Resources of the World Ocean: their types and significance. Mineral resources of the world ocean and possibilities for their development

RESOURCES OF THE WORLD OCEAN

The ocean is a huge storehouse natural resources, which in their potential are quite comparable to the resources of the earth’s land.

This is, first of all, sea water itself, the reserves of which are truly colossal and amount to 1370 million km 3, or 96.5% of the total volume of the hydrosphere. In addition, sea water is a kind of “living ore” containing 75 chemical elements. Even the ancient Egyptians and Chinese learned to extract salt from it, which they now obtain in large quantities. Salt mines on the Chinese coast have existed for more than 5 thousand years. On a coastline 8 thousand km long, they occupy over 400 thousand hectares, and annual salt production reaches 20 million tons.

Sea water is also an important source of magnesium, bromine, iodine and other chemical elements.

These are also the mineral resources of the ocean floor. Among the resources of the continental shelf, the most higher value have oil and natural gas; According to most estimates, they account for at least 1/3 of the world's reserves. Solid fossils of the shelf - bedrock and alluvial - are mined using inclined mines and dredges (of course, excluding such a truly “gold mine” as the treasures of sunken ships, which are increasingly becoming the prey of modern “knights of profit”). And the main wealth of the deep-sea bed of the Ocean is iron-manganese nodules. These nodules (mineral formations of a round shape and brown color) are found in all oceans, forming a real “pavement” on the bottom. Their total reserves are estimated at 2-3 trillion. tons, and available for extraction - 250-300 billion tons. The largest areas of nodules occupy the bottom Pacific Ocean. The possibilities of their industrial development are currently being studied.

The total power of tides on our planet is estimated by scientists from 1 to 6 billion kW, and even the first of these figures far exceeds the energy of all rivers globe. It has been established that opportunities for the construction of large tidal power plants exist in 25-30 places. The largest tidal energy resources are in Russia, France, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, and the USA. They have coastal areas where the tide reaches 10-15 m or more.

Finally, these are the biological resources of the World Ocean - animals (fish, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans) and plants living in its waters. The biomass of the Ocean has 140 thousand species, and its total volume is estimated at 35 billion tons. But the main part of it is phytoplankton and zoobenthos, while nekton (fish, mammals, squid, shrimp, etc.) is only a little over 1 billion tons

In the World Ocean, as on land, there are more and less productive water areas. On this basis, they are divided into very highly productive, medium productive, low productive and the most low productive. Among the most productive water areas of the World Ocean, which V.I. Vernadsky named "condensations of life", include primarily the Norwegian, Northern, Barents, Okhotsk, and Japanese seas located in more northern latitudes, as well as the open northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

However, most commercial fish and animals in the World Ocean also need protection.

Tasks and tests on the topic "Resources of the World Ocean"

• World Ocean - general characteristics Nature of the Earth 7th grade

  Lessons: 5 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

• Oceans. Generalization of knowledge - Oceans 7th grade

  Lessons: 1 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

• Relief of the ocean floor - Lithosphere - the rocky shell of the Earth, grade 5

  Lessons: 5 Assignments: 8 Tests: 1

• Indian Ocean - Oceans 7th grade

  Lessons: 4 Assignments: 10 Tests: 1

• Atlantic Ocean - Oceans 7th grade

  Lessons: 4 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

Leading ideas: geographical environment - necessary condition life of society, development and distribution of the population and economy, while in Lately the influence of the resource factor on the level of economic development countries, but the importance of rational use of natural resources and environmental factor.

Basic concepts: geographical (environmental) environment, ore and non-metallic minerals, ore belts, mineral basins; structure of the world land fund, southern and northern forest belts, forest cover; hydropower potential; shelf, alternative energy sources; resource availability, natural resource potential(PRP), territorial combination of natural resources (TCNR), areas of new development, secondary resources; pollution environment, environmental policy.

Skills and abilities: be able to characterize the natural resources of the country (region) according to plan; use various methods economic assessment natural resources; characterize natural prerequisites for industrial development, Agriculture countries (regions) according to plan; give brief description placement of the main types of natural resources, distinguishing countries as “leaders” and “outsiders” in terms of provision with one or another type of natural resources; give examples of countries that do not have rich natural resources, but have achieved high level economic development and vice versa; give examples of rational and irrational use of resources.

