In 1999, the National Geography Society officially recognized the Southern Ocean, though it is not yet recognized by all countries. This is how most maps described the world’s bodies of water until the year 1999. The above map of the world oceans lists only four different oceans. This ocean is considered to be less scientifically understood than the others because of its remote location and inhospitable climate. This is also the ocean that may be most likely to experience severe changes due to climate change because of the large amounts of ice cover found in the area. The world’s smallest ocean, the Arctic Ocean is centered around the North Pole and is home to freezing waters and hostile weather patterns. There is a wide variety of coastal environments to be found around this ocean, among which is the world’s most tectonically active in southern Pakistan. The southern limit of the Indian Ocean isn’t widely agreed upon some authorities state that the ocean extends to the coast of Antarctica, while others define its southern border as latitude 60°S. This ocean sits beneath the Asian continent, in between Africa to the west and Australia to the east. It is sometimes divided into the North and South Atlantic Oceans. The shape of this ocean makes it unique from the others - it is much longer than it is wide, and it takes on an “S” shape. The name of this ocean comes from Greek mythology and means “Sea of Atlas.” It covers one fifth of the Earth’s surface and separates the American continents from Europe and Africa. There are sometimes references to the North and South Pacific Oceans. The explorer decided on the name, which means peaceful, after sailing through a calm patch of the ocean, but this isn’t the most accurate description - the Pacific Ocean is home to violent hurricanes, the Mariana Trench, and many earthquakes. Named by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1502, it borders the continents of Asia and Australia to the west and the Americas to the east. The Pacific is the world’s largest and deepest ocean. These boundaries are mostly static and based on continental boundaries as well as latitude and longitude lines, but the currents, wildlife, and weather patterns in the world’s oceans are constantly changing. The five oceans we now commonly speak of do have official boundaries that have been set by the International Hydrographic Organization. It is only recently that most of the world agreed to recognize five world oceans. 71% of the Earth is covered in water, and the different oceans that make up so much of the planet are all unique. The truth is that they’re all one connected body of water, and this body of water is sometimes referred to as the global ocean. While some countries claim that there are four oceans in the world, most agree that there are five:īut it isn’t obvious just by looking at a map where one ocean ends and another begins.
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