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SUBJECT: GEOGRAPHY

TOPIC: OCEANS

OCEANS

An ocean is a body ofsaline waterthat composes a large part of a planet's hydrosphere. Theword Ocean as been derived from the word Okeanos a Greek word, which means the World

Ocean ofclassical antiquity In the context ofEarth, it refers to one or all of the major divisionsof the planet's World Oceanthey are, in descending order of area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian,

Southern (Antarctic), and Arctic Oceans.[3][4]

The word "sea" is often used interchangeably with

"ocean", but strictly speaking a sea is a body of saline water (possibly a division of the World

Ocean) partly or fully enclosed by land. Oceans cover about 70% of the Earth's surface. Theoceans contain roughly 97% of the Earth's water supply. The oceans of Earth are unique in our

Solar System. No other planet in our Solar System has liquid water (although recent finds on

Mars indicate that Mars may have had some liquid water in the recent past). Life on Earthoriginated in the seas, and the oceans continue to be home to an incredibly diverse web of life.The oceans of Earth serve many functions, especially affecting the weather and temperature.

They moderate the Earth's temperature by absorbing incoming solar radiation (stored as heat

energy). The always-moving ocean currents distribute this heat energy around the globe. Thisheats the land and air during winter and cools it during summer.

Oceanographers have stated that out of 97%, only 5% of the ocean as a whole on Earth has beenexplored as it is the principal component of Earth's hydrosphere, the world ocean is integral to all

known life, forms part of the carbon cycle, and influences climate and weatherpatterns.

Extraterrestrial oceans may be composed of a wide range ofelements and compounds. The only

confirmed large stable bodies of extraterrestrial surface liquids are the lakes of Titan, althoughthere is evidence for the existence of oceans elsewhere in the Solar System. Early in their

geologic histories, Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water oceans. The Mars

ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once covered by water,though the water on Mars is no longer oceanic, and a runaway greenhouse effect may have

boiled away the global ocean of Venus. Compounds such as salts and ammonia dissolved in

water lower its freezing point, so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrialenvironments as brine or convecting ice. Unconfirmed oceans are speculated beneath the surface

of many dwarf planets and natural satellites; notably, the ocean ofEuropa is believed to have

over twice the water volume of Earth. The Solar System's gas giantplanets are also believed to

possess liquid atmospheric layers of yet to be confirmed compositions. Oceans may also exist on

exoplanets and exomoons, including surface oceans of liquid water within a circumstellarhabitable zone. Ocean planets are a hypothetical type of planet with a surface completely

covered with liquid.

Zones and depths

Oceanographers divide the ocean into different zones depending on the present physical andbiological conditions. The pelagic zone includes all open ocean regions, and can be divided into

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further regions categorized by depth and light abundance. The photic zone covers the oceans

from surface level to 200 metres down. This is the region where photosynthesis can occur and

therefore is the most biodiversity. Since plants require photosynthesis, life found deeper than thismust either rely on material sinking from above or find another energy source; hydrothermal

vents are the primary option in what is known as the aphotic zone.

Climate

Ocean currents greatly affect the Earth's climateby transferring heat from the tropics to the polar

regions, and transferring warm or cold air and precipitation to coastal regions, where winds maycarry them inland. Surface heat and freshwaterfluxes create global density gradients that drive

the thermohaline circulationpart of large-scale ocean circulation. It plays an important role in

supplying heat to the polar regions, and thus in sea ice regulation. Changes in the thermohaline

circulation are thought to have significant impacts on the Earth's radiation budget. Insofar as thethermohaline circulation governs the rate at which deep waters reach the surface, it may also

significantly influence atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. For a discussion of the

possibilities of changes to the thermohaline circulation underglobal warming, see shutdown ofthermohaline circulation.

PACIFIC OCEAN

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world's five oceans. Strategically important accesswaterways include the La Perouse, Tsugaru, Tsushima, Taiwan, Singapore, and Torres Straits.

