Portal:Oceans

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The Oceans Portal
A portal dedicated to oceans, seas, oceanography and related topics

Selected panorama

– Hover over image and scroll to middle for controls to see more selected panorama images –

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   Caesio teres in the South Pacific Ocean in Fiji
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   Icebergs broken off from glaciers in northern Baffin Bay, Cape York, Greenland
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   A surfer in the Pacific Ocean at the 2010 Mavericks competition, village of Princeton-by-the-Sea, northern California
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   A sea anemone in the Pacific Ocean, Baja California, Mexico
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   Clouds over the Southern Ocean, with continent labels
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   Satellite view of the Pacific Ocean and the main windward Hawaiian Islands
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   A view of the Southern Ocean from Great Ocean Road, Port Campbell, Princetown, Victoria, Australia
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   A panorama of Zanzibar, Tanzania, particularly the Stone Town, taken from the Indian Ocean
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   Orca (Orcinus orca) hunting a Weddell seal in the Southern Ocean
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   A view of Myrtos Beach and the Ionian Sea, Cephalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece
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   A mother sperm whale and her calf in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mauritius
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   A view of Filfla and the Mediterranean Sea. Filfla is a small, mostly barren, uninhabited islet 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles) south of Malta.
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   A view of the South China Sea, Bacuit Archipelago, municipality of El Nido, Palawan, Philippines

Introduction

Surface view of the Atlantic Ocean

The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as oceans (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and Arctic Ocean), and are themselves mostly divided into seas, gulfs and subsequent bodies of water. The ocean contains 97% of Earth's water and is the primary component of Earth's hydrosphere, acting as a huge reservoir of heat for Earth's energy budget, as well as for its carbon cycle and water cycle, forming the basis for climate and weather patterns worldwide. The ocean is essential to life on Earth, harbouring most of Earth's animals and protist life, originating photosynthesis and therefore Earth's atmospheric oxygen, still supplying half of it. (Full article...)

Waves in Pacifica, California

A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order sections of the oceanic sea (e.g. the Mediterranean Sea), or certain large, nearly landlocked bodies of water. (Full article...)

Oceanography (from Ancient Greek ὠκεανός (ōkeanós) 'ocean' and γραφή (graphḗ) 'writing'), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. (Full article...)

Read more about oceans...
Read more about the sea...
Read more about oceanography...

Selected article -

Bathymetry of the Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; and on the southeast by Cuba. The coastal areas along the Southern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which border the Gulf on the north, are occasionally referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific coasts), but more often as "the Gulf Coast".

The Gulf of Mexico took shape about 300 million years ago (mya) as a result of plate tectonics. The Gulf of Mexico basin is roughly oval and is about 810 nautical miles (1,500 kilometers; 930 miles) wide. Its floor consists of sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Straits of Florida between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba. Because of its narrow connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the gulf has very small tidal ranges. (Full article...)

Interesting facts -

• Highlights from the history of ichthyosaur research (example pictured) include fossils of pregnant females, whale-sized ichthyosaurs from Nevada, and ichthyosaurs with swordfish-like jaws.

• One ship had to deal with Hurricane Tanya twice in two different areas of the North Atlantic Ocean five days apart in 1995.

• Seafarers have used the tower of Sweden's Rone Church as a navigational aid since the Middle Ages.

Selected list articles and Marine habitat topics

• List of oceans
• List of ancient oceans
• List of seas
• List of circumnavigations
• List of cruise lines
• List of largest lakes and seas in the Solar System
• List of marine biologists
• List of marine ecoregions
• List of maritime explorers
• List of naval battles
• List of ocean liners
• List of oceanographic institutions and programs
• List of oldest surviving ships
• List of rogue waves
• List of seafood dishes
• List of submarine topographical features

Tasks

edit tasks

Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : List of oceanographers, create a comprehensive article on Concentrations of marine debris out of all the gyre and "garbage patch" articles Copyedit : Draft:Terrance (octopus) Expand : Coral Sea, Endeavour Strait, Greenland Sea, Solomon Sea Photo : find images for Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in the oceans Stubs : Oceanography stub articles, Marine geography stub articles, Aleutian Trench, Bellingshausen Sea, Caernarfon Bay, Gerlache Strait, Gulf of Oman, Iceland Sea, Draft:Terrance (octopus) Update : Botany Bay, Wilkins Sound, Mariana Trench, Challenger Deep Verify : Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Bering Sea, Gulf of Aden, Iceberg B-15, Ionian Sea, Japan Trench, Moreton Bay, Sound (geography), Timor Sea Other : add ISBNs and remove excessive or inappropriate external links from Aral Sea; check La Belle (ship) for GA status; improve citations or footnotes and remove excessive or inappropriate external links from MS Estonia

