There are so many oceans of the world, their names. Oceans of the world - complete description

Earth is the only habitable planet in the world. You can find out what the World Ocean is called, how it is located on Earth, and how it is divided into separate bodies of water by reading this article.

Continents divide the entire hydrosphere located on the surface of the earth into bodies of water that have a separate circulation system. At the same time, scientists have found that under the water column there are not only seamounts, but also rivers and their waterfalls. The ocean is not a separate part, it is directly connected with the bowels of the Earth, its bark and everything.

It is thanks to these accumulations of liquid in nature that such a phenomenon as the cycle is possible. There is a special science called oceanology, which studies the fauna and flora of the underwater depths. In terms of its geology, the bottom of the reservoir near the continents is similar to the structure of the land.

World hydrosphere and its research

What is the World Ocean called? This term was first proposed to be used by the scientist B. Varen. All bodies of water and their components together make up ocean area- most of the hydrosphere. It contains 94.1% of the entire area of ​​the hydrosphere, which is not interrupted, but is not continuous - it is limited by continents with islands and peninsulas.

Important! The world's waters have different salinity in different parts.

Area of ​​the World Ocean- 361,900,000 km². History identifies the main stage in hydrosphere research as the “Age of Discovery,” when continents, seas and islands were discovered. The voyages of the following navigators turned out to be the most important for the study of the hydrosphere:

• Ferdinand Magellan;
• James Cook;
• Christopher Columbus;
• Vasco de Gamma.

The area of ​​the World Ocean began to be intensively studied only in the 2nd part of the 20th century already using modern technologies (echolocation, diving in bathyscaphes, studies of geophysics and geology of the seabed). There were various study methods:

• using research vessels;
• conducting major scientific experiments;
• using deep-sea manned vehicles.

And the first scientific research in the 20th century began on December 22, 1872 on the Challenger corvette, and it was this that brought results that radically changed people's understanding of the structure, flora and fauna of the underwater world.

Only in the 1920s did echo sounders begin to be used, which made it possible to determine the depth in a few seconds and have a general idea of ​​​​the nature of the bottom.

Using these instruments it was possible to determine the profile of the bed, and the Gloria system could even scan the bottom in entire 60 m stripes, but given the area of ​​​​the oceans, this would take too much time.

The most major discoveries steel:

• In 1950 – 1960 discovered rocks of the earth's crust that are hidden under the water column and were able to determine their age, which seriously influenced the idea of ​​the age of the planet itself. Studying the bottom also made it possible to learn about the constant movement of lithospheric plates.
• Underwater drilling in the 1980s made it possible to thoroughly study the bottom at depths of up to 8300 m.
• studies by seismologists have provided data on suspected oil deposits and rock structure.

Thanks to research and scientific experiments, not only all the data that is known today was collected, but life at depth was also discovered. There are special scientific organizations who are still studying today.

These include various research institutes and bases, and they are characterized by territorial distribution, for example, the waters of Antarctica or the Arctic are studied by different organizations. Despite a long history of research, scientists say they currently know only 194,400 of the 2.2 million species of marine life.

Division of the hydrosphere

You can often find questions on the Internet: “ How many oceans are there on Earth 4 or more? It is generally accepted that there are only four of them, although for a long time scientists doubted whether there were 4 or 5. To accurately answer the question posed above, you should find out the history of the identification of the largest bodies of water:

1. XVIII-XIX centuries scientists identified two main, and some three, water areas;
2. 1782-1848 geographer Adriano Balbi designated 4;
3. 1937-1953 – designated 5 world water bodies, including the waters of the South, as a separate part from other seas, due to certain specific features of the waters close to Antarctica;
4. 1953-2000 scientists abandoned the definition of the Southern Waters and returned to previous statements;
5. In 2000, 5 separate water areas were finally identified, one of which is South. This position was adopted by the International Organization of Hydrographers.

Characteristics

All divisions happen based on differences in climatic conditions, hydrophysical features and salt composition of water. Each body of water has its own area, specificity and characteristics. Their names come from certain geographical features.

Quiet

Quiet is sometimes called Great because of its large size, because this is the largest ocean on Earth and the deepest. It is located between Eurasia, Australia, North and South America, and Antarctica.

Thus, it washes all existing Earths except Africa. As mentioned above, the entire hydrosphere of the Earth is connected, so it is not surprising that the water area is connected with other waters through straits.

The volume of the Pacific Ocean is 710.36 million km³, which is 53% of the total volume of world waters. Its average depth is 4280 m, and the maximum is 10994 m. The deepest place is the Mariana Trench, which was properly explored only in last 10 years.

But they never reached the bottom, because the equipment does not allow this yet. Recent studies have confirmed that even at such depths, in conditions of terrible underwater pressure and complete darkness, life still exists. The shores are unevenly populated. The most developed and largest industrial areas:

• Los Angeles and San Francisco;
• Japanese and South Korean shores;
• Australian coast.

Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean area- 91.66 million km², which makes it the largest after the Pacific, and allows it to wash the shores of Europe, both Americas and Africa. It is named after the titan named Atlas from Greek mythology. It communicates with the waters of the Indian Ocean and others, thanks to straits, and touching directly at the capes. A characteristic feature of the reservoir is a warm current and called Gulf Stream. It is thanks to him that coastal countries have a mild climate (Great Britain, France).

Despite the fact that the area of ​​the Atlantic Ocean is smaller than the Pacific Ocean, it is not inferior in the number of species of flora and fauna.

The reservoir makes up 16% of the entire hydrosphere of the Earth. The volume of its waters is 329.7 million km3, and the average depth is 3736 m, with a maximum depth of 8742 m in the Puerto Rico Trench. On its shores, the most active industrial areas are the European and American shores, as well as the South African countries. This pond is incredible important for global shipping, after all, it is through its waters that the main trade routes connecting Europe and America lie.

Indian

Indian is third largest on the surface of the Earth is a separate body of water, which received its name from the state of India, which occupies most of its coastline.

It was very famous and rich in those days when the water area was actively studied. The reservoir is located between three continents: Eurasian, Australian and African.

As for other oceans, their borders with the waters of the Atlantic are laid along the meridians, and the border with the South cannot be clearly established, since it is blurred and arbitrary. Numbers for characteristics:

1. It occupies 20% of the entire surface of the planet;
2. Area - 76.17 million km², and volume - 282.65 million km³;
3. Maximum width - about 10 thousand km;
4. The average depth is 3711 m, and the maximum is 7209 m.

Attention! The Indian waters are distinguished by high temperatures compared to other seas and water areas. Thanks to this, it is extremely rich in flora and fauna, and its warmth is due to its location in the Southern Hemisphere.

The sea routes between the four main trading platforms of the world pass through the waters.

Arctic

The Arctic Ocean is located in the north of the planet and washes only two continents: Eurasia and North America. This is the smallest ocean in area (14.75 million km²) and the coldest.

Its name was formed based on its main characteristics: its location in the North, and most of the waters are covered with drifting ice.

This water area is the least studied, since it was allocated as an independent body of water only in 1650. But at the same time, trade routes between Russia, China and America run through its waters.

Southern

The South was officially recognized only in 2000, and includes part of the waters of all the water areas listed above, except the Arctic. It surrounds Antarctica and does not have an exact northern border, so it is not possible to indicate its location. Because of these disputes about its official recognition and lack of precise boundaries, there is still no data on its average depth and other important characteristics of an individual reservoir.

How many oceans are there on Earth, names, characteristics

Continents and oceans of the Earth

Conclusion

Thanks to scientific research, today all 5 bodies of water, which make up most of the Earth’s hydrosphere, are known and examined (albeit not completely). It is worth remembering that they all communicate with each other and are an important factor in the lives of many animals, therefore their pollution will lead to an environmental disaster.

They differ in geographical location, size and shape, which affects the characteristics of their nature.

Geographical location and size of continents

Continents are distributed unevenly on the Earth's surface. In the Northern Hemisphere they occupy 39% of the surface, and in the Southern Hemisphere they occupy only 19%. For this reason, the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth is called continental, and the Southern Hemisphere is called oceanic.

Based on their position relative to the equator, continents are divided into a group of southern and a group of northern continents.

Since the continents are located at different latitudes, they receive unequal amounts of light and heat from the Sun. In shaping the nature of a continent, its area plays an important role: the larger the continent, the more areas it contains that are remote from the oceans and not affected by them. The relative position of the continents is of great geographical importance.

Geographical location and size of the oceans

The continents that separate them differ from each other in size, water properties, current systems, and features of the organic world.

And they have a similar geographical location: they stretch from the Arctic Circle to. almost entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. It has a special geographical location - it is located around the North Pole within the Arctic Circle, covered with sea ice and isolated from other oceans.

The border between continents and oceans runs along the coastline. It can be straight or rugged, that is, having many protrusions. The rugged coastlines have many seas and bays. Protruding deep into the land, they have a significant impact on the nature of the continents.

Interaction of continents and oceans

Land and water have different properties, but they are constantly in close interaction. The oceans greatly influence the natural processes on the continents, but the continents also take part in shaping the characteristics of the nature of the oceans.

Our planet is the most amazing of all the planets in near and far space.

On its surface there is a unique layer - the hydrosphere. This is the water shell of the Earth. It is found on other planets, but only on ours it is found in three states of aggregation - solid, liquid and gaseous.

In addition to water, there is land on the surface of the Earth - solid areas of the earth's crust. These areas are fragments of the cooling earth's surface. The earth can be compared to an egg - inside it there is a liquid hot mantle, and the earth's crust is just a thin shell.

The Earth's surface is heterogeneous, it has different thicknesses and is broken into “shards” - tectonic plates that move at different speeds and in different directions. Sometimes they collide and separate. At different periods of the planet’s existence, the answer to the question of how many continents there are on Earth was different, and the reason was tectonics.

More than three hundred million years ago there was only one continent - Pangea. under the influence of magmatic vortices, it split into two continents - Laurasia and Gondwana (about 200 million years ago). Only 40 million years ago the surface of the planet acquired the appearance that is familiar to us: now there are six continents on the planet:

• the largest is Eurasia;
• the hottest is Africa;
• the most elongated from north to south is North America;
• South America;
• the coldest is Antarctica;
• the smallest is Australia.

The continents are moving relative to each other and may soon connect again. For example, North America is moving towards Eurasia at a rate of about 20 mm per year.

In addition to continents, the Earth is rich in islands. The largest of them is Greenland. An island belonging to the North American tectonic plate.

More than half of the Earth's surface is covered by water - the World Ocean. On any map you can see that the entire huge body of water represents a single massif. However, science identifies several oceans.

The biota of the ocean depends on the physical parameters, therefore the flora and fauna in different parts of the World Ocean will differ.

So how to answer the question, how many oceans are there on Earth, using knowledge about the structure of our planet? Most scientists distinguish 4 oceans:

• Pacific Ocean;
• Atlantic Ocean;
• Indian Ocean;
• Arctic Ocean.

Some sources highlight a fifth ocean – the Southern Ocean. It is located in the southern hemisphere of the Earth and washes the shores of Antarctica. Opponents of its isolation believe that this ocean is the place where other oceans meet; the water masses in this part do not have time to mix, so they maintain their integrity. In any case, there is no clear definition of the number of oceans yet, but we can confidently say that there are no more than five and no less than four.

In addition to physical parameters, seas differ in size: depth, width of the water surface, coastline. For example, it has been established that the largest sea in the world in terms of surface area is the Sargasso (Atlantic Ocean basin) - an area of ​​6,000 thousand km 2, and the deepest is the Coral Sea (Pacific Ocean basin), which has a depth of 9,174 meters.

In Russia, the largest sea is the Bering Sea (the Arctic Ocean basin) - an area of ​​2315 thousand km 2.

The second name of the Earth, “blue planet,” did not appear by chance. When the first astronauts saw the planet from space, it appeared before them in exactly this color. Why did the planet appear blue and not green? Because 3/4 of the Earth's surface is the blue waters of the World Ocean.

World ocean

The world ocean is the water shell of the Earth surrounding continents and islands. Its largest parts are called oceans. There are only four oceans: , , , .

And recently they began to highlight also.

The average depth of the water column in the World Ocean is 3700 meters. The deepest point is in the Mariana Trench - 11,022 meters.

Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean, the largest among all four, got its name due to the fact that at the time when sailors under the leadership of F. Magellan crossed it, it was surprisingly quiet. The second name of the Pacific Ocean is the Great Ocean. It is truly great - it accounts for 1/2 of the waters of the World Ocean, the Pacific Ocean occupies 2/3 of the earth's surface.

Pacific coast near Kamchatka (Russia)

The waters of the Pacific Ocean are amazingly clean and transparent, most often dark blue, but sometimes green. The salinity of the water is average. Most of the time the ocean is quiet and calm, with a moderate wind blowing over it. There are almost no hurricanes here. Above the Great and Quiet there is always a clear starry sky.

Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean- the second largest after Tikhoy. The origin of its name still raises questions among scientists around the world. According to one version, the Atlantic Ocean was named after the Titan Atlas, a representative of Greek mythology. Proponents of the second hypothesis claim that it owes its name to the Atlas Mountains located in Africa. Representatives of the “youngest”, third version, believe that the Atlantic Ocean is named after the mysterious disappeared continent of Atlantis.

Gulf Stream on a map of the Atlantic Ocean.

The salinity of ocean waters is the highest. The flora and fauna are very rich; scientists are still finding interesting specimens unknown to science. Its cold part is home to such interesting fauna as whales and pinnipeds. Sperm whales and fur seals can be found in warm waters.

The uniqueness of the Atlantic Ocean is that it, or more precisely, its warm Gulf Stream, jokingly called the main European “furnace”, is “responsible” for the climate of the entire Earth.

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean, where many rare specimens of flora and fauna can be found, is the third largest. According to researchers, navigation began there about 6 thousand years ago. The first navigators were the Arabs, and they also made the first maps. It was once explored by Vasco de Gama and James Cook.

The underwater world of the Indian Ocean attracts divers from all over the world.

