Visualizing What Earth Would Look Like If All The Oceans Were Drained

We know that the ocean is deep and that the deepest trenches in the world have an almost unsettling depth of over 10,000 meters. We also know that the ocean covers around 70% of Earth, making more than two-thirds of our planet's surface invisible to us. But suppose we found a way to drain Earth of all its oceans, what would that surface look like, exactly?

Planetary scientist James O'Donaghue (who goes by u/physicsj on Reddit) pulls back the curtain on this geographical mystery with a stunning animation video that shows what Earth would look like if the water level of the oceans dropped from 0 meters below sea level to 10,190 meters below sea level.

The video was remade from a NASA video from 2008 with the addition of new data imagery from the space agency. And as you can see from the video, when the water drops to around 150 meters below sea level, the continental shelves, the seabed surrounding large landmasses, are the first to appear. And by the time the ocean is drained to around 6,000 meters below sea level, most of the surface of the Earth can be seen, with the exception of some of Earth's deepest sea trenches, such as the Mariana Trench, which is around 10,984 meters in depth and located in the Pacific Ocean.

[Via Reddit]