General images -

The following are images from various ocean-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  1928 delineation (from Southern Ocean)
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  1911 South Polar Regions exploration map (from Southern Ocean)
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  The Andaman Negritos are thought to be the first inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, having emigrated from the mainland tens of thousands of years ago. (from Indian Ocean)
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  James Weddell's second expedition in 1823, depicting the brig Jane and the cutter Beaufroy (from Southern Ocean)
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  A Ring of Fire; the Pacific is ringed by many volcanoes and oceanic trenches. This map does not show the Cascadia subduction zone along part of the west coast of North America, whose trench is completely buried in sediments. (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars taking over Tahiti on 9 September 1842 (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Embarked and disembarked slaves in the Atlantic slave trade 1525–1863 (first and last slave voyages) (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Made in 1529, the Diogo Ribeiro map was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size (from Pacific Ocean)
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  The Arctic region showing the Northeast Passage, the Northern Sea Route within it, and the Northwest Passage via Canadian Inland Waters. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  Sea cover in the Arctic Ocean, showing the median, 2005 and 2007 coverage (from Arctic Ocean)
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  An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) map of the Pacific (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Sunset in Monterey County, California, U.S. (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Orca (Orcinus orca) hunting a Weddell seal in the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
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  Fish of the Notothenioidei suborder, such as this young icefish, are mostly restricted to the Antarctic and Subantarctic. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Typhoon Tip at global peak intensity on 12 October 1979 (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Three polar bears approach USS Honolulu near the North Pole. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a keystone species of the food web. (from Southern Ocean)
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  The Arctic region; of note, the region's southerly border on this map is depicted by a red isotherm, with all territory to the north having an average temperature of less than 10 °C (50 °F) in July. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  The Austronesian maritime trade network was the first trade routes in the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
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  The economically important Silk Road was blocked from Europe by the Ottoman Empire in c. 1453 with the fall of the Byzantine Empire. This spurred exploration, and a new sea route around Africa was found, triggering the Age of Discovery. (from Indian Ocean)
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  The three major cultural areas of the Pacific Ocean islands: Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Area inside the black line indicates the area constituting the Pacific Ocean prior to 2002; darker blue areas are its informal current borders following the recreation of the Southern Ocean and the reinclusion of marginal seas. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Path of the thermohaline circulation. Purple paths represent deep-water currents, while blue paths represent surface currents.
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  For most of the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade. (from Indian Ocean)
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  A general delineation of the Antarctic Convergence, sometimes used by scientists as the demarcation of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
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  Density structure of the upper 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in the Arctic Ocean. Profiles of temperature and salinity for the Amundsen Basin, the Canadian Basin and the Greenland Sea are sketched. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  "Southern Ocean" as alternative to the Aethiopian Ocean, 18th century (from Southern Ocean)
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  Banks of the northeast Atlantic (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  The British invasion of Isle de France on 29 November 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars (from Indian Ocean)
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  Thule archaeological site (from Arctic Ocean)
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  A female warty squid (Moroteuthis ingens) (from Southern Ocean)
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  Marine debris strewn over the beaches of the South Atlantic Inaccessible Island (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  A copepod (from Arctic Ocean)
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  As the Gulf Stream meanders across the North Atlantic from the North American east coast to Western Europe its temperature drops by 20 °C (36 °F).
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  The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the strongest current system in the world oceans, linking the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific basins. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Emanuel Bowen's 1780s map of the Arctic features a "Northern Ocean". (from Arctic Ocean)
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  In the subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic warm subtropical waters are transformed into colder subpolar and polar waters. In the Labrador Sea this water flows back to the subtropical gyre. (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  The Kennedy Channel. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  The island geography of the Pacific Ocean Basin (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Based on the medieval Íslendingasögur sagas, including the Grœnlendinga saga, this interpretative map of the "Norse World" shows that Norse knowledge of the Americas and the Atlantic remained limited. (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  False color map of ocean depth in the Atlantic basin (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Model of a Fijian drua, an example of an Austronesian vessel with a double-canoe (catamaran) hull and a crab claw sail (from Pacific Ocean)
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  The 1564 Typus Orbis Terrarum, a map by Abraham Ortelius, showed the imagined link between the proposed continent of Antarctica and South America. (from Southern Ocean)
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  The International Hydrographic Organization's delineation of the "Southern Ocean" has moved steadily southward since the original 1928 edition of its Limits of Oceans and Seas. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Portrait of Edmund Halley by Godfrey Kneller (before 1721) (from Southern Ocean)
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  Upwelling in the Southern Ocean

