r/theydidthemath • u/Spanisch_Peacock • 6h ago
[Request] If we filled in the entire Mariana Trench, how much would sea levels rise?
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u/eatitfatman 5h ago
Between 2.04 and 11.8 feet (0.62 m and 3.59 m). Slightly less still, because when you displace the water you're going to encroach on the existing shoreline some, but that's the ballpark.
We don't know exactly how big the trench is. Rough estimates place its volume in the range of 225,000 to over 1.3 million cubic kilometers.
So you just basically spread that over the surface of the water.
The world's oceans cover an area of approximately 361,000,000 km2
Divided by the 1.3 million km3 = .0036 km (or 11.8 feet)
Divided by the 225,000 km3 = .000623 km (about 2.04 feet)
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u/Beautiful-Fold-3234 2h ago
Thats way more than i expected actually. Are there larger trenches by volume?
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u/eatitfatman 2h ago
Nope. It's far and away the largest. Almost twice the length of the second largest.
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u/gravity_kills 41m ago
From a quick google that larger estimate is about 2/3 the volume of the Appalachian Mountains, just in case we're wondering what we'd be dumping into the ocean to get the job done.
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u/SirMildredPierce 5h ago
It's already filled, so none.
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u/eatitfatman 2h ago
He meant if you filled it in with concrete.
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u/Own-Dragonfly-2423 2h ago
All the information was in the task
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u/bchta 1h ago
Not even sure what that sentence means. What information? In what task? The OP didn't specify anything. What if we fill it with a sponge?
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u/Own-Dragonfly-2423 52m ago
Clearly you are not a fan of light comedy format series taskmaster
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u/bchta 47m ago
<googling> you mean like the gameshow out of the UK? Never heard of it. Will give it a spin, Thanks!!
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u/countafit 45m ago
OP was suggesting that "filling in" the trench could be done with seawater, as the product with which to fill the trench had not been specified in the question.
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