According to many ocean scientists, World Ocean is a huge storehouse of various natural resources, which are quite comparable to the resources of the earth's land.

Firstly, sea water itself is one of these riches. Its volume is 1370 million km3, or 96.5% of the total. For every inhabitant of the Earth there is approximately 270 million m3 sea ​​water. This volume is equal to seven such as Mozhaiskoye in Moscow. In addition, sea water contains 75 chemical elements: table salt, magnesium, potassium, bromine, gold. Sea water is also a source of iodine.

Secondly, the World Ocean is rich in minerals that are mined from its bottom. Highest value has oil and gas that is produced from the continental shelf. They account for 90% of all resources obtained today from the seabed. Offshore oil production accounts for approximately 1/3 of the total volume. It is expected that by the year 2000, half of all oil produced on Earth will be of marine origin. Significant oil production is now taking place in the Persian Gulf, in the Gulf of Venezuela. Extensive experience in the development of underwater oil and gas fields has been accumulated in (), (the Gulf and coast of California).

The main wealth of the deep ocean floor are ferromanganese nodules containing up to 30 different metals. They were discovered at the bottom of the world's oceans back in the 70s years XIX century by the English research vessel Challenger. Ferromanganese nodules occupy the largest volume in (16 million km). The first experience in nodule mining was undertaken by the United States in the Hawaiian Islands.

Thirdly, the potential is huge energy resources waters of the World Ocean. The greatest progress has been made in the area of ​​energy use. It has been established that the best opportunities for creating large tidal stations exist in 25 places on Earth. The following countries have large tidal energy resources: France, USA,. The best possibilities of these are explained by the fact that the tide height here reaches 10-15 m. Russia ranks one of the first places in the world in terms of potential tidal energy reserves. They are especially large on the coasts, and. Their total energy exceeds the energy generated today by the country's hydroelectric power plants. In some countries of the world, projects are being developed to use the energy of waves and currents.

Fourthly, we must not forget about the World Ocean: plants (algae) and animals (fish, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans). The volume of total ocean biomass is 35 billion tons, of which fish account for 0.5 billion tons. As on land, there are more and less productive areas. They cover areas of the shelf and peripheral part of the ocean. The most productive in the world are the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Oceanic spaces, characterized by low productivity, occupy almost 2/3 of the ocean area.

More than 85% of the biomass used by humans is fish. A tiny share comes from algae. Thanks to fish, mollusks, and crustaceans caught in the World Ocean, humanity provides itself with 20% of animal proteins. Ocean biomass is also used to produce high-calorie feed meal for.

IN last years The breeding of certain species of organisms on artificially created marine plantations is becoming increasingly widespread throughout the world. These fisheries are called mariculture. The development of mariculture takes place in (pearl oysters), (pearl oysters), USA (oysters and mussels), (oysters), (oysters), (oysters, mussels), Mediterranean countries (mussels). In Russia, in the seas, they grow seaweed(kelp), sea scallops.

The rapid development of engineering and technology has led to the involvement of ocean resources in economic circulation, and its problems have become global in nature. There are a lot of these problems. They are associated with ocean pollution, a decrease in its biological productivity, and the development of energy resources. Ocean use has particularly increased in recent years, dramatically increasing the pressure on the ocean. Intensive economic activity led to growing water pollution. Accidents of oil tankers, drilling platforms, and the discharge of contaminated water from ships have a particularly detrimental effect on the environmental situation in the World Ocean. The marginal seas are especially polluted: the North Sea and the Persian Gulf.

The waters of the World Ocean are polluted by industrial waste, household waste and garbage.

Severe pollution of the World Ocean has reduced the biological productivity of the ocean. For example, it is heavily polluted with fertilizers from the fields. As a result, the fish productivity of this reservoir has noticeably decreased. In severe pollution, they destroyed all biological life on 1/4 of its water area.

