whale teeth grow up to 10 inches long and weigh up to four pounds each.
24. T/F: Orange Roughy, a fish you can buy at the grocery store, can be 150 years old.
25. T/F: Penguins depend completely on the ocean for their food.
26. T/F: A newborn baby blue whale weighs more than 2,000 pounds.
27. T/F: Scientists used to think that bowhead whales lived 50 years. They changed their
minds when an Inuit found a 100 year old spearhead in a whale.
28. T/F: All the world’s oceans are blue.
29. T/F: Sea shells in the ocean make the water salty.
30. T/F: Some ice in the Arctic Ocean is over 20 feet thick at the ridges.
31. Corals are plants, animals, or fungi. (Circle one.)
32. Scientists estimate that we know _____________ % of everything there is to know about
the oceans.