The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a

fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of 60 degrees

south. The Pacific Ocean is located between the Southern Ocean, Asia, Australia, and theWestern Hemisphere. Its total area is 155.557 million sq km. It has several seas like Bali Sea,

Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of Tonkin, PhilippineSea, Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, South China Sea, Tasman Sea, and other tributary water

bodiesPacific Ocean is surrounded by a zone of violent volcanic and earthquake activitysometimes referred to as the "Pacific Ring of Fire"; subject to tropical cyclones (typhoons) in

southeast and east Asia from May to December tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south of

Mexico and strike Central America and Mexico from June to October (most common in Augustand September); cyclical El Nino/La Nina phenomenon occurs in the equatorial Pacific,

influencing weather in the Western Hemisphere and the western Pacific; ships subject to

superstructure icing in extreme north from October to May; persistent fog in the northern Pacificcan be a maritime hazard from June to December.

. It occupies about 15 times the size of the US; covers about 28% of the global surface; largerthan the total land area of the world. Its surface currents in the northern Pacific are dominated bya clockwise, warm-water gyre and in the southern Pacific by a counterclockwise, cool-water

gyre; in the northern Pacific, sea ice forms in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk in winter; in the

southern Pacific, sea ice from Antarctica reaches its northernmost extent in October; the oceanfloor in the eastern Pacific is dominated by the East Pacific Rise, while the western Pacific is

dissected by deep trenches, including the Mariana Trench, which is the world's deepest.

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The worlds deepest trench lies in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trenchis the deepestpart of the world's oceans. It is located in

the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands. The trench is about 2,550

kilometres long but has an average width of only 69 kilometres. It reaches a maximum-known

depth of 10.911 km at the Challenger Deep, a small slot-shaped valley in its floor, at its southern

end,although some unrepeated measurements place the deepest portion at 11.03 kilometres. Atthe bottom of the trench the water column above exerts a pressure of 1,086 bars over one

thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. At this pressure the density of

water is increased by 4.96%, making ninety-five litres of water under the pressure of the

Challenger Deep contain the same mass as a hundred litres at the surface. The temperature at the

bottom is 1 to 4 C. The trench is not the part of the seafloor closest to the center of the Earth.

This is because the Earth is not a perfect sphere: its radius is about 25 kilometres less at the polesthan at the equator. As a result, parts of the Arctic Ocean seabed are at least 13 kilometres closer

to the Earth's center than the Challenger Deep seafloor.

Because of its extreme depth, the Mariana Trench is cloaked in perpetual darkness and the

temperature is just a few degrees above freezing. The water pressure at the bottom of the trench

is a crushing eight tons per square inchor about a thousand times the standard atmosphericpressure at sea level. Pressure increases with depth. The first and only time humans descended

into the Challenger Deep was more than 50 years ago. After a five-hour descent, the pair spent

only a scant 20 minutes at the bottom and were unable to take any photographs due to clouds of

silt stirred up by their passage. Until Piccard and Walshs historic dive, scientists had debated

whether life could exist under such extreme pressure.

History and Economy

Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times, most notably those ofthe Polynesians from the Asian edge of the ocean to Tahiti, Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island

and possibly even America.[citation needed]

The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorerVasco Nez de Balboa in the

early 16th century. Balboa's expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific

Ocean in 1513. He named it Mar del Sur (South Sea). Later, Portuguese explorerFerdinand

Magellan sailed the Pacific on a Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation from 1519 to1522. Magellan called the ocean Pacfico or "Pacific" because he encountered calm seas

throughout his journey. Although Magellan himself died in the Philippines in 1521, Spanish

navigatorJuan Sebastian Elcano led the expedition back to Spain across the Indian Ocean andround the Cape of Good Hope, completing the first world circumnavigation in 1522.

In 1564, Spanish explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel Lpez de Legazpi whosailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. For the remainder of the 16th century, Spanish

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influence was paramount, with ships sailing from Mexico and Peru across the Pacific Ocean to

the Philippines, via Guam, and establishing the Spanish East Indies. The Manila Galleons

operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest traderoutes in history. Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Solomon

Islands and New Guinea in the South Pacific.Later, in the quest forTerra Australis, Spanish

explorers in the 17th century discovered the Pitcairn and Vanuatu archipelagos, and sailed theTorres Straitbetween Australia and New Guinea, named after navigatorLuis Vaz de Torres.Dutch explorers, sailing around southern Africa, also engaged in discovery and trade; Abel

Janszoon Tasman discovered Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642.

Landmasses and Islands

The largest landmass entirely within the Pacific Ocean is the island ofNew Guineathe second

largest island in the world. Almost all of the smaller islands of the Pacific lie between 30N and

30S, extending from Southeast Asia to Easter Island; the rest of the Pacific Basin is almost

entirely submerged. During the last glacial period, New Guinea was part of Australia so the

largest landmass would have been BorneoPalawan.In the southwestern corner of the Pacific liethe islands ofMelanesia, dominated by New Guinea. Other important island groups of Melanesia

include the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Islands in the Pacific Ocean are of four basic types: continental islands, high islands, coral reefs,

and uplifted coral platforms. Continental islands lie outside the andesite line and include NewGuinea, the islands of New Zealand, and the Philippines. Some of these islands are structurally

associated with nearby continents. High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active

volcanoes. Among these are Bougainville, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands.The third and fourth

types of islands are both the result of coralline island building. Coral reefs are low-lyingstructures that have built up on basaltic lava flows under the ocean's surface. One of the most

dramatic is the Great Barrier Reefoff northeastern Australia. A second island type formed ofcoral is the uplifted coral platform, which is usually slightly larger than the low coral islands.Examples include Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) and Makatea in the Tuamotu group ofFrench

Polynesia.

ATLANTIC OCEAN

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of

about 106,400,000 square kilometres, it covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface

and about 29 percent of its watersurface area. The first part of its name refers to Atlas ofGreek

mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas".

The oldest known mention of "Atlantic" is in The Histories ofHerodotus around 450 BC. The

term Ethiopic Ocean, derived from Ethiopia, was applied to the southern Atlantic as late as themid-19th century.

[2]Before Europeans discovered other oceans, the term "ocean" itself was

synonymous with the waters beyond the Strait of Gibraltarthat we now know as the Atlantic.

The early Greeks believed this ocean to be a gigantic river encircling the world. The AtlanticOcean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and

Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. As one component of the interconnected global

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ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the

Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south.

Climate

Climate is influenced by the temperatures of the surface waters and water currents as well aswinds. Because of the ocean's great capacity to store and release heat, maritime climates are

more moderate and have less extreme seasonal variations than inland climates. Precipitation can

be approximated from coastal weather data and air temperature from water temperatures.

The oceans are the major source of the atmospheric moisture that is obtained throughevaporation. Climatic zones vary with latitude; the warmest zones stretch across the Atlantic

north of the equator. The coldest zones are in high latitudes, with the coldest regions

corresponding to the areas covered by sea ice. Ocean currents influence climate by transporting

warm and cold waters to other regions. The winds that are cooled or warmed when blowing overthese currents influence adjacent land areas. The Gulf Stream and its northern extension towards

Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, for example, warms the atmosphere of the British Isles andnorth-western Europe and influences weather and climate as far south as the northern

Mediterranean. The cold water currents contribute to heavy fog off the coast of eastern Canada(the Grand Banks of Newfoundland area) and Africa's north-western coast. In general, winds

transport moisture and air over land areas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation_%28meteorology%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Streamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Currenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Banks_of_Newfoundlandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Banks_of_Newfoundlandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Currenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Streamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation_%28meteorology%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Oceanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Ocean