The problem of the World Ocean is a problem for the future of the entire civilization, since its future depends on how wisely humanity resolves them. Addressing these challenges requires concerted international efforts to coordinate ocean use. In recent years, a number of international agreements have been adopted to limit ocean pollution. However, its economic problems are so acute that it is necessary to move on to more drastic measures, since the death of the World Ocean will inevitably lead to the death of the entire planet.

Resources of the World Ocean are natural elements, substances and types of energy that are or can be extracted directly from the waters, coastal land, bottom or subsoil of the oceans.

The world's oceans are a huge storehouse of natural resources. Biological resources - fish, shellfish, crustaceans, cetaceans, algae. About 90% of the commercial species produced are fish. The shelf zone accounts for more than 90% of the world's catch of fish and non-fish species. The largest part of the world's catch is caught in the waters of temperate and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Of the oceans, the largest catch comes from the Pacific Ocean. Of the seas of the World Ocean, the most productive are the Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk, and Japanese.

Mineral resources The world's oceans contain solid, liquid and gaseous minerals. Coastal sea placers contain zirconium, gold, platinum, and diamonds. The depths of the shelf zone are rich in oil and gas. The main oil production areas are the Persian, Mexican, and Guinea Gulfs, the coast of Venezuela, and the North Sea. There are offshore oil and gas bearing areas in the Bering and Okhotsk seas. Iron ore (off the coast of Kyushu, in Hudson Bay), coal (Japan, Great Britain), and sulfur (USA) are mined from underwater subsoil. The main wealth of the deep-sea ocean floor is ferromanganese nodules.

Sea water is also a resource of the World Ocean. It contains about 75 chemical elements. About 1/3 of the world's table salt, 60% of magnesium, 90% of bromine and potassium are extracted from sea waters. Sea waters in a number of countries are used for industrial desalination. Largest producers fresh water- Kuwait, USA, Japan.

Energy resources - fundamentally accessible mechanical and thermal energy The world's oceans, from which tidal energy is mainly used. There are tidal power plants in France at the mouth of the Rane River, and in Russia - the Kislogubskaya TPP on the Kola Peninsula. Projects for using the energy of waves and currents are being developed and partially implemented.

With the intensive use of the resources of the World Ocean, its pollution occurs as a result of the discharge of industrial, agricultural, household and other waste, shipping, and mining into rivers and seas. Poses a particular threat oil pollution and burial in the deep ocean toxic substances and radioactive waste. The problems of the World Ocean require concerted international measures to coordinate the use of its resources and prevent further pollution.

Ocean Photo: Christopher

Demand for bromine is largely driven by the use of tetraethyl lead as a gasoline additive, the production of which is being reduced because the compound is a hazardous environmental pollutant.

In addition to these basic substances that the ocean provides to man, big interest microelements dissolved in its waters are also used for production. These include, in particular, lithium, boron, sulfur, which are still extracted from sea water in small quantities, as well as gold and uranium, which are promising for technological and environmental reasons.
A brief examination of the modern use of the chemical resources of the oceans and seas shows that compounds and metals extracted from salt waters already make a significant contribution to world production. Marine chemistry today provides 6-7% of the income received from the development of the resources of the World Ocean.

World Ocean Resource Groups

The mineral resources of the World Ocean are divided into three groups. First of all, these are marine resources (natural gas, oil, coal, iron ore, tin). Half of the world's oil reserves come from offshore fields, which are a continuation of the continental ones. The most famous offshore fields are the North Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico. The shelf of the Barents Sea and Sakhalin is promising. Already today, 1/3 of oil is obtained from offshore fields. Coal (Great Britain, Canada, Japan, China) and sulfur (USA) are also mined on the shelf. In addition, under the influence of waves and currents, the coastal part of the seabed is destroyed, which is the source of coastal placers (placer deposits) containing diamonds, tin, gold, platinum, and amber. Mineral resources can be mined on the seabed - building materials, phosphorites, iron-manganese nodules. Iron-manganese nodules measure 5-10 cm in diameter, their shape is predominantly round or flattened. They lie at depths of 100-7000 m. They are distributed in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. In total, ore fields occupy 10% of the ocean floor area. Technologies for their extraction have already been developed, but are not yet widely used. In areas of mid-ocean ridges, in places where hot springs emerge, significant reserves of zinc, lead, copper and other metals ores are concentrated.

