Q 01/05

Which cargo, washed off a container ship in a 1992 storm, helped oceanographers trace surface currents for years?

A) Running shoes

B) Hockey gloves

C) Rubber ducks

D) Plastic bricks

Answer · why

C) Rubber ducks

Rubber ducks were among 28,800 bath toys lost overboard, and they kept washing up on distant beaches. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer used beachcomber...

Q 02/05

Which seabed mineral lumps did the CIA pretend to be mining in 1974 while secretly raising a sunken Soviet submarine?

A) Manganese nodules

B) Cobalt crusts

C) Diamond-rich gravel

D) Phosphate rock

Answer · why

A) Manganese nodules

Manganese nodules were the cover story for Project Azorian, with Howard Hughes lending his name to the fake mining venture. The ship Hughes Glomar Exp...

Q 03/05

Which sea in the North Atlantic is the only one on Earth bounded by ocean currents instead of land?

A) Caribbean Sea

B) Labrador Sea

C) Norwegian Sea

D) Sargasso Sea

Answer · why

D) Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea is hemmed in by four currents and named after the brown Sargassum seaweed that floats on it in mats. European and American eels migra...

Q 04/05

Which British warship's voyage of 1872 to 1876 is credited with laying the foundations of modern oceanography?

A) HMS Beagle

B) HMS Challenger

C) HMS Investigator

D) HMS Erebus

Answer · why

B) HMS Challenger

HMS Challenger sailed almost 69,000 nautical miles with laboratories on board, and its scientists found about 4,700 new species. A NASA space shuttle ...

Q 05/05

Which warm Atlantic current did Benjamin Franklin chart in the 1700s to help mail ships cross faster from England?

A) Gulf Stream

B) Canary Current

C) Labrador Current

D) Brazil Current

Answer · why

A) Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream was costing British mail packets weeks on the westbound crossing. Franklin had a sea captain named Folger sketch its path on a chart, ...