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The oceans are the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest ocean.
There are five oceans that cover just over 70% of the planet, and they are all connected together: the Atlantic Ocean; the Pacific Ocean; the Indian Ocean; the Southern Ocean; the Arctic...
What are oceans? Oceans are large bodies of salt water. They are home to a wide variety of amazing marine animals and plants and provide us with food, and water.
The oceans are an important part of Earth: they help to determine the make-up of the air, they help determine the weather and temperature, and they support great amounts of life. The composition of ocean water is unique to its location and depth.
- Overview
- Relative distribution of the oceans
An ocean is a continuous body of salt water that is contained in an enormous basin on Earth’s surface. The major oceans and their marginal seas cover nearly 71 percent of Earth’s surface, with an average depth of 3,688 metres (12,100 feet).
What are the five oceans of Earth?
The five major oceans are the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern oceans.
Which is the largest ocean on the Earth?
The Pacific is the largest ocean in both surface area and volume. The Atlantic is the next largest, and the Arctic is the smallest.
How much of the water found on Earth exists in the oceans?
Earth possesses one “world ocean.” However, those conducting oceanic research generally recognize the existence of five major oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic oceans. Arbitrary boundaries separate these bodies of water, but they are largely defined by the continents that frame them. In the Southern Hemisphere, however, 60° S latitude, which corresponds to the approximate position of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, separates the Southern Ocean from the southern portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Many subdivisions can be made to distinguish the limits of seas and gulfs that have historical, political, and sometimes ecological significance. However, water properties, ocean currents, and biological populations are not constrained by these boundaries. Indeed, many researchers do not recognize them either.
If area-volume analyses of the oceans are to be made, then boundaries must be established to separate individual regions. In 1921 Erwin Kossina, a German geographer, published tables giving the distribution of oceanic water with depth for the oceans and adjacent seas. This work was updated in 1966 by American geologist H.W. Menard and American oceanographer S.M. Smith. The latter only slightly changed the numbers derived by Kossina. This was remarkable, since the original effort relied entirely on the sparse depth measurements accumulated by individual wire soundings, while the more recent work had the benefit of acoustic depth soundings collected since the 1920s. This type of analysis, called hypsometry, allows quantification of the surface area distribution of the oceans and their marginal seas with depth.
The distribution of oceanic surface area with 5° increments of latitude shows that the distribution of land and water on Earth’s surface is markedly different in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The Southern Hemisphere may be called the water hemisphere, while the Northern Hemisphere is the land hemisphere. This is especially true in the temperate latitudes.
This asymmetry of land and water distribution between the Northern and Southern hemispheres makes the two hemispheres behave very differently in response to the annual variation in solar radiation received by Earth. The Southern Hemisphere shows only a small change in surface temperature from summer to winter at temperate latitudes. This variation is controlled primarily by the ocean’s response to seasonal changes in heating and cooling. The Northern Hemisphere has one change in surface temperature controlled by its oceanic area and another controlled by its land area. In the temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the land is much warmer than the oceanic area in summer and much colder in winter. This situation creates large-scale seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and climate in the Northern Hemisphere that are not found in the Southern Hemisphere.
Jun 16, 2024 · The Seven Seas include the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans. The exact origin of the phrase 'Seven Seas' is uncertain, although there are references in ancient literature that date back thousands of years.
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At the dawn of the world, life conquered all marine environments, from tropical waters to ice deserts, from coastal shores to the open sea. In this four part special, National Geographic takes you deep into the Kingdom of the Oceans.
