What oceans exist in the world? Earth and its oceans. The rest of the earth's oceans and their number

21.09.2019

However, just recently...

... in 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization combined the southern Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, creating a fifth addition to the list - the Southern Ocean. And this is not a volitional decision: this region has a special structure of currents, its own rules of weather formation, etc. The arguments in favor of such a decision are as follows: in the southern part of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, the boundaries between them are very arbitrary, while at the same time the waters adjacent to Antarctica, have their own specifics, and are also united by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The largest of the oceans is the Pacific. Its area is 178.7 million km2. .

The Atlantic Ocean extends over 91.6 million km 2.

The area of the Indian Ocean is 76.2 million km2.

The area of the Antarctic (Southern) Ocean is 20.327 million km 2.

The Arctic Ocean covers an area of approximately 14.75 million km2.

Pacific Ocean , the largest on Earth. It was named so by the famous navigator Magellan. This traveler was the first European to successfully cross the ocean. But Magellan was just very lucky. There are very often terrible storms here.

The Pacific Ocean is twice the size of the Atlantic. It occupies 165 million square meters. km, which is almost half the area of the entire World Ocean. It contains more than half of all the water on our planet. In one place, this ocean extends 17 thousand km in width, stretching almost half globe. Despite its name, this huge ocean is not only blue, beautiful and serene. Strong storms or underwater earthquakes make him furious. In fact, the Pacific Ocean is home to large zones of seismic activity.

Photographs of the Earth from space show the true size of the Pacific Ocean. This one big ocean occupies one third of the planet's surface. Its waters extend from East Asia and Africa to America. At its shallowest points, the depth of the Pacific Ocean averages 120 meters. These waters wash the so-called continental shelves, which are submerged parts of continental platforms, starting from the coastline and gradually going under water. Overall, the depth of the Pacific Ocean averages 4,000 meters. The depressions in the west connect into the deepest and darkest place in the world - the Mariana Trench - 11,022 m. It was previously believed that there was no life at such depths. But scientists found living organisms there too!

The Pacific Plate, a huge area of the Earth's crust, contains ridges of high seamounts. In the Pacific Ocean there are many islands of volcanic origin, for example Hawaii, the largest island of the Hawaiian Islands archipelago. Hawaii is home to the highest peak in the world, Mauna Kea. It is an extinct volcano 10,000 meters high from its base on the seabed. In contrast to volcanic islands, there are low-lying islands formed by coral deposits that have been deposited over thousands of years on the tops of underwater volcanoes. This vast ocean is home to a wide variety of underwater species - from the world's largest fish (whale shark) to flying fish, squid and sea lions. The warm, shallow waters of coral reefs are home to thousands of species of brightly colored fish and algae. All kinds of fish, marine mammals, mollusks, crustaceans and other creatures swim in the cool, deep waters.

Pacific Ocean - people and history

Sea voyages across the Pacific Ocean have been undertaken since ancient times. About 40,000 years ago, Aboriginal people crossed by canoe from New Guinea to Australia. Centuries later between the 16th century BC. e. and X century AD e. Polynesian tribes settled the Pacific islands, venturing across vast distances of water. This is considered one of the greatest achievements in the history of navigation. Using special canoes with double bottom and sails woven from leaves, Polynesian sailors ultimately covered almost 20 million square meters. km of ocean space. In the western Pacific, around the 12th century, the Chinese made great advances in the art of sea navigation. They were the first to use large ships with multiple underwater masts, steering, and compasses.

Europeans began exploring the Pacific Ocean in the 17th century, when the Dutch captain Abel Janszoon Tasman sailed around Australia and New Zealand in his ship. Captain James Cook is considered one of the most famous explorers of the Pacific Ocean. Between 1768 and 1779 he mapped New Zealand, the east coast of Australia and many of the Pacific islands. In 1947, the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed on his raft “Kon-Tiki” from the coast of Peru to the Tuamotu archipelago, part of French Polynesia. His expedition provided evidence that the ancient indigenous inhabitants of South America could cross vast sea distances on rafts.

In the twentieth century, exploration of the Pacific Ocean continued. The depth of the Mariana Trench was established, and unknown species of marine animals and plants were discovered. Development of the tourism industry, pollution environment and beach development threaten the natural balance of the Pacific Ocean. Governments of individual countries and groups of environmentalists are trying to minimize the harm caused by our civilization to the aquatic environment.

Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean is the third largest on Earth and covers 73 million square meters. km. This is the warmest ocean, the waters of which are rich in various flora and fauna. The deepest place in the Indian Ocean is a trench located south of the island of Java. Its depth is 7450 m. Interestingly, currents in the Indian Ocean change their direction to the opposite direction twice a year. In winter, when the monsoons prevail, the current goes to the shores of Africa, and in the summer - to the shores of India.

The Indian Ocean stretches from the coast of East Africa to Indonesia and Australia and from the coast of India to Antarctica. This ocean includes the Arabian and Red Seas, as well as the Bays of Bengal and the Persian Gulf. The Suez Canal connects the northern part of the Red Sea with the Mediterranean.

At the bottom of the Indian Ocean there are huge sections of the earth's crust - the African Plate, the Antarctic Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. Shifts in the earth's crust cause underwater earthquakes, which cause giant waves called tsunamis. As a result of earthquakes, new mountain ranges appear on the ocean floor. In some places, seamounts protrude above the surface of the water, forming most of the islands scattered in the Indian Ocean. There are deep depressions between the mountain ranges. For example, the depth of the Sunda Trench is approximately 7450 meters. The waters of the Indian Ocean are home to a variety of wildlife, including corals, sharks, whales, turtles and jellyfish. Powerful currents are huge streams of water moving through the warm blue expanses of the Indian Ocean. The Western Australian Current carries cold Antarctic waters north to the tropics.

The equatorial current, located below the equator, circulates warm water counterclockwise. Northern currents depend on the monsoon winds that cause heavy rainfall, which change their direction depending on the time of year.

Indian Ocean - people and history

Sailors and traders plied the waters of the Indian Ocean many centuries ago. Ships of the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians and Indians passed along the main trade routes. In the early Middle Ages, settlers from India and Sri Lanka crossed into Southeast Asia. Since ancient times, wooden ships called dhows sailed the Arabian Sea, carrying exotic spices, African ivory and textiles.

In the 15th century, the great Chinese navigator Zhen Huo led a large expedition across the Indian Ocean to the shores of India, Sri Lanka, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. In 1497, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama became the first European whose ship sailed around the southern tip of Africa and reached the shores of India. English, French and Dutch traders followed, and the era of colonial conquest began. Over the centuries, new settlers, traders and pirates have landed on the islands in the Indian Ocean. Many species of island animals that lived nowhere else in the world became extinct. For example, the dodo, a goose-sized flightless pigeon native to Mauritius, was exterminated by end of XVII century. Giant turtles on Rodrigues Island have disappeared 19th century. Exploration of the Indian Ocean continued in the 19th and 20th centuries. Scientists have done a great job mapping the topography of the seabed. Currently, Earth satellites launched into orbit take pictures of the ocean, measure its depth and transmit information messages.

Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean is the second largest and covers an area of 82 million square meters. km. It is almost half the size of the Pacific Ocean, but its size is constantly increasing. From the island of Iceland to the south in the middle of the ocean a powerful underwater ridge stretches. Its peaks are the Azores and Ascension Island. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a large mountain range on the ocean floor, is becoming wider each year by about an inch. The deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean is a trench located north of the island of Puerto Rico. Its depth is 9218 meters. If 150 million years ago there was no Atlantic Ocean, then over the next 150 million years, scientists suggest, it will begin to occupy more than half of the globe. The Atlantic Ocean greatly influences the climate and weather in Europe.

The Atlantic Ocean began to form 150 million years ago, when shifts in the Earth's crust separated North and South America from Europe and Africa. This youngest of the oceans is named after the god Atlas, who was worshiped by the ancient Greeks.

Ancient peoples, such as the Phoenicians, began exploring the Atlantic Ocean around the 8th century BC. e. However, only in the 9th century AD. e. The Vikings managed to reach from the shores of Europe to Greenland and North America. The “golden age” of Atlantic exploration began with Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator who served the Spanish monarchs. In 1492, his small squadron of three ships entered the Caribbean Gulf after a long storm. Columbus believed that he was sailing to the East Indies, but in fact he discovered the so-called New World- America. He was soon followed by other sailors from Portugal, Spain, France and England. The study of the Atlantic Ocean continues to this day. Currently, scientists use echolocation (sound waves) to map the topography of the seabed. Many countries fish in the Atlantic Ocean. People have fished these waters for thousands of years, but modern fishing by trawlers has led to a significant reduction in fishing schools. The seas surrounding the oceans are polluted with waste. The Atlantic Ocean continues to play a huge role in international trade. Many important trade sea routes pass through it.

Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean, which is located between Canada and Siberia, is the smallest and shallowest compared to the others. But it is also the most mysterious, since it is almost completely hidden under a huge layer of ice. The Arctic Ocean is divided into two basins by the Nansen Threshold. The Arctic basin is larger in area and contains the greatest ocean depth. It is equal to 5000 m and is located north of Franz Josef Land. In addition, here, off the Russian coast, there is an extensive continental shelf. For this reason, our Arctic seas, namely: Kara, Barents, Laptev, Chukotka, East Siberian, are shallow.

Today, the entire world ocean is considered to consist of five oceans. Their Russian names:
QUIET (aka EASTERN or GREAT)
ATLANTIC
INDIAN
NORTH ARCTIC (aka SIBERIAN or ARCTIC)
SOUTH.

The word OCEAN itself has a Semitic etymology. It contains the root OKE and the suffix AN. This Semitic suffix means the same as the Germanic suffix ER, from which the Russian suffix Арь comes.
The root OKE is a distortion - required by euphony - from the root OKO, which means "round, around or around." In particular, EYE is an EYE because it is round. WINDOW is not round, but it is like an eye, since it is intended to allow you to see something from the hut. Once upon a time, few people had the opportunity to build a hut with large windows. The peasants did not have glass, much less one as wide and as accessible to everyone as it is today. The small window was covered with a bull's bladder for the winter, which still provided at least a little daylight in the hut.
The word OKO comes from the shortening of the Russian word OKOLO, which in turn is derived from the Aramaic word OKOL, which means “round”. This Aramaic word OKOL is a corruption of the Hebrew word AGOL "round". All Aramaic dialects of Hebrew speech are dialects of a very corrupted Hebrew language. Many modern languages of the Middle East represent various Aramaic dialects of the Hebrew language that have now crystallized into independent languages.
Once again I emphasize the difference in the meanings of the words “language” and “speech”. LANGUAGE already has its own strict rules, and only SPEECH may not yet have established, fairly clear standards of correctness in word formation and in the construction of phrases
Flattened, round baskets, similar to the current berets that are worn on people's heads, were used in the ancient oil mills of the Near and Middle East. In Aramaic, such a basket was called OKOL for its shape, round even in silhouette. From the word OKOL many words come from both in Russian and in other languages: - about, okolitsa, okolishek, okular, etc. etc. In Russian, the sound O at the beginning of the root OKOL began to be perceived as a prefix. As a result of this, the Russian root KOL appeared, from which another greater diversity words General sign theirs remained the same - something connected in meaning with something round or circular: These are the words: stake, block (wooden, usually round), well (not even necessarily round anymore), wheel, rut (left by wheels), ring, chain mail (consists of rings), brace, brace, etc.
The word OCEAN meant that the entire once hypothetical Earth's land was surrounded by water, an endless sea. The sea current, very noticeable in Europe, off the western shores of the Earth's land, gave rise to the idea that this current continues AROUND the whole world and is something like a river on these sea shores. Hence the mythological idea of such a “RIVER-OCEAN”.
Although the word OCEAN is of purely Hebrew origin, in modern Hebrew they say not OCEAN, but OCEANUS - as if this word was borrowed into Hebrew, and not vice versa. For some reason this is the basis of the entire policy of the Hebrew Language Academy in Israel. For example, on student maps the KASPI(yskoe) sea is only in lately sometimes they try to write with the letter Kuf, not Kaf. Somewhere “out there...” they are afraid that the students will ask too many questions about, for example, why does this sea seem to have a Hebrew name [meaning “Silver”]? And why was it called the Khazar Sea? And what is this suspicious word: Khazars(m)? What is this connected with, and is this a Hebrew word, like the names of other seas closest to the CASPI Sea: AZOV (skoe), CRIMEA (skoe), ARAL (skoe), SHEM (skoe)?
Why is it that somehow suspiciously many of the most noticeable names on the globe are strikingly similar to Hebrew words - both in sound and in meaning? We’re not supposed to know and understand the true history even here?! Why is the topic of the “lost tribes of Israel” so hushed up? Is it not due to confessional differences among the Jews themselves?!

