🌊 OCEAN TEMPERATURE: COLD AT THE BOTTOM
PAGE 1 OF 5, A WARM LID ON A COLD SEA
LAYERS
THE OCEAN IS NOT THE SAME TEMPERATURE EVERYWHERE
Dip your toes in a sunny bay and the water can feel warm. Dive far below and it gets chilly fast. The ocean is stacked in temperature layers. The Sun warms the top. Deeper water stays cold for most of the year. That layering shapes where heat and nutrients move, and it helps drive ocean life and climate.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Most of the ocean's volume is deep and cold. The warm surface is only a thin lid on a huge chilly world.
COLD!
TOP
☀️ Sunlight heats the upper ocean first, especially in summer and near the equator.
🏊 That is why swimming near the surface often feels warmer than diving deeper.
🏊 That is why swimming near the surface often feels warmer than diving deeper.
BOTTOM
🧊 Deep water sits far from the Sun's heat and stays cold almost all year.
📉 Temperature usually falls as you go down, until you reach that chilly deep layer.
📉 Temperature usually falls as you go down, until you reach that chilly deep layer.