Skip to main content

The National MagLab is funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida.

The Layers of the Ocean

Learn how conditions and creatures change as you dive deep into the ocean in this interactive educational game.

Nearly 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans, holding more than 97% of all our planet’s water.

The ocean is layered, like a cake. These layers are determined by the amount of sunlight that reaches the depths. The surface layer is the Sunlight zone, where most of the visible light reaches and where heat from the sun supports abundant ocean life. The lower layers are the Twilight, Midnight, Abyssal, and Hadal zones, where light and temperature decrease dramatically, limiting the number of creatures living in these zones. But even at the very bottom, life exists. In 2005, a type of single-celled plankton was discovered in a trench southwest of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The deepest a fish has ever been found was in the Puerto Rico Trench at 27,460 feet below the surface.

How to Play:

  1. Drag and drop the animals onto the zone that you think they live in.
  2. Check your answers anytime by clicking "Check Answers." The correct animals will be highlighted in green with a check mark, and the incorrect ones will be highlighted in red.
  3. You can keep moving animals around after getting them wrong, and check your answers as many times as you need.
  4. Click "More Info" on each animal card to learn more about that animal.
  5. Click "Toggle Hint" if you're stuck. The hint will only help with half of the cards, but it's random every time, so try turning the hint on and off to see different cards light up.

Some creatures can live in multiple zones, and some may surprise you! For game purposes, we've assigned each creature to only one zone.