Someone please explain "BELOW SEA LEVEL"?

Question

I am serious. I have never fully understood this because. ... Standing on land and saying it is below the level of the sea just confuses me. If you don't know what you are talking about, please don't answer...thank you

Even though I am educated, please explain it like you would to a child...

Answer 1

There is a barrier between the ocean and the land which is below sea level. Think of mashed potatoes and gravy. The gravy is sea level and the plate is below sea level. Now think of a plate of mashed potatoes 3000 miles wide surrounded by gravy on all sides. And in certain places there are depressions in the mashed potatoes that are deeper than the top surface of the gravy.

Answer 2

It is possible for dry land to exist below sea level, as long as there is land above sea level between it and the sea to act as a wall to stop the water flowing in. Just like the sea walls in Holland.

Answer 3

say you were standing on the shore... AT sea level, then walked up an embankment away from the sea... up say, 500 feet.

now you are standing on a hill overlooking the ocean at 500 feet ABOVE sea level.

Keep walking away from the sea, now down the hill. Down 600 feet. You can no longer see the ocean, its blocked by the hill but SURPRISE! You are now 100 feet BELOW sea level.

There are many depressions in the land where the altitude is below sea level, but obviously, a lot MORE that are above.

Answer 4

The simplest explanation is that sea level is the level which the sea would be at, if the land weren't there. The shape of the earth is not quite spherical, because of the rotation about its axis, and its shape is described as an 'oblate spheroid'; bulging about 20km at the equator. In addition, the presence of the continents and the additional gravity because of their mass causes the exact shape to vary somewhat; which is described as the 'geoid]['. Further variations occur because of variations in the density of the earths crust, and the actual theoretical 'sea level' will vary slightly. Geophysicists use these slight variations when conducting 'gravity surveys'.

Answer 5

Sea level is the average height of the oceans over a given period of time. Below sea level is going under this level. THink about the grand canyon, the bottom is below sea level, but the whole canyon is not submerged by water because it is surrounded by land.

Answer 6

---____ the dash line is the sea and the straight line is the water. its a more gradual slope picture an ocean next to land. Now drive 2 miles inland and it there could be a valley that is below sea level or a dip in the ground

Answer 7

Sea level (MSL) is the average (mean) height of the sea, with reference to a suitable reference surface. Mean Sea Level are used by military Flight Surgeons and Aerospace Units to measure altitude results in two other types of altitude. True or MSL (mean sea level) is the next best measurement to absolute. MSL tells you how far you are above an imaginary line at sea level. If you then know the elevation of terrain, the next step is to determine how far you are above ground. It also tells you how thin the air is, which determines your physiological response to that altitude.

Answer 8

I think below sea level is a sea thats below something

Answer 9

Altitude is less than 0 feet, that is, lower than the seashore. In the US, Death Valley and parts of the Mississipi delta in Louisiana have altitudes of say six feet below sea level. Obviously, there must be higher areas - hills or mountains -surrounding them to keep them from flooding.