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 surfer in the Pacific Ocean at the 2010 Mavericks competition, village of Princeton-by-the-Sea, northern California
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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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 -
Maritime history dates back thousands of years. The earliest watercraft used by humans were rafts, as they needed less sophisticated wood-working skills to make. The oldest archaeological survival of a prehistoric boat is a dugout canoe, the Pesse canoe, which dates to approximately 10,000 years ago. Dugouts probably coexisted with hide-covered boats, which are much less likely to survive for archaeological investigation. Some evidence suggests that archaic hominins may have crossed the sea as early as 700,000 to one million years ago.
In ancient maritime history, evidence of maritime trade between civilizations dates back at least five millennia. Egyptians had trade routes through the Red Sea, importing spices from the "Land of Punt" and from Arabia, and the Sumerians traded with the Indus Valley civilization around the same time. By the time of Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire, several well-established combined land-sea trade routes depended upon water transport through the sea around the rough inland terrain features to its north. The search for the source of spices in these maritime trade routes later led to the Age of Discovery. (Full article...)
Interesting facts -
- Nearly 350,000 metric tons of Pacific ocean perch (pictured) were caught in the Gulf of Alaska by Soviet and Japanese trawling fleets in 1965.
- Photos of the rogue wave encountered by the MS Stolt Surf contributed to the growing evidence of their presence in the deep ocean.
- Frances has tied Arlene (at eight times) as the most-used name for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic 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.
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)
Manganese nodule (from Southern Ocean)
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)
Banks of the northeast Atlantic (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)
Cod fishery in Norway (from Atlantic Ocean)
Madagascar's elephant bird, Mauritius's dodo bird and ostrich (from left to right) (from Indian Ocean)
USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica in early 1840 (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)
An adult and sub-adult Minke whale are dragged aboard the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru. (from Southern Ocean)
Continents and islands of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals. (from Southern Ocean)
1937 delineation (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)
The British invasion of Isle de France on 29 November 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars (from Indian Ocean)
Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1754. (from Pacific 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)
Mombasa Port on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast (from Indian Ocean)
Coral reefs of the Maldives (from Indian Ocean)
Malé's population has increased from 20,000 people in 1987 to more than 220,000 people in 2020. (from Indian Ocean)
Sunset over the Pacific Ocean as seen from the International Space Station. Tops of thunderclouds are also visible. (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)
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)
Pacific Ocean currents have created three islands of debris. (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)
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)
1928 delineation (from Southern Ocean)
Typhoon Tip at global peak intensity on 12 October 1979 (from Pacific Ocean)
Bahama Banks (from Atlantic Ocean)
The Austronesian maritime trade network was the first trade routes in the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
Maris Pacifici by Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean (from Pacific Ocean)
A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia (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).
The Kennedy Channel. (from Arctic Ocean)
According to the Coastal hypothesis, modern humans spread from Africa along the northern rim of the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
For most of the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade. (from Indian Ocean)
Iceberg A22A in the South Atlantic Ocean (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)
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)
Greco-Roman trade with ancient India according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea 1st century CE (from Indian Ocean)
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In the news
- 3 October 2026 –
- A Latitude Air Ambulance Gulfstream G100, flying from St. David's Island, Bermuda to Boston, United States, goes missing over the Atlantic Ocean with six people on board. Search operations are ongoing. (News 18)
- 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)
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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