The waters of the Indian Ocean, clean, transparent and amazingly beautiful due to the fact that few rivers flow into it, can be dark blue and even azure.

Arctic Ocean

The smallest, coldest and least studied of all five parts of the World Ocean is located in the Arctic. The ocean began to be explored only in the 16th century, when sailors wanted to find the shortest route to rich eastern countries. The average depth of ocean waters is 1225 meters. The maximum depth is 5527 meters.

The consequences of global warming are the melting of glaciers in the Arctic. A warm current carries a detached layer of ice with polar bears into the Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Ocean is of great interest to Russia, Denmark, Norway, and Canada, since its waters are rich in fish and its subsoil is rich in natural resources. There are seals here, and birds organize noisy “bird markets” on the shores. A characteristic feature of the Arctic Ocean is that ice floes and icebergs drift along its surface.

Southern Ocean

In 2000, scientists were able to prove that a fifth of the World Ocean exists. It is called the Southern Ocean and includes the southern parts of all those oceans, except the Arctic, which wash the shores of Antarctica. This is one of the most unpredictable parts of the world's oceans. The Southern Ocean is characterized by changeable weather, strong winds, and cyclones.

The name “Southern Ocean” has been found on maps since the 18th century, but on modern maps the Southern Ocean began to be marked only in the current century - only a decade and a half ago.

The world's oceans are huge, many of its mysteries have not yet been solved, and who knows, maybe you will solve some of them?

How many oceans are there on Earth? I think even fifth-graders will immediately answer: four - and list: Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic. All?

But it turns out that the four oceans are already outdated information. Today scientists are adding a fifth to them - the Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean.

Check out this wonderful and good article:

However, the number of oceans and especially their boundaries are still a matter of debate. In 1845, the London Geographical Society decided to count five oceans on Earth: Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, Quiet, Northern And Southern, or Antarctic. This division was confirmed by the International Hydrographic Office. But even later, for a long time, some scientists continued to believe that there are only four “real” oceans on Earth: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Northern, or Arctic Ocean. (In 1935, the Soviet government approved the traditional Russian name for the Arctic Ocean - .)

So how many oceans are there really on our planet? The answer may be unexpected: on Earth there is a single World Ocean, which people, for their convenience (primarily navigation), have divided into parts. Who will confidently draw the line where the waves of one ocean end and the waves of another begin?..

We found out what oceans are. What do we call seas and how many of them are there on Earth?? After all, the first acquaintances with the water element began on the shores of the seas.

Experts call seas “parts of the World Ocean that are separated from the open ocean by mountains or simply land.” At the same time, marine regions, as a rule, differ from the oceans in meteorological conditions, that is, weather, and even climate. Oceanologists distinguish between internal seas, closed by land, and external seas, as parts of the open ocean. There are seas without shores at all, just stretches of ocean. For example, the waters between the islands.

How many seas are there on Earth? Ancient geographers believed that there were only seven seas-oceans in the world. Today, the International Hydrographic Office lists 54 seas on Earth. But this figure is not very accurate, because some seas not only do not have shores, but are also located inside other water basins, and their names remained either due to historical habit or for the convenience of navigation.

Ancient civilizations developed along the banks of rivers, and rivers (I mean large water streams) flow into seas and oceans. So from the very beginning people had to become familiar with the water element. Moreover, every great civilization of the past had its own sea. The Chinese have their own (later it turned out that this is part of). The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans had their own - the Mediterranean Sea. The Indians and Arabs have the shores of the Indian Ocean, the waters of which each people called in their own way. There were other centers of civilizations and other main seas in the world.

In ancient times, people did not know much about the world around them and therefore they attributed special mystical meanings to many unknown things. So, back in those days, when even great thinkers did not know and there were no geographical maps of the world, it was believed that there were seven seas on Earth. The number seven, according to the ancestors, was sacred. The ancient Egyptians had 7 planets in the sky. 7 days of the week, 7 years - cycle of calendar years. Among the Greeks, the number 7 was dedicated to Apollo: on the seventh day before the new moon, a sacrifice was made to him.

According to the Bible, the world was created by God in 7 days. Pharaoh dreamed of 7 fat and 7 skinny cows. Seven is found as the number of evil (7 devils). In the Middle Ages, many nations knew the story of the seven wise men.

In the ancient world, there were considered seven wonders of the world: the Egyptian pyramids, the hanging gardens of the Babylonian queen Semiramis, the lighthouse in Atexandria (III century BC), the Colossus of Rhodes, the statue of Olympian Zeus created by the great sculptor Phidias, the Ephesian temple of the goddess Artemis and the mausoleum at Hapicarnassus.

How could one manage without the sacred number in geography: were there seven hills, seven lakes, seven islands and seven seas?

We won't list everything. As a European resident (and I live in the city of St. Petersburg), I will only tell you about the main historical sea of ​​​​European civilization -.