Let's be curious what is written about the origin of the word OCEAN in the Nazi four-volume book Etymological dictionary Russian language:
from Genosse M. Vasmer, who was elevated to the rank of Soviet academician after the war - this was a fascist wise guy who was once extremely highly placed by Hitler.
"ocean, gen. p. -a, folk. kiyan-sea in fairy tales and spells (Dal), ancient Russian, old Slav. ocean...... (Izb. St. 1073, John Ex.; see Srezn. II, 641). From Greek ...... “sea, ocean” (Homer, Hesiod); see Vasmer, Gr.-sl. this. 133; Convert I, 642."
“Explained”!
I am not even able to reprint his much longer (and in the same spirit) “explanation” of the origin of the word OKO - for technical reasons. But I highly recommend sometimes looking into this very amusing storehouse of Great German erudition.

SOUTH
Derived from the word SOUTH “river”, which is in the vocabulary of the indigenous, Mongoloid population on the northern coast Eastern Europe. Throughout Rus' this word SOUTH, but in the sense of a geographical direction, spread through the Rakhdonites. They were Jews - fur buyers - explorers from the Khazar metropolis, which was located on the shores of the warm seas of Eastern Europe. The routes of the Rakhdonites passed along the rivers both in the summer, on water on boats or rafts, and in the winter, on snow-covered ice. The direction upriver means in the far north the direction towards the midday sun - the direction along the main northern rivers. Therefore, the native word YUG “river”, convenient at least because it is very short, received from the Rakhdonites, and later from the Rus, the semantic meaning that it has since then in Russian speech.

NORTHERN
The root NORTH comes from the Hebrew word SAVIR. The name Severskaya Land is a distorted name: Savirskaya Land, the land of the Savirs. The Khazars called their still semi-wild neighbors, who inhabited the territories towards the midday shadow of the Khazar settlements, Savirs. Both the word Khazars and the word Savir are Jewish. They did not primarily belong to the Jewish population of Eastern Europe. The word ""savirs"" can be translated as a common noun, condescending towards semi-wild neighbors (low cultured, uncivilized) - "acceptable, tolerant, tolerable." The word SAVIRY gradually began to be perceived as an insult and therefore fell out of use. The word KHAZARS “returning” acquired a completely different meaning, and, as a contrast to the meaning of the word SAVIRS, began to mean something honorable, sublime, sacred. In the end, this word also fell out of use as a result of the fact that the situation reached the point of catastrophic friction between the Khazars themselves, in disputes about which of them were the “true Khazars.” Gradually, basically the entire population of south-eastern Europe, starting with the first Jews deported to foreign countries - educators of the aborigines - began to proudly call themselves Khazars. Therefore, this word itself has ceased to mean hallmark Khazars in relation to each other, that is, in relation to all those whose ancestors were once not considered Khazars. Initially, the word KHAZARS had a literal meaning in Hebrew - “returning” (to their biblical ancestral home) and referred only to Jews who “temporarily settled” among the local population. More civilized than the aborigines, they became role models. The original meaning of the word seemed to fade into the shadow of a new meaning - cultural, civilized (in modern terminology). Gradually, the entire population in areas of noticeable Khazar influence wanted to be considered Khazars. The Khazars settled more or less densely over the vast expanses of Eurasia - between all four oceans washing it. This is evidenced by the Hebrew etymologies of the names of their state formations: - kaganates, khanates. (More details on this can be found in my other articles published previously).

ICY
Derived word from the root ICE.
The letter Y did not appear in the Russian alphabet until the 19th century. The sound Yo - in fact, the diphthong YE, IE - originally existed in Russian speech, but it was problematic to clearly write words pronounced approximately with such sounds, and everyone tried to denote this diphthong in different ways. Karamzin has long been considered the person who first introduced the letter Yo into Russian letter. This is supposedly connected with the episode when in one of his poems Karamzin first wrote the word TEARS, but in a later edition of these poems he allegedly thought of writing it differently: TEARS. The word ICE, apparently, was previously tried to be written and pronounced as LIOD, and as LEOD. This word is a distortion of its more ancient sound - LEOT and, even more ancient - LEAT. The word LEAT is Hebrew. It can be translated as "be careful! slow down!" This was a typical shout of the Rakhdonites to each other, for example, when lowering a loaded sleigh down a slope from the shore onto the ice, and in general when there was a fear of falling through the ice, slipping into the ice down the slope, slipping, falling, breaking, losing the load, the horse, or life itself. A heterogeneous population remembered this word in association with its current meaning: ICE (sounding LEOD). In this sense, the root ICE entered the once very small core vocabulary of the future Russian language, which was only slowly emerging in a similar way.

SIBERIAN
One of the ancient names of the same ocean. The word SIBERIA comes from the same Hebrew word SAVIR. Siberia, Savir, Saviria meant the hypothetical ancestral home of all sorts of immigrants from somewhere in the East. From the direction of sunrise, all sorts of Mongoloid, mostly semi-wild nomads always migrated towards sunset, whom in Khazar times the old-timers of the future Rus' condescendingly began to call in Hebrew “Savirs”. (More details in “Riddles of the Russian Arctic”).

INDIAN
The word comes from the root IND, which is a distortion of the pronunciation of the German word END ‘end’. The country of India and the Indus River were not called that by anyone until the 16th century. Before Vasco da Gama reached this subcontinent, Europe had no idea what was east of Africa, the outlines of which on the globe - at least only very approximately - were unknown to Europeans. The Indies (or Indians) in Europe were called any “ends of the world” beyond any sea, except for inland seas.
However, in the Middle East, Jews already in ancient times had good trade relations with India, which can be read about in “Antiquities of the Jews” by Josephus. But among the Jews these lands were and are called differently, by the word HODU.
Only vague rumors about some semi-fairy-tale country located somewhere on the southern edge of the Earth (which Europeans called the mysterious word India, or India) reached Europe - in ancient times through Jewish merchants, and in the Middle Ages through Jewish merchants. Arabs.

QUIET
The Russian root TIH arose as a weak distortion of the stressed syllable in the Hebrew word lehashtik ""to calm down"". It was the familiar, often repeated exclamation of the Rakhdonite merchant to the crowd of curious people gathered around his goods when he appeared in the next village. In Khazar times, mainly Jewish merchants visited heterogeneous villages along the basin of a river on their boat with goods. In each of them they spoke their own local gibberish, incomprehensible even in neighboring villages. Those of the incomprehensible words of the merchant's vocabulary that were somehow remembered by his heterogeneous customers in distant villages became part of the vocabulary that was generally understood in trade and other communications between villages throughout the basin of any large river, for example, the Volga. Those words that spread throughout the entire future Rus' gradually formed a very small core of the main vocabulary of any future language in those parts, primarily the Russian language. The root TIH is one of these words.

Before the establishment of Soviet Power in Russia, the Pacific Ocean was officially called the Eastern Ocean. This word also has a Hebrew etymology, very interesting, but rather complex. I don’t want to repeat my long and far-reaching story about her here. This word and the origin of other Russian-language names for oceans are described in more detail in my “Riddles of the Russian Arctic”.

ATLANTIC
This name of the ocean, chronologically the first of the oceans familiar to Europeans, comes from the word ATLANT. It is derived from the Greek words ATLAS and ATHLETE. In these words their parts: ANT, AS and ET are etymologically similar, identical in semantic meaning suffixes of various Mediterranean dialects, ATL - root. In it, the sound A is a former article. The language of the Phoenicians was Hebrew, since the Phoenicians are the Pomeranian population of the ancient Jews. The most ancient root in the name of the western ocean is T-L. From the same root comes the Russian words: TELESA, TELESNIY, BODY, WAIST, PRITULITIT, VTULKA, TELKA, CALF.. In the first of them one can feel Greek origin suffix EU, which comes from the Hebrew suffix (e)T. Root T-L here - the oldest, and this, of course, is not only a Semitic, but precisely a Hebrew root. From this root Tav-Lamed comes the word TALIT, otherwise TALES. This is a cape over the BODY - the oldest attribute of a religious Jew.
In a long chain of foreign, subsequent distortions of pronunciation from the Hebrew suffix -T occur very different suffixes many languages, including already very different suffixes of the Russian language. This is a big, separate topic.

ATLANTS, or ATLAS - this is the name given to two mountains supported by clouds, between which there is an exit to the ocean from the Mediterranean Sea. One of the names of this sea, and not a very ancient one: - the Sea of Shema, - that is, the Semitic Sea. This is how it is indicated on the medieval map, shown even in latest Encyclopedia for children. (Volume “Geography”, p. 50, Moscow, “Avanta+”, 1994).
The two mountains mentioned belong to the ATLAS mountains. This name for the mountains located in northwestern Africa is explained by the fact that during the time of the Phoenicians, natives of amazingly tall stature and very large physique lived in those parts. In Africa, to this day, there live tribes that are anthropologically very different. Those giants (as they say, ""in the body")" were called by the Phoenicians and then by the Lydians, Greeks, and Etruscans aTLets, aTLants, aTLas "(who are ""in the body")." The mountains where they were seen were called ATLAS, after the name of those giants. The ocean that begins beyond the passage between Atlas began to be called the Atlantic. The word OCEAN itself appeared due to the fact that already in ancient times, sailors discovered that the shores of the boundless water surface seemed to circle the world's land in a CIRCLE. At the same time, there is a very noticeable sea current off the coast, along the entire reach of the ocean coastline at that time. Hence the ancient myths about the “River-Ocean”.

Almost 95% of all water on Earth is salty and unfit for consumption. Seas, oceans and salt lakes are made of it. Collectively, all this is called the World Ocean. Its area is three quarters of the entire area of the planet.

The World Ocean - what is it?

The names of the oceans have been familiar to us since junior school. These are the Pacific, otherwise called the Great, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic. All of them together are called the World Ocean. Its area is more than 350 million km2. This is a huge territory even on a planetary scale.

The continents divide the World Ocean into four oceans known to us. Each of them has its own characteristics, its own unique underwater world, varying depending on the climate zone, current temperature and bottom topography. A map of the oceans shows that they are all connected to each other. None of them are surrounded by land on all sides.

The science that studies the oceans is oceanology

How do we know that seas and oceans exist? Geography is a school subject that first introduces us to these concepts. But a special science - oceanology - deals with a more in-depth study of the oceans. She considers water expanses as an integral natural object, studies the biological processes occurring inside it, and its connection with other constituent elements of the biosphere.

This science studies the ocean depths to achieve the following goals:

increasing the efficiency and ensuring the safety of underwater and surface navigation;
optimization of the use of mineral resources of the ocean floor;
maintaining the biological balance of the oceanic environment;
improvement of meteorological forecasts.

How did the modern names of the oceans come about?

Every geographical feature is given a name for a reason. Any name has certain historical background or is associated with characteristic features one or another territory. Let's find out when and how the names of the oceans came about and who came up with them.

Atlantic Ocean. The works of the ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo described this ocean, calling it Western. Later, some scientists called it the Hesperides Sea. This is confirmed by a document dated 90 BC. Already in the ninth century AD, Arab geographers announced the name “Sea of Darkness”, or “Sea of Darkness”. This strange name received because of the clouds of sand and dust that were raised above him by the winds constantly blowing from the African continent. The modern name was first used in 1507, after Columbus reached the shores of America. Officially, this name was established in geography in 1650. scientific works Bernhard Waren.
The Pacific Ocean was named so by a Spanish navigator. Despite the fact that it is quite stormy and there are often storms and tornadoes, during Magellan’s expedition, which lasted a year, the weather was constantly good and calm, and this was a reason to think that the ocean was really quiet and calm. When the truth was revealed, no one began to rename the Pacific Ocean. In 1756, the researcher Bayush proposed calling him the Great, since it largest ocean of all. To this day, both of these names are used.
The reason for giving the name was the many ice floes drifting in its waters, and, of course, the geographical location. Its second name - Arctic - comes from the Greek word “arktikos”, which means “northern”.
With the name of the Indian Ocean, everything is extremely simple. India is one of the first countries known Ancient world. The waters that wash its shores were named after her.

Four Oceans

How many oceans are there on the planet? This question seems to be the simplest, but for many years it has been causing discussions and debates among oceanologists. The standard list of oceans looks like this:

2. Indian.

3. Atlantic.

4. Arctic.

But since ancient times, there has been another opinion, according to which there is a fifth ocean - the Antarctic, or Southern. Arguing this decision, oceanologists cite as evidence the fact that the waters washing the shores of Antarctica are very unique and the system of currents in this ocean differs from the rest of the water expanses. Not everyone agrees with this decision, so the problem of dividing the World Ocean remains relevant.

The characteristics of the oceans vary depending on many factors, although they may all appear to be the same. Let's get to know each of them and find out the most important information about all of them.

Pacific Ocean

It is also called Great because it has the largest area among all. The Pacific Ocean basin occupies slightly less than half the area of all the world's waters and is equal to 179.7 million km².

It consists of 30 seas: Japan, Tasman, Java, South China, Okhotsk, Philippines, New Guinea, Savu Sea, Halmahera Sea, Koro Sea, Mindanao Sea, Yellow Sea, Visayan Sea, Aki Sea, Solomonovo, Bali Sea, Samair Sea, Coral, Banda, Sulu, Sulawesi, Fiji, Maluku, Comotes, Seram Sea, Flores Sea, Sibuyan Sea, East China Sea, Bering Sea, Amudesen Sea. All of them occupy 18% of the total area of the Pacific Ocean.

It is also a leader in the number of islands. There are about 10 thousand of them. The largest islands in the Pacific Ocean are New Guinea and Kalimantan.

The subsoil of the seabed contains more than a third of the world's reserves of natural gas and oil, active production of which occurs mainly in the shelf areas of China, the United States of America and Australia.

Many transport routes pass through the Pacific Ocean, connecting Asian countries with South and North America.

Atlantic Ocean

It is the second largest in the world, and this is clearly demonstrated by the map of the oceans. Its area is 93,360 thousand km 2. The Atlantic Ocean basin contains 13 seas. They all have a coastline.

An interesting fact is that in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean there is the fourteenth sea - Sargasovo, called the sea without shores. Its boundaries are ocean currents. It is considered the largest sea in the world by area.

Another feature of this ocean is the maximum influx of fresh water, which is provided by the large rivers of North and South America, Africa and Europe.

In terms of the number of islands, this ocean is the complete opposite of the Pacific. There are very few of them here. But it is in the Atlantic Ocean that the largest island on the planet, Greenland, and the most remote island, Bouvet, are located. Although sometimes Greenland is classified as an island of the Arctic Ocean.

Indian Ocean

Interesting facts about the third largest ocean by area will make us even more surprised. The Indian Ocean was the first known and explored. He is the guardian of the largest coral reef complex.

The waters of this ocean hold a secret that has not yet been properly explored. The fact is that luminous circles periodically appear on the surface correct form. According to one version, this is the glow of plankton rising from the depths, but their ideal spherical shape still remains a mystery.

Not far from the island of Madagascar you can see one of a kind natural phenomenon- underwater waterfall.

Now some facts about the Indian Ocean. Its area is 79,917 thousand km 2. The average depth is 3711 m. It washes 4 continents and includes 7 seas. Vasco da Gama is the first explorer to sail across the Indian Ocean.

Interesting facts and characteristics of the Arctic Ocean

It is the smallest and coldest of all the oceans. Area - 13,100 thousand km 2. It is also the shallowest, the average depth of the Arctic Ocean is only 1225 m. It consists of 10 seas. In terms of the number of islands, this ocean ranks second after the Pacific.

The central part of the ocean is covered with ice. Floating ice floes and icebergs are observed in the southern regions. Sometimes you can find whole ice sheets 30-35 m thick. It was here that the infamous Titanic crashed after colliding with one of them.

Despite the harsh climate, the Arctic Ocean is home to many species of animals: walruses, seals, whales, seagulls, jellyfish and plankton.

Depth of the oceans

We already know the names of the oceans and their features. But which ocean is the deepest? Let's look into this issue.

A contour map of the oceans and ocean floor shows that the bottom topography is as diverse as the topography of the continents. Under the thickness of sea water there are hidden depressions, depressions and elevations like mountains.

The average depth of all four oceans combined is 3700 m. The deepest is the Pacific Ocean, the average depth of which is 3980 m, followed by the Atlantic - 3600 m, followed by the Indian - 3710 m. The latest in this list, as already mentioned, is is the Arctic Ocean, the average depth of which is only 1225 m.

Salt is the main feature of ocean waters

Everyone knows the difference between sea and ocean water and fresh river water. Now we will be interested in such a characteristic of the oceans as the amount of salt. If you think that the water is equally salty everywhere, you are very mistaken. The concentration of salt in ocean waters can vary significantly even within a few kilometers.

The average salinity of ocean waters is 35 ‰. If we consider this indicator separately for each ocean, then the Arctic is the least salty of all: 32 ‰. Pacific Ocean - 34.5 ‰. The salt content in the water here is reduced due to large quantity precipitation, especially in the equatorial zone. Indian Ocean - 34.8 ‰. Atlantic - 35.4 ‰. It is important to note that bottom waters have a lower salt concentration than surface waters.

The saltiest seas in the World Ocean are the Red Sea (41 ‰), the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf (up to 39 ‰).

World Ocean Records

The deepest place in the World Ocean is its depth of 11,035 m from the surface water level.
If we consider the depth of the seas, the Philippine Sea is considered the deepest. Its depth reaches 10,540 m. The second place in this indicator is the Coral Sea with a maximum depth of 9,140 m.
The largest ocean is the Pacific. Its area is larger than the area of the entire earth's land.
The saltiest sea is the Red Sea. It is located in the Indian Ocean. Salt water supports all objects that fall into it well, and in order to drown in this sea, you need to try very hard.
The most mysterious place is located in the Atlantic Ocean, and its name is Bermuda Triangle. There are many legends and mysteries associated with it.
The most poisonous sea creature is the blue-ringed octopus. It lives in the Indian Ocean.
The largest coral aggregation in the world - Big barrier reef, is located in the Pacific Ocean.

World ocean- the main part of the hydrosphere, a continuous but not continuous water shell of the Earth, surrounding continents and islands and characterized by a common salt composition. The world's oceans are a heat regulator. The world's oceans have the richest food, mineral and energy resources. Although the World Ocean is a single whole, for the convenience of research, its individual parts are given different names: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Northern Arctic Oceans and Yuzhny.

Ocean and atmosphere. The world's oceans, whose average depth is approx. 4 km, contains 1350 million km3 of water. The atmosphere envelops the entire Earth in a layer several hundred kilometers thick, with much large base than the World Ocean, can be considered as a “shell”. Both the ocean and the atmosphere are fluid environments in which life exists; their properties determine the habitat of organisms. The ocean determines the basic properties of the atmosphere and is a source of energy for many processes occurring in the atmosphere. The circulation of water in the ocean is influenced by winds, the Earth's rotation, and land barriers.

Ocean and climate. It is well known that temperature regime and other climatic characteristics of the area at any latitude can change significantly in the direction from the ocean coast to the interior of the continent. Compared to land, the ocean warms more slowly in summer and cools more slowly in winter, smoothing out temperature fluctuations on the adjacent land.

Composition of sea water. The water in the ocean is salty. The salty taste is given by the 3.5% dissolved minerals it contains - mainly sodium and chlorine compounds - the main ingredients of table salt. The next most abundant is magnesium, followed by sulfur; All the usual metals are also present. Of the non-metallic components, calcium and silicon are especially important, since they are involved in the structure of the skeletons and shells of many marine animals. Due to the fact that the water in the ocean is constantly mixed by waves and currents, its composition is almost the same in all oceans.

Properties of sea water. The density of sea water (at a temperature of 20 ° C and a salinity of about 3.5%) is approximately 1.03, i.e., slightly higher than the density of fresh water (1.0). The density of water in the ocean varies with depth due to the pressure of the overlying layers, as well as depending on temperature and salinity. In the deepest parts of the ocean, waters tend to be saltier and colder. The densest masses of water in the ocean can remain at depth and maintain a low temperature for more than 1000 years.

Sea water is much less transparent to visible light compared to air, but more transparent than most other substances. The penetration of solar rays into the ocean to a depth of 700 m has been recorded. Radio waves penetrate into the water column only to a small depth, but sound waves can travel thousands of kilometers under water. The speed of sound in seawater varies, averaging 1500 m per second.