The remake of a 2008 NASA animation sequence has been creating a buzz on the internet. The video reveals what the world would look like if all the water on Earth evaporated!
The clip, made by former NASA planetary scientist James O’Donoghue, slowly exposes an immense landscape of unfamiliar ranges and valleys. In fact, science has yet to explore many of the otherwise submarine terrestrial features.
“I like how this animation reveals that the ocean floor is just as variable and interesting in its geology as the continents,” says O’Donoghue, who now works for the Japanese space agency JAXA.
The animation takes viewers 10,000 meters beneath current sea levels. The most dramatic alteration happens almost immediately. Most of the world’s water disappears by the time the animation drains about 5,000 meters off the surface!
Beyond that, only the world’s deepest trenches remain – and even they are mere rivers. That’s a telling reminder that even the oceans have their limits!
“I slowed down the start since, rather surprisingly, there’s a lot of undersea landscape instantly revealed in the first tens of meters,” O’Donoghue tells Business Insider.
The planetary scientist says he remade the video to highlight its most fascinating features. These include the world’s longest mountain range and the ice-age land bridges that ancient humans traversed.
Here’s Donoghue’s amazing video.
