Chapter 14
The Black CurrentTHE PART OF THE planet earth that the seas occupy has been
assessed at 3,832,558 square myriameters, hence more than
38,000,000,000 hectares. This liquid mass totals 2,250,000,000
cubic miles and could form a sphere with a diameter of sixty
leagues, whose weight would be three quintillion metric tons. To
appreciate such a number, we should remember that a quintillion is
to a billion what a billion is to one, in other words, there are as
many billions in a quintillion as ones in a billion! Now then, this
liquid mass nearly equals the total amount of water that has poured
through all the earth's rivers for the past 40,000 years!
During prehistoric times, an era of fire was followed by an era
of water. At first there was ocean everywhere. Then, during t