If chemical elements, dissolved in the waters of the world's oceans are of great value for humanity, then the solvent itself is no less valuable - water itself, which Academician A.E. Fersman figuratively called “the most important mineral of our Earth, which has no substitutes.” Providing fresh water to agriculture, industry, and household needs of the population is no less important than supplying production with fuel, raw materials, and energy.
It is known that a person cannot live without fresh water; his needs for fresh water are growing rapidly and its shortage is becoming more and more acute. Rapid population growth, an increase in the area of ​​irrigated agriculture, and industrial consumption of fresh water have turned the problem of water scarcity from a local one into a global one. An important reason for the shortage of fresh water lies in the unevenness of water supply to the land. Atmospheric precipitation is unevenly distributed, and river flow resources are unevenly distributed. For example, in our country 80% water resources concentrated in Siberia and the Far East in sparsely populated areas. Such large agglomerations as the Ruhr region or the megalopolis of Boston, New York, Finland, Washington, with tens of millions of inhabitants, require enormous water resources that local sources do not have.

They are trying to solve problems in several interrelated areas:

Rationalize water use in order to reduce water losses to a minimum and transfer part of the water from areas with excess moisture to areas where there is a moisture deficit;
take drastic and effective measures to prevent the pollution of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and other bodies of water and create large reserves of fresh water;
expand the use of new sources of fresh water.

Today, these include groundwater available for use, desalination of ocean and sea waters, and obtaining fresh water from icebergs.
One of the most effective and promising ways to provide fresh water is the desalination of the salty waters of the World Ocean, especially since large areas of arid and low-water areas adjoin its shores or are located close to them. Thus, ocean and sea waters serve as raw materials for industrial use. Their huge reserves are practically inexhaustible, but at the current level of technological development they cannot be exploited profitably everywhere due to the content of dissolved substances in them.

These resources must be considered comprehensively as they include:

Biological resources of the World Ocean;

Mineral resources of the seabed;

Energy resources of the world's oceans;

Sea water resources.

Biological resources of the World Ocean – these are plants (algae) and animals (fish, mammals, crustaceans, mollusks). The total volume of biomass in the World Ocean is 35 billion tons, of which 0.5 billion tons are fish alone. Fish makes up about 90% of commercial fish caught in the ocean. Thanks to fish, mollusks and crustaceans, humanity provides itself with 20% of animal proteins. Ocean biomass is also used to produce high-calorie feed meal for livestock.

More than 90% of the world's catch of fish and non-fish species comes from the shelf zone. The largest part of the world's catch is caught in the waters of temperate and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Of the oceans, the largest catch comes from the Pacific Ocean. Of the seas of the World Ocean, the most productive are the Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk, and Japanese.

In recent years, the cultivation of certain species of organisms on artificially created marine plantations has become increasingly widespread throughout the world. These fisheries are called mariculture. Its development takes place in Japan and China (pearl oysters), the USA (oysters and mussels), France and Australia (oysters), and the Mediterranean countries of Europe (mussels). In Russia, in the seas of the Far East, seaweed (kelp) and scallops are grown.

The state of aquatic biological resources and their effective management are becoming increasingly important both for providing the population with high-quality food products and for supplying raw materials to many industries and agriculture (in particular, poultry farming). Available information indicates increasing pressure on the world's oceans. At the same time, due to severe pollution, the biological productivity of the World Ocean sharply decreased. In 198... gg. Leading scientists predicted that by 2025, world fisheries production would reach 230–250 million tons, including 60–70 million tons from aquaculture. In the 1990s. the situation has changed: forecasts of marine catches for 2025 have decreased to 125-130 million tons, while forecasts for the volume of fish production through aquaculture have increased to 80 - 90 million tons. At the same time, it is considered obvious that the growth rate of the Earth's population will exceed the growth rate fish products. While noting the need to feed present and future generations, the significant contribution of fisheries to the income, well-being and food security of all nations must be recognized and its particular importance for some low-income and food-deficit countries. Realizing the responsibility of the living population for the conservation of biological resources for future generations, in December 1995 in Japan, 95 states, including Russia, adopted the Kyoto Declaration and Action Plan on the Sustainable Contribution of Fisheries to Food Security. It was proposed that policies, strategies and resource use for sustainable development of the fisheries sector should be based on the following fundamental principles:

Conservation of ecological systems;

Use of reliable scientific data;

Increasing socio-economic well-being;

Equity in the distribution of resources within and between generations.

