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Joe Blanton, director of our Research Correspondence staff, oversees the
answering of 50,000 queries and comments addressed to the National Geographic Society annually. Each week he posts answers
to three of the most interesting inquiries received online at Glad You Asked. Unfortunately, individual e-mail
replies are impossible.
Sailing, sailing ...
One thing Ive always wondered about is just what ARE the seven seas. When I try to count, I either come up with fewer than seven or more than seven, but never exactly that number. This question has been on my mind off and on since I was a child.
There are considerably more than seven seas. Youll find about fifty of them spread across the map with names such as Red and Black and Dead and Mediterranean. If youve been counting the oceans, you may have, as some do, come up with seven of those: North and South Atlantic, North and South Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, and Indian. But the phrase seven seas doesnt really correlate to present-day bodies of water. It originated in the dim recesses of antiquityno one seems to be sure when or whereapparently to encompass the waters known at that time. Incidentally, there is really only one world ocean; for convenience, most geographers divide it into four: Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Indian.
We have collected your magazine since 1985, the year we got married, and have expanded our collection to all issues since 1969. We even have a few older ones. Since we use it as a general knowledge library, we would like to know if there is an index or search system available.
Theres actually an index to National Geographic Society publications right here at National Geographic Online. Just click on the GO icon to the left of the main screens. This will lead you to a screen that lists features on our Web site. Click on the NGS Publications Index in the column under the heading Main Menu.
You may also be interested in the hardcover National Geographic Index 1888-1988 . Updates from 1989 to the present are available as well.
What is the life expectancy of a mosquito?
I consulted a colleague, who said, Not long if it lands on me! Mosquitoes, all 3,000-plus species of them, buzz the world over and transmit perhaps more diseases than any other creature. Once they leave the pupa stage of development, male mosquitoes live approximately 7 to 10 days; their female counterparts go on for up to 30 days.
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