Randall Munroe's What If? project (previously at Neatorama) received a question about draining the oceans. The original question specified a hole 20 meters in diameter for the drain. That seems big, but the draining would be too slow to even notice, especially considering the melting glaciers. Where would the water go? This is a theoretical question, so it may as well go to Mars. But if we made the hole big enough to really drain seawater, the map of the world would start to look rather weird. Since this theoretical drain is located in the Mariana Trench, it couldn't take all the earth's seawater, because there are geological formations that will trap some ocean water in large lakes. Of course, there would be mass extinctions of ocean species. But for humans, Munroe figures the Dutch will take care of controlling the diminishing water. Munroe collaborated with Henry Reich of Minute Physics to paint this picture for us. -via Laughing Squid