Portal:Oceans
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The Oceans Portal
A portal dedicated to oceans, seas, oceanography and related topics
Selected panorama
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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.
A surfer in the Pacific Ocean at the 2010 Mavericks competition, village of Princeton-by-the-Sea, northern California
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Introduction
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| Earth's ocean |
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Main five oceans division: Further subdivision: Marginal seas |
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 (in descending order by area: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Antarctic/Southern Ocean, and the 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. It originated photosynthesis and therefore Earth's atmospheric oxygen, and still supplies half of it. (Full article...)
A sea is a very large body of salty water. The term has two distinct meanings. The first is the interconnected body of seawater that spans most of Earth, known as the sea or the ocean. The second is a named body of water: usually either a marginal sea (a second-order section of the oceanic sea such as the Mediterranean Sea), or a large, nearly landlocked body 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...)
Selected article -
The Central American Seaway (also known as the Panamanic Seaway, Inter-American Seaway and Proto-Caribbean Seaway) was a prehistoric body of water that once connected the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, separating North America from South America. It formed during the Jurassic (200–154 Ma) during the initial breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea into Laurasia and Gondwana, forming a mediterranean sea between Panthalassa and the Tethys Ocean, and finally closed when the Isthmus of Panama was formed by volcanic activity in the late Pliocene (2.76–2.54 Ma). The modern-day remnants of the seaway are the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and the Central Atlantic region around the Sargasso Sea. The closure of the Central American Seaway had tremendous effects on oceanic circulation and the biogeography of the adjacent seas, isolating many species and triggering speciation and diversification of tropical and sub-tropical marine fauna. The inflow of nutrient-rich water of deep Pacific origin into the Caribbean was blocked, and so local species had to adapt to an environment of lower productivity. It had an even larger impact on terrestrial life. The seaway had isolated South America for much of the Cenozoic, which allowed the evolution of a wholly unique diverse mammalian fauna there. When it closed, a faunal exchange with North America ensued and led to the extinction of many of the native South American forms. (Full article...)
Interesting facts -
- The Silent World, an Academy Award winning documentary film by Jacques Cousteau, was the first film to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color.
- Henry Seamount was hydrothermally active in the last 4,000 years even though it is 126 million years old.
- The Polynesian Rat is used to track human migrations across the Pacific Ocean.
Selected list articles and Marine habitat topics
| Marine habitats |
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| Coastal habitats |
| Ocean surface |
| Open ocean |
| Sea floor |
- 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
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Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
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General images -
The following are images from various ocean-related articles on Wikipedia.
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)
Capture of Atlantic northwest cod in million tons (from Atlantic Ocean)
1911 South Polar Regions exploration map (from Southern Ocean)
Path of the thermohaline circulation. Purple paths represent deep-water currents, while blue paths represent surface currents.
A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia (from Southern Ocean)
Minke whale (from Arctic Ocean)
Location of the Southern Ocean gyres (from Southern Ocean)
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)![Image 10"Terres Australes" [sic] label without any charted landmass (from Southern Ocean)](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Geography_world_map.jpeg/120px-Geography_world_map.jpeg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail)
"Terres Australes" [sic] label without any charted landmass (from Southern Ocean)
USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica in early 1840 (from Southern Ocean)
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)
1928 delineation (from Southern Ocean)
During summer, warm continental masses draw moist air from the Indian Ocean, producing heavy rainfall. The process is reversed during winter, resulting in dry conditions. (from Indian Ocean)
Admiral von Bellingshausen (from Southern Ocean)
Calanus hyperboreus (from Arctic Ocean)
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)
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)
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)
The island geography of the Pacific Ocean Basin (from Pacific Ocean)
Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707 (from Pacific Ocean)
Seas that are parts of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
For most of the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade. (from Indian Ocean)
Pacific Ocean currents have created three islands of debris. (from Pacific Ocean)
A general delineation of the Antarctic Convergence, sometimes used by scientists as the demarcation of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
An adult and sub-adult Minke whale are dragged aboard the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru. (from Southern Ocean)
Cod fishery in Norway (from Atlantic Ocean)
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)
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.
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)
False color map of ocean depth in the Atlantic basin (from Atlantic Ocean)
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)
Maris Pacifici by Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean (from Pacific Ocean)
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) map of the Pacific (from Pacific Ocean)
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals. (from Southern Ocean)
The Austronesian maritime trade network was the first trade routes in the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
Marine debris strewn over the beaches of the South Atlantic Inaccessible Island (from Atlantic Ocean)
MS Explorer in Antarctica in January 1999. She sank on 23 November 2007 after hitting an iceberg. (from Southern Ocean)
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)
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).
Typhoon Tip at global peak intensity on 12 October 1979 (from Pacific Ocean)
Banks of the northeast Atlantic (from Atlantic Ocean)
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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![Image 10"Terres Australes" [sic] label without any charted landmass (from Southern Ocean)](/everything/wiki/File:Geography_world_map.jpeg)
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In the news
- 2 October 2026 – Yemeni civil war
- Red Sea crisis
- 2 October 2026 –
- The United States National Park Service confirms that the Hōlei Sea Arch, located on Hawaii's Big Island, has collapsed into the Pacific Ocean. (The Guardian)
- 24 September 2026 –
- Twelve Kazakh military personnel are killed, three are rescued and two are missing after being swept into the Caspian Sea during a naval training exercise in the Mangystau Region. (Reuters)
- 23 September 2026 – 2026–2027 El Niño event
- The Atacama Desert in Chile reports blossoms of flowers amidst the ongoing El Nino event in the Pacific. (Phys.org)
- 23 September 2026 – Cross-strait relations
- Taiwan's coast guard increases patrol capacity around the disputed Pratas Island in the South China Sea by stationing a new 100-tonne patrol boat and regularly deploying larger vessels, citing increased China Coast Guard activity near the Taiwan-controlled outpost. (Reuters)
WikiProjects
Topics
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Categories
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Oceans
Seas
Oceanography
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
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Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Admiralty law
| Admiralty and maritime law |
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| History |
| Features |
| Contract of carriage / charterparty |
| Parties |
| Judiciaries |
| International organizations |
| International conventions |
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| International Codes |
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
- 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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