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 -
A tsunami (/(t)suːˈnɑːmi, (t)sʊˈ-/ (t)soo-NAH-mee, (t)suu-; from Japanese: 津波, lit. 'harbour wave', pronounced [tsɯnami]) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Unlike normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are in turn generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water from a large event.
Tsunami waves do not resemble normal undersea currents or sea waves because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide. For this reason, it is often referred to as a tidal wave, although this usage is not favoured by the scientific community because it might give the false impression of a causal relationship between tides and tsunamis. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves, with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train". Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous, and they can affect entire ocean basins. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history, with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean. (Full article...)
Interesting facts -
- The coral Madracis auretenra has been used to study the likely effects of ocean acidification on corals.
- The ocean liner SS Shalom accidentally rammed and bisected the Norwegian tanker Stolt Dagali, sinking the bow of the tanker but not the stern.
- Flashes of light emitted by the sea snail Hinea brasiliana may act as a "burglar alarm".
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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General images -
The following are images from various ocean-related articles on Wikipedia.
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)
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)
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)
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)
MS Explorer in Antarctica in January 1999. She sank on 23 November 2007 after hitting an iceberg. (from Southern Ocean)
Malé's population has increased from 20,000 people in 1987 to more than 220,000 people in 2020. (from Indian Ocean)
Cod fishery in Norway (from Atlantic Ocean)
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) map of the Pacific (from Pacific Ocean)
Manganese nodule (from Southern Ocean)
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)
Upwelling in the Southern Ocean(from Southern Ocean)
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)
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)
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)
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)![Image 20"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)
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. on April 16, 1990 during a flight to the North Pole (from Arctic Ocean)
Maris Pacifici by Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean (from Pacific Ocean)
Admiral von Bellingshausen (from Southern Ocean)
Coral reefs of the Maldives (from Indian Ocean)
Embarked and disembarked slaves in the Atlantic slave trade 1525–1863 (first and last slave voyages) (from Atlantic Ocean)
Made in 1529, the Diogo Ribeiro map was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size (from Pacific Ocean)
Typhoon Tip at global peak intensity on 12 October 1979 (from Pacific Ocean)
Pacific Ocean currents have created three islands of debris. (from Pacific Ocean)
Mombasa Port on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast (from Indian Ocean)
Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707 (from Pacific 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)
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the strongest current system in the world oceans, linking the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific basins. (from Southern Ocean)
A female warty squid (Moroteuthis ingens) (from Southern Ocean)
Calanus hyperboreus (from Arctic Ocean)
The British invasion of Isle de France on 29 November 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars (from Indian Ocean)
Major ocean trade routes in the world include the northern Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
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)
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)
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)
An adult and sub-adult Minke whale are dragged aboard the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru. (from Southern Ocean)
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals. (from Southern 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)
A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia (from Southern Ocean)
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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![Image 20"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
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Admiralty law
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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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