Do You Know

National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON, July 28, 1998 – The International Year of the Ocean

 
 What is a tsunami?
 A cataclysmic wave generated by undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions
 
 How many eggs does a shrimp produce in one spawning?
 About 500,000
 (Approximately 400 million pounds are caught in the United States per year, with Texas and Louisiana having the biggest catches)
 
 How much sea water evaporates into the atmosphere in a typical year?
 About 80,000 cubic miles -- enough to put the contiguous United States under 372 feet of water
 (Approximately 24,000 cubic miles returns to land as rain, sleet and snow)
 
 If you could remove all the salt from the oceans, how much land would it cover?
 Spread evenly over all of Earth's land surfaces, the salt would be more than 500 feet thick
 
 How many miles of coastline does the United States have?
 95,000 miles
 
 What connection do peanut butter and toothpaste have with the ocean?
 Both contain carrageenan, which comes from sugars found in marine red algae