  (from Southern Ocean)
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  Universalis Cosmographia, also known as the Waldseemüller map, dated 1507, was the first map to show the Americas separating two distinct oceans. South America was generally considered the New World and shows the name "America" for the first time, after Amerigo Vespucci (from Pacific Ocean)
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  An iceberg being pushed out of a shipping lane by (L to R) USS Burton Island, USS Atka, and USS Glacier near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, 1965 (from Southern Ocean)
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  A bathymetric/topographic map of the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding lands. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707 (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Marine debris on a Hawaiian coast in 2008 (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Severe cracks in an ice pier in use for four seasons at McMurdo Station slowed cargo operations in 1983 and proved a safety hazard. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Capture of Atlantic northwest cod in million tons (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  A wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) on South Georgia (from Southern Ocean)
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  During summer, warm continental masses draw moist air from the Indian Ocean hence producing heavy rainfall. The process is reversed during winter, resulting in dry conditions. (from Indian Ocean)
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  Banks of the northwest Atlantic (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Air pollution in South Asia spread over the Bay of Bengal and beyond. (from Indian Ocean)
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  According to the Coastal hypothesis, modern humans spread from Africa along the northern rim of the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
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  A stratovolcano in Ulawun on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea (from Pacific Ocean)
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  A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia (from Southern Ocean)
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  The Aethiopian Ocean depicted in a 1710 French map of Africa (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Continents and islands of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
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  Walruses on Arctic ice floe (from Arctic Ocean)
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  Malé's population has increased from 20,000 people in 1987 to more than 220,000 people in 2020. (from Indian Ocean)
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  Manganese nodule (from Southern Ocean)
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  Coral reefs of the Maldives (from Indian Ocean)
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  Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1754. (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Major ocean trade routes in the world include the northern Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
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  A Chagossian on Diego Garcia in 1971, before the British expelled the islanders. He spoke a French-based creole language and his ancestors were likely brought as slaves in the 19th century. (from Indian Ocean)
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  Agulhas Bank (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Iceberg A22A in the South Atlantic Ocean (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Pacific Ocean currents have created three islands of debris. (from Pacific Ocean)
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  On the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean temporary logistic stations may be installed, Here, a Twin Otter is refueled on the pack ice at 86°N, 76°43‘W. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  The Atlantic Gyres influenced the Portuguese discoveries and trading port routes, here shown in the India Run ("Carreira da Índia"), which would be developed in subsequent years. (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  The bathyscaphe Trieste before her record dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 23 January 1960 (from Pacific Ocean)
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  "Terres Australes" [sic] label without any charted landmass (from Southern Ocean)
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  Cod fishery in Norway (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  1937 delineation (from Southern Ocean)
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  USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica in early 1840 (from Southern Ocean)
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  The Arctic Ocean, with borders as delineated by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), including Hudson Bay (some of which is south of 57°N latitude, off the map) and all other marginal seas. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  Famous official portrait of Captain James Cook who proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. "He holds his own chart of the Southern Ocean on the table and his right hand points to the east coast of Australia on it." (from Southern Ocean)
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  Excavation of the Ertebølle middens in 1880 (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Sunset over the Pacific Ocean as seen from the International Space Station. Tops of thunderclouds are also visible. (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Regional Working Group zones for SOOS (from Southern Ocean)
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  Admiral von Bellingshausen (from Southern Ocean)
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  Greco-Roman trade with ancient India according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea 1st century CE (from Indian Ocean)
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  Seas that are parts of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
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  Madagascar's elephant bird, Mauritius's dodo bird and ostrich (from left to right) (from Indian Ocean)
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  Minke whale (from Arctic Ocean)
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  Distribution of the major water mass in the Arctic Ocean. The section sketches the different water masses along a vertical section from Bering Strait over the geographic North Pole to Fram Strait. As the stratification is stable, deeper water masses are denser than the layers above. (from Arctic Ocean)
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  Tarawa Atoll in Kiribati (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Mombasa Port on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast (from Indian Ocean)
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  Impact of El Niño and La Niña on North America (from Pacific Ocean)
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  An adult and sub-adult Minke whale are dragged aboard the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru. (from Southern Ocean)
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  MS Explorer in Antarctica in January 1999. She sank on 23 November 2007 after hitting an iceberg. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Location of the Southern Ocean gyres (from Southern Ocean)
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  Aldabra giant tortoise from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles (from Indian Ocean)
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  Frank Hurley: As time wore on it became more and more evident that the ship was doomed (Endurance trapped in pack ice), National Library of Australia. (from Southern Ocean)
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  Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, U.S. in 2020 (from Pacific Ocean)
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  The Antarctic Ocean, as delineated by the draft 4th edition of the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas (2002) (from Southern Ocean)
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  Bahama Banks (from Atlantic Ocean)
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  Waves in the trade winds in the Atlantic Ocean – areas of converging winds that move along the same track as the prevailing wind – create instabilities in the atmosphere that may lead to the formation of hurricanes.
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  Map showing the migration of the Austronesian peoples (from Pacific Ocean)
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  Maris Pacifici by Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean (from Pacific Ocean)
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  In 2020, Japanese Prime Minister Suga declined to drink the bottle of Fukushima's treated radioactive water that he was holding, which would otherwise be discharged to the Pacific. (from Pacific Ocean)