The Russian Federation, along with other countries, has committed itself to be guided by the following specific principles in the development of the national fisheries strategy:

Recognize and appreciate the important role that marine, inland fisheries and aquaculture play in world food security through both food supply and economic well-being;

Effectively implement the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the UN Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, the Agreement on Promotion of International Measures for the Conservation and Management of Fishing Vessels on the High Seas and the FAO Code of Responsible Fisheries, and harmonize their national legislation with these documents;

Development and strengthening scientific research as fundamental foundations for sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture to ensure food security, as well as providing scientific and technical assistance and support to countries with limited research capabilities;

Assessing the productivity of stocks in waters under national jurisdiction, both inland and marine, bringing fishing capacity in those waters to a level comparable to the long-term productivity of the stocks, and taking timely appropriate measures to restore overfished stocks to a sustainable state, and cooperating in accordance with with international law to take similar measures for stocks found on the high seas;

Conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and its components in the aquatic environment and, in particular, the prevention of practices leading to irreversible changes, such as the destruction of species by genetic erosion or large-scale destruction of habitats;

Promoting the development of mariculture and aquaculture in coastal marine and inland waters by establishing appropriate legal mechanisms, coordinating the use of land and water with other activities, using the best and most suitable genetic material in accordance with the requirements for the conservation and sustainable use of the external environment and the conservation of biological diversity, application of social and environmental impact assessments.

Mineral resources of the World Ocean - These are solid, liquid and gaseous minerals. There are resources of the shelf zone and resources of the deep seabed.

First place among shelf zone resources belongs to oil and gas. The main oil production areas are the Persian, Mexican, and Guinea Gulfs, the coast of Venezuela, and the North Sea. There are offshore oil and gas bearing areas in the Bering and Okhotsk seas. The total number of oil and gas basins explored in the sedimentary strata of the ocean shelf exceeds 30. Most of them are continuations of land basins. Total oil reserves on the shelf are estimated at 120–150 billion tons.

Among the solid minerals of the shelf zone, three groups can be distinguished:

primary deposits of ores of iron, copper, nickel, tin, mercury, etc.;

coastal-marine placers;

phosphorite deposits in deeper parts of the shelf and on the continental slope.

Primary deposits Metal ores are mined using mines laid from the shore or from islands. Sometimes such workings go under the seabed at a distance of 10-20 km from the coast. Iron ore (off the coast of Kyushu, in Hudson Bay), coal (Japan, Great Britain), and sulfur (USA) are mined from underwater subsoil.

IN coastal-marine placers contains zirconium, gold, platinum, diamonds. Examples of such developments include diamond mining - off the coast of Namibia; zirconium and gold - off the coast of the USA; amber - on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Phosphorite deposits have been explored primarily in the Pacific Ocean, but so far their industrial development has not been carried out anywhere.

The main wealth deep sea ocean floor – ferromanganese nodules. It has been established that nodules occur in the upper film of deep-sea sediments at a depth of 1 to 3 km, and at a depth of more than 4 km they often form a continuous layer. The total reserves of nodules amount to trillions of tons. In addition to iron and manganese, they contain nickel, cobalt, copper, titanium, molybdenum and other elements (more than 20). The largest number of nodules were found in the central and eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean. The USA, Japan and Germany have already developed technologies for extracting nodules from the ocean floor.

In addition to iron-manganese nodules, iron-manganese crusts are also found on the ocean floor, covering rocks in the areas of mid-ocean ridges at a depth of 1 - 3 km. They contain more manganese than nodules.

Energetic resources – fundamentally accessible mechanical and thermal energy of the World Ocean, of which it is mainly used tidal energy. There are tidal power stations in France at the mouth of the Rane River, in Russia the Kislogubskaya TPP on the Kola Peninsula. Projects for use are being developed and partially implemented energy of waves and currents. The largest tidal energy resources are found in France, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, the USA, and Russia. The tide height in these countries reaches 10-15 m.

Sea water is also a resource of the World Ocean. It contains about 75 chemical elements. About... /... are extracted from sea waters. of table salt mined in the world, 60% magnesium, 90% bromine and potassium. Sea waters in a number of countries are used for industrial desalination. The largest producers of fresh water are Kuwait, USA, Japan.

With the intensive use of the resources of the World Ocean, its pollution occurs as a result of the discharge of industrial, agricultural, household and other waste, shipping, and mining into rivers and seas. A particular threat is posed by oil pollution and the burial of toxic substances and radioactive waste in the deep ocean. The problems of the World Ocean are the problems of the future of human civilization. They require concerted international measures to coordinate the use of its resources and prevent further pollution.

Mineral resources

The world's oceans are rich in mineral resources that are mined from the ocean floor. The most significant among them: oil and gas. They account for 90% of all resources extracted from the seabed. Offshore oil production accounts for approximately 1/3 of the total volume. The world's oceans are a source of ores such as iron, tin, copper-nickel. Rich seams of coal lie at the bottom of the ocean.[*]

Table 1 - Proven oil and gas reserves for 2012

The main wealth of the deep ocean floor are ferromanganese nodules containing up to 30 different metals. They were discovered on the ocean floor back in the 70s of the 19th century by the English research vessel Challenger. The largest volume of ferromanganese nodules is located in the Pacific Ocean (16 million km?). The first experience in mining nodules was undertaken by the Americans in the Hawaiian Islands. [*]

Brief description of the mineral resources of the oceans

1. The Pacific Ocean is the largest basin of the World Ocean. Oil and gas deposits have been discovered in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and placers of heavy minerals and other minerals on the bottom. The main oil and gas bearing areas are concentrated on the periphery of the ocean. Oil and gas fields have been discovered in the Tasman Basin - Barracouta (over 42 billion m3 of gas), Marlin (more than 43 billion m3 of gas, 74 million tons of oil), Kingfish, off the island New Zealand The Kapuni gas field (15 billion m3) has been explored. From solid minerals, alluvial deposits of magnetite sands have been discovered and are partially being developed (Japan, west coast North America), cassiterite (Indonesia, Malaysia), gold and platinum (Alaska coast, etc.). Large accumulations of deep-sea iron-manganese nodules, also containing significant amounts of nickel and copper, have been discovered in the open ocean (Clarion-Clipperton fault). On many seamounts and slopes of oceanic islands, iron-manganese crusts and nodules enriched in cobalt and platinum have been discovered. Phosphorite deposits are known on the shelves of California and the islands of New Zealand.

2. The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest basin of the World Ocean. Among mineral resources Atlantic Ocean Oil and gas are of utmost importance. North America has oil and gas shelves in the Labrador Sea, the bays of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, and Georges Bank. Oil reserves on the eastern shelf of Canada are estimated at 2.5 billion tons, gas reserves at 3.3 trillion. m3, on the eastern shelf and continental slope of the USA - up to 0.54 billion tons of oil and 0.39 trillion. m3 of gas. More than 280 fields have been discovered on the southern shelf of the United States, and more than 20 fields off the coast of Mexico. Total shelf reserves Caribbean Sea amount to 13 billion tons of oil and 8.5 trillion. m3 of gas. Oil and gas bearing areas have been identified on the shelves of Brazil (Toduz-yc-Santos Bay) and Argentina (San Xopxe Bay). Oil fields have been discovered in the North (114 fields) and Irish Seas, the Gulf of Guinea (50 on the Nigerian shelf, 37 off Gabon, 3 off Congo, etc.).

