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| Largest Oceans In The World |
The largest ocean on the planet is the Pacific Ocean, which covers about 28% of the surface of our planet. It's total size is greater than the size of all the World's land mass added together, and it is the source of over half of the sea food which we humans consume. The deepest point under all of the oceans is the Mariana Trench in the north-west Pacific, which drops to a depth of 10,911 metres (35,800 ft), and the planet's oceans cover over 70% of it's surface area in total, an estimated 360,000,000 sq km (140,000,000 sq miles). All facts & figures quoted are dictated by the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans all ending at the 60° Southern line of latitude, as advised by the IHO.
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| Bowhead Whales swimming in the Arctic Ocean |
image: Public Domain |
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NOTE* Up until recently there were four official oceans in the World - the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and Arctic Ocean - but this changed in 1990, when the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) designated the Antarctic Ocean (also know as the Southern Ocean) as an independent ocean. It encircles Antarctica, below the 60° Southern line of latitude, but before this declaration, many geographers believed that this part of the World Ocean was just the bottom part of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans combined. Many still believe this to be the case, but the IHO have based their decision on the water of the Antarctic Ocean being very different to the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans in that general area. |
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| 1: Pacific Ocean |
| Total Area |
155,557,000 sq km / 60,060,000 sq miles [1] |
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| Bordering Countries, Islands, Territories and Dependancies |
American Samoa / Australia / Brunei / Cambodia / Canada / Chile / China / Colombia / Cook Islands / Costa Rica / East Timor / El Salvador / Ecuador / Fiji / French Polynesia / Guam / Guatemala / Honduras / Indonesia / Japan / Kiribati / Malaysia / Marshall Islands / Mexico / Micronesia / Nauru / New Caledonia / New Zealand / Nicaragua / Niue / North Korea / Northern Mariana Islands / Palau / Panama / Papua New Guinea / Peru / Philippines / Pitcairn Islands / Russia / Samoa / Singapore / Solomon Islands / South Korea / Taiwan / Thailand / Tokelau / Tonga / Tuvalu / United States / Vanuatu / Vietnam / Wallis and Futuna |
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Associated Major
Seas, Gulfs and Bays |
Arafura Sea, Banda Sea, Bering Sea, Bismarck Sea, Bohai Sea, Bohol Sea (Mindanao Sea), Camotes Sea, Celebes Sea, Ceram Sea, Chilean Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Flores Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of California (Sea of Cortés), Gulf of Carpentaria, Gulf of Thailand, Halmahera Sea, Java Sea, Koro Sea, Molucca Sea, Philippine Sea, Savu Sea, Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, Seto Inland Sea, Sibuyan Sea, Solomon Sea, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Tasman Sea, Visayan Sea, Yellow Sea |
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| 2: Atlantic Ocean |
| Total Area |
76,762,000 sq km / 29,637,000 sq miles [1] |
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| Bordering Countries, Islands, Territories and Dependancies |
Angola / Argentina / Bahamas / Barbados / Belgium / Benin / Bermuda / Brazil / Cameroon / Canada / Canary Islands / Cape Verde / Chile / DR Congo / Republic of the Congo / Denmark / Equatorial Guinea / Falkland Islands / Faroe Islands / France / French Guiana / Gabon / Gambia / Germany / Ghana / Greenland / Guinea / Guinea-Bissau / Guyana / Iceland / Republic of Ireland / Ivory Coast / Liberia / Madeira / Mauritania / Mexico / Morocco / Namibia / Netherlands / Nigeria / Norway / Portugal / Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic / Saint Helena / Saint Pierre and Miquelon / San Andres Y Providencia / Sao Tome and Principe / Senegal / Sierra Leone / South Africa / Spain / Suriname / Sweden / Togo / United Kingdom / United States / Uraguay / Western Sahara |
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Associated Major
Seas, Gulfs and Bays |
Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Alboran Sea, Argentine Sea, Bay of Biscay, Bay of Bothnia, Bay of Campeche, Bay of Fundy, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Bothnian Sea, Caribbean Sea, Celtic Sea, Central Baltic Sea, Chesapeake Bay, Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, English Channel, Gulf of Bothnia, Gulf of Guinea, Gulf of Finland, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Sidra, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Gulf of Venezuela, Ionian Sea, Labrador Sea, Ligurian Sea, Irish Sea, Marmara Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Mirtoon Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Sea of Azov, Sea of Crete, Sea of the Hebrides, Sargasso Sea, Thracian Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Wadden Sea |
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| 3: Indian Ocean |
| Total Area |
68,556,000 sq km / 26,469,000 sq miles [1] |
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| Bordering Countries, Islands, Territories and Dependancies |
Ashmore and Cartier Islands / Australia / Bahrain / Bangladesh / British Indian Ocean Territory / Burma / Christmas Island / Cocos (Keeling) Islands / Comoros / Djobouti / Egypt / Eritrea / India / Indonesia / Iran / Iraq / Kenya / Kuwait / Madagascar / Malaysia / Maldives / Mauritius / Mayotte / Mozambique / Oman / Pakistan / Réunion / Saudi Arabia / Seychelles / Somalia / South Africa / Sri Lanka / Sudan / Tanzania / Thailand / United Arab Emirates / Yemen / Zanzibar |
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Associated Major
Seas, Gulfs and Bays |
Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Mozambique Channel, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Timor Sea |
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4: Antarctic Ocean
(Southern Ocean) |
| Total Area |
20,327,000 sq km / 7,848,000 sq miles [1] |
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| Bordering Countries, Islands, Territories and Dependancies |
Antarctica - The land of the entire Antarctic continent is governed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty which has been signed by 46 different countries to date. Military activities and mineral mining are prohibited, scientific research is supported and the treaty also aims to protect the environment. Many countries have research teams in various bases on the continent, but the overall population of this vast land is generally between one and four thousand (mostly scientists), depending on the time of year. |
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Associated Major
Seas, Gulfs and Bays |
Amundsen Sea, Bass Strait, Bellingshausen Sea, Davis Sea, Great Australian Bight, Gulf Saint Vincent, Mawson Sea, Ross Sea, Scotia Sea, Spencer Gulf, Weddell Sea |
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| 5: Arctic Ocean |
| Total Area |
14,056,000 sq km / 5,427,000 sq miles [1] |
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| Bordering Countries, Islands, Territories and Dependancies |
Canada / Greenland / Iceland / Norway / Russia / United States |
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Associated Major
Seas, Gulfs and Bays |
Amundsen Gulf, Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, James Bay, Kara Sea, Kara Strait, Laptev Sea, Lincoln Sea, Prince Gustav Adolf Sea, Pechora Sea, White Sea |
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| [1] "International Hydrographic Organization" - All facts & figures quoted are dictated by the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans all ending at the 60° Southern line of latitude, as advised by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). |
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| This work by BlatantWorld.com is hereby licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Basically, you can re-use part of it, or all of it, for commercial and non-commercial uses, provided that you (1) release it under the same license, and (2) attribute BlatantWorld.com as the original author. |
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This license covers text only, however, all of the ocean locator maps/globes which are featured above along with the main accompanying inage - titled 'Bowhead Whales swimming in the Arctic Ocean' - , are public domain pictures, which were edited by BlatantWorld.com, and are hereby re-released into the public domain by BlatantWorld.com. |
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Countries
