Little World

bbc pictre of the day

2009-03-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

The UK announces it has temporarily banned the export of this Celtic mirror and two brooches, found in the county of Kent in 1993

The global credit crunch and the new US president are reflected on a lantern carried by a reveller marking carnival in Basel, Switzerland.

The coffins of army officers killed by mutinous border guards are taken for burial in Banani graveyard in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

French artist Annette Messager sits in London with her 'Inflated-Deflated' work depicting human body parts and other shapes.

Final security checks take place before China's top advisory body, the People's Political Consultative Conference, opens in Beijing.

Continents of the World

2009-01-09T03:58:00.000-08:00

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by cultural convention rather than any strict criteria. Technically, there are only four complete separated landmasses on earth The Americas, Eurasiafrica, Australia and Antarctica. Although seven regions are commonly regarded as continents – they are (from largest in size to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Plate tectonics is the geological process and study of the movement, collision and division of continents, earlier known as continental drift.

Ocean

2008-12-23T22:11:00.000-08:00

Oceans cover about 70% of the Earth's surface. The oceans contain roughly 97% of the Earth's water supply

An ocean (from Greek, Okeanos (Oceanus)) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt.

Ocean	Area (square miles)	Average Depth (ft)	Deepest depth (ft)
Pacific Ocean	64,186,000	15,215	Mariana Trench, 36,200 ft deep
Atlantic Ocean	33,420,000	12,881	Puerto Rico Trench, 28,231 ft deep
Indian Ocean	28,350,000	13,002	Java Trench, 25,344 ft deep
Southern Ocean	7,848,300 sq. miles (20.327 million sq km )	13,100 - 16,400 ft deep (4,000 to 5,000 meters)	the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench, 23,736 ft (7,235 m) deep
Arctic Ocean	5,106,000	3,953	Eurasia Basin, 17,881 ft deep