Sulfur is mined in the Gulf of Mexico. Coal is mined in offshore extensions of continental basins - in Great Britain (up to 10% of national production) and Canada. Off the east coast of the island

Newfoundland is home to the largest iron ore deposit of Waubana (total reserves of about 2 billion tons). Heavy minerals (ilmenite, rutile, zircon, monazite) are mined off the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico. off the coast of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, the Scandinavian and Iberian Peninsulas, Senegal, South Africa. South West African shelf area industrial production diamonds (reserves 12 million carats). Gold placers have been discovered off the Nova Scotia Peninsula. Phosphorites were found on the shelves of the USA, Morocco, Liberia, and on the Agulhas Bank.

3. Indian Ocean. Oil and gas deposits have been discovered almost throughout the entire shelf of the Indian Ocean. The largest reserves are concentrated on the shelf South-East Asia, where geological reserves are estimated at 2.4 billion tons of oil and 2.3 trillion. m3 of gas. The largest fields are located in the oil and gas basin Persian Gulf. There are 10 known oil fields on the western and northwestern shelves of Australia (potential recoverable reserves of 600-900 million tons), and 7 gas fields have been discovered off the coast of Bangladesh. Gas deposits have been discovered in the Andaman Sea, oil and gas bearing areas in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and along the coast of Africa. The most important placer deposits in Indian Ocean are located off the coasts of southeast Asia and Australia. In the open ocean, large fields of ferromanganese nodules were found at the bottom of the Western Australian, Central, South Arabian, Crozet basins, relatively small ones - in the Somali, Mascarene, etc. basins. In the Red Sea, large deposits of salt, ore-bearing sediments of rift basins, enriched iron, copper, zinc, etc.

4. The server Arctic Ocean is the smallest ocean on Earth by area. On the continental frame of the Northern Arctic Ocean large oil and gas basins (OGB) are known, extending onto its shelves: West Siberian, the northern periphery of which is located in the southwestern part of the Kara Sea shelf, Pechora (Barents Sea shelf), the Northern slope of Alaska oil and gas basin (USA), Sverdrup (on the Arctic islands of Canada). Oil and gas bearing areas have also been identified on the shelf of the Norwegian Sea and in the part of the Barents Sea adjacent to Norway, as well as on the shelf of north-eastern Greenland. The interior of the Arctic Ocean, due to its thermobaric conditions, is favorable for the formation of gas hydrates. Cassiterite placers are known on the coast of the Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi seas. The rift gorges of the Mid-Arctic Ridge appear to be promising for metal-bearing oozes and polymetallic hydrothermal massive sulfide deposits.

Energetic resources

The potential for using the energy resources of the waters of the World Ocean is enormous. The greatest progress has been made in the use of tidal energy. It has been established that the best opportunities for creating large tidal stations exist in 25 places on Earth. Countries such as France, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, USA, Russia have large tidal energy resources. The best opportunities of these countries are explained by the fact that the tide height here reaches 10-15 m.

Scientists have calculated that when rational use energy of the ocean tides, humanity can receive an astronomical amount of electricity - approximately 70,000,000 billion kilowatt-hours per year.

Biological resources

We must not forget about the biological resources of the World Ocean: plants (algae) and animals (fish, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans). The volume of total ocean biomass is 35 billion tons, of which fish account for 0.5 billion tons. As on land, there are more and less productive areas in the World Ocean. They cover areas of the shelf and peripheral part of the ocean. The most productive in the world are the Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk, and Japanese seas. Oceanic spaces, characterized by low productivity, occupy almost 2/3 of the ocean area.

More than 85% of the biomass used by humans is fish. A small share comes from algae. Thanks to fish, mollusks, and crustaceans caught in the World Ocean, humanity provides itself with 20% of animal proteins. Ocean biomass is also used to produce high-calorie feed meal for livestock.

Rice. 1

To summarize, we can say that the World Ocean is an important supplier of almost all substances necessary for existence. The world's oceans are the world's most valuable source of important mineral resources such as oil and natural gas. We should also not deny the role of biological resources, because they account for about 20% of animal proteins consumed by humanity. Huge role allocated to the oceans as a new source of energy, it is possible to use the energy of waves, ebbs and flows. It is possible to use sea water to obtain fresh water.