Related portals

In the news

4 August 2025 – India–Philippines relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea

The Indian and Philippine navies conduct their first joint exercise in the Philippine-designated exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. The Indian Navy deployed guided missile destroyers, tankers, and corvettes, while the Philippines sent two frigates. (AP) (Reuters)

29 July 2025 – Red Sea crisis

The Houthis launch a ballistic missile targeting Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel, which was intercepted by Israeli forces. (The Times of Israel)

28 July 2025 – Red Sea crisis

Houthi attacks on commercial vessels

The Houthis release a video showing ten crewmembers of the Greek-operated cargo ship Eternity C, which the group attacked and sunk earlier this month, in captivity. (Reuters)

25 July 2025 – Mediterranean Sea migrant smuggling

A boat carrying Egyptian migrants and Sudanese crewmen en route to Europe capsizes off the coast of Tobruk, Cyrenaica, Libya, killing at least 15 people, injuring 10 others and leaving some missing. (AP)

WikiProjects

WikiProjects

• WikiProject Oceans
• WikiProject Limnology and Oceanography
• WikiProject Marine life
• WikiProject Cetaceans
• WikiProject Fishes
• WikiProject Sharks

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Related WikiProjects

• WikiProject Arthropods
• WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing
• WikiProject Lakes
• WikiProject Rivers

Topics

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More topics

Categories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories Oceans

Oceans

Categories by ocean

Categories by sea or ocean

Landforms by sea or ocean

Oceans-related lists

Seas

Oceans surrounding Antarctica

Arctic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Submarine cables

Coasts

Ocean currents

Marine energy

Oceans and seas in fiction

Historical oceans

Indian Ocean

Indo-Pacific

Law of the sea

Ocean maps

Marine conservation

Oceanaria

Pacific Ocean

Submarine pipelines

Ocean pollution

Southern Ocean

Works set on oceans

World Ocean

Seas

Seas

Categories by sea

Categories by sea or ocean

Seas by country

Seas by continent

Seas of the Arctic Ocean

Seas of the Atlantic Ocean

Sea in culture

Sea and river deities

Oceans and seas in fiction

Seas of Greenland

Seas of the Indian Ocean

Lists of seas

Marginal seas

Marine energy

Maritime transport

Seas of the Pacific Ocean

Seas of the Southern Ocean

Oceanography

Oceanography

Oceanographers

Marine geophysicists

Oceans

Seas

Oceanography awards

Biological oceanography

Chemical oceanography

Oceanographic expeditions

Ocean exploration

Fracture zones

Oceanographic instrumentation

Oceanography journals

Marine biology

Marine geology

Marine meteorology

Maritime culture

Oceanographic Time-Series

Oceanographical terminology

Oceanography of Canada

Oceanographic organizations

Paleoceanography

Physical oceanography

Research vessels

Underwater diving companies

Underwater diving sites

Underwater explorers

United States Exploring Expedition

Oceanography stubs

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

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  Commons
  Free media repository

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  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals

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  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

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  Wikinews
  Free-content news

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  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

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  Wikisource
  Free-content library

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  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools

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  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Admiralty law

Need assistance?

Need assistance?

Do you have a question about oceans, seas or oceanography that you can't find the answer to? Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

External media

External media

• World Ocean Database and World Ocean Atlas Series – from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Includes the World Ocean Atlas.
• European Atlas of the Seas – the European Atlas of the Seas, from the European Commission
• NOAA Research – NOAA research news, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
• Ocean Research – from The World Ocean Observatory
• Ocean Biodiversity Information System – "a global open-access data and information clearing-house on marine biodiversity for science, conservation and sustainable development"

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