Who is ocean

Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. What Is A Sea? What is an ocean? What is a sea? What are the seven seas? How to use ocean vs.

The Coral Sea is part of the Pacific Ocean and is one of the largest seas in the world. I love swimming in the sea and floating on the waves. I hope we get a chance to visit the ocean this summer. Looking for more explanation? Don't Get Mixed Up Again! Get Dictionary. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Are the waters you want to explore "uncharted" or "unchartered"? Let's read up before you make any plans just yet. Board on Geographic Names as the body of water extending from the coast of Antarctica to the line of latitude at 60 degrees South.

The boundaries of this ocean were proposed to the International Hydrographic Organization in However, not all countries agree on the proposed boundaries, so this has yet to be ratified by members of the IHO. The U. Home Ocean Facts How many oceans are there? The ocean is a continuous body of salt water that covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface.

Ocean currents govern the world's weather and churn a kaleidoscope of life. Humans depend on these teeming waters for comfort and survival, but global warming and overfishing threaten Earth's largest habitat.

Geographers divide the ocean into five major basins : the Pacific , Atlantic , Indian, Arctic, and Southern. Smaller ocean regions such as the Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the Bay of Bengal are called seas, gulfs, and bays.

Inland bodies of saltwater such as the Caspian Sea and the Great Salt Lake are distinct from the world's oceans. The oceans hold about million cubic miles 1. Seawater's weight is about 3. The oceans absorb the sun's heat, transferring it to the atmosphere and distributing it around the world. This conveyor belt of heat drives global weather patterns and helps regulate temperatures on land, acting as a heater in the winter and an air conditioner in the summer.

The oceans are home to millions of Earth's plants and animals—from tiny single-celled organisms to the gargantuan blue whale , the planet's largest living animal. Fish, octopuses, squid, eels, dolphins, and whales swim the open waters while crabs, octopuses, starfish, oysters, and snails crawl and scoot along the ocean bottom. Life in the ocean depends on phytoplankton, mostly microscopic organisms that float at the surface and, through photosynthesis, produce about half of the world's oxygen.

Other fodder for sea dwellers includes seaweed and kelp, which are types of algae, and seagrasses , which grow in shallower areas where they can catch sunlight. The deepest reaches of the ocean were once thought to be devoid of life, since no light penetrates beyond 1, meters 3, feet. But then hydrothermal vents were discovered. These chimney-like structures allow tube worms, clams, mussels, and other organisms to survive not via photosynthesis but chemosynthesis, in which microbes convert chemicals released by the vents into energy.

Bizarre fish with sensitive eyes, translucent flesh , and bioluminescent lures jutting from their heads lurk about in nearby waters, often surviving by eating bits of organic waste and flesh that rain down from above, or on the animals that feed on those bits. Despite regular discoveries about the ocean and its denizens, much remains unknown. More than 80 percent of the ocean is unmapped and unexplored , which leaves open the question of how many species there are yet to be discovered.

At the same time, the ocean hosts some of the world's oldest creatures: Jellyfish have been around more than half a billion years , horseshoe crabs almost as long. Other long-lived species are in crisis. The tiny, soft-bodied organisms known as coral , which form reefs mostly found in shallow tropical waters, are threatened by pollution, sedimentation, and global warming. Researchers are seeking ways to preserve fragile, ailing ecosystems such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Human activities affect nearly all parts of the ocean.