How much deeper would the oceans be without sponges?

Stupid but funny. And needs an answer

Sponges do not exert enough pressure on water to compress it. So sponges can not actually cause water to take up less volume. If you removed sponges, I imagine the ocean would probably get shallower (by maybe one-millionth the width of a hair) because you don’t have those sponges there taking up room.

Seriously, did you think about this for two seconds? Fill a bucket with water. Add a sponge. See if the water level goes down.

The answer to your next question is ‘As much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood’

Actually, if you removed the sponges, the oceans would get shallower, as Achernar said, but that doesn’t mean that they are any deeper than they would be if there never had been any sponges, since (pretty much)all of the nutrients from which the sponges are composed were already in solution and therefore part of the volume of the sea anyway (although the rea-arrangement of matter into more complex molecules may have brought about a change in volume).

“Sponges grow in the ocean…that floors me…do you realize how muich deeper the oceans would be if that didn’t happen?”–Steven Wright :smiley:

Depends what you mean by “deep” - - Bill Clinton

I love Steve Wright. But this isn’t a General Question.

This is closed.

DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator