The five
Even though there is one world ocean, it has traditionally been divided into four major ocean basins: the Arctic, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Pacific.
There are five major ocean basins, coordinating with the major oceans of the world: the Pacific basin, the Atlantic basin, the Indian basin, the Arctic basin, and the Southern basin. Many smaller basins are often considered oceanic basins, such as the North Aleutian Basin, between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
The Seven Seas include the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans. The exact origin of the phrase 'Seven Seas' is uncertain, although there are references in ancient literature that date back thousands of years.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the world ocean basins. Covering approximately 63 million square miles and containing more than half of the free water on Earth, the Pacific is by far the largest of the world's ocean basins.
The Global Ocean
The five oceans from smallest to largest are: the Arctic, Southern, Indian, Atlantic and Pacific.
The Arctic Ocean, with a total area of about 14 million square kilometers (5.4 million square miles), is the world's smallest ocean basin.
The Pacific Ocean basin is also the oldest and deepest of all oceans with an average depth of 4,280 m (14,040 ft). The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, east of the Philippines, is the deepest spot known on Earth, at 11,034 m (36,201 ft) below sea level.
Historically, there are four named oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries - including the United States - now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean. The Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian are the most commonly known. The Southern Ocean is the 'newest' named ocean.
The Northwest Pacific Ocean is the most active basin on the planet, accounting for one-third of all tropical cyclone activity. Annually, an average of 25.7 tropical cyclones in the basin acquire tropical storm strength or greater; also, an average of 16 typhoons occurred each year during the 1968–1989 period.
While there is only one global ocean, the vast body of water that covers 71% of Earth is geographically divided into distinct regions. The United States recognizes five named ocean basins: Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern.
The continents, which cover 29.2% of the earth's surface, break up the ocean into the three basins, which we call the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
Oceans basins originate from the rising of magma and mantle materials, rifting, and spitting of the continental crust in the lithosphere of the earth. There are five main ocean basins such as the Atlantic, Southern, Arctic, Pacific, and Indian.
The five largest river basins (by area), from largest to smallest, are those of the Amazon (7M km2), the Congo (4M km2), the Nile (3.4M km2), the Mississippi (3.22M km2), and the Río de la Plata (3.17M km2). The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganges, and Congo rivers.
Lots of geographers, geologists, etc. classify it all as one large “world ocean”. All those different names are because people like to give names to things, and it doesn't much matter if the names make sense. The areas that we call different oceans are all interconnected with wide, deep passages of salt water.
The National Geographic Society for the first time named the Southern Ocean as the newest of Earth's five oceans. Dive into what it means for conservation—and travelers. As of June 2021, the Southern Ocean—the body of water surrounding Antarctica—is recognized as the world's fifth.
The Seven Seas is a phrase commonly used in reference to seven of the major oceans of the world. The phrase could also be used to indicate the entirety of the world itself. The phrase first appeared in a hymn written in around 2300 BC in the city of Sumer, and was later taken up by the Greeks and Romans.
Herodotus Basin is thought to be 340 million years old
Now, this region, called the Herodotus Basin, has been shown to be 340 million years old—the oldest ocean crust on Earth that remains under the sea, according to a study published online today in Nature Geoscience .
Most commonly the ocean is divided into basins following the continents distribution: the North and South Atlantic (together approximately 75 million km2/ 29 million mi2), North and South Pacific (together approximately 155 million km2/ 59 million mi2), Indian Ocean (68 million km2/ 26 million mi2) and Arctic Ocean (14 ...
As the second largest ocean basin, the Atlantic Ocean borders the east coast of the U.S., while the Pacific, Earth's largest ocean basin, borders the U.S. West Coast. Covering approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface, the Atlantic Ocean is the second largest ocean basin in the world, following only the Pacific.
The Amazon Basin located in northern South America, is the largest river basin in the world. The Amazon River and all of its tributaries drain an area of more than 7 million square kilometres.
Looking at the entire oceans, however, the Pacific Ocean is by far the warmest overall ocean because it has about four times the intense sun-heated surface area in the tropics compared with the Atlantic Ocean.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean basin on Earth, covering more than 155 million square kilometers (60 million square miles) and averaging a depth of 4,000 meters (13,000 feet).