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 Gulf of Finland (Estonian: Soome laht; Finnish: Suomenlahti; Russian: Фи́нский зали́в, romanized: Finskiy zaliv; Swedish: Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn. The eastern parts of the gulf belong to Russia, and some of Russia's most important oil harbors are located there, including Primorsk. As the seaway to Saint Petersburg, the gulf is of considerable strategic importance to Russia. Some of the environmental problems affecting the Baltic Sea are at their most pronounced in the shallow gulf. Proposals for an undersea Helsinki–Tallinn Tunnel through the gulf have been made. (Full article...)
Interesting facts -
- The sea snail Halystina umberlee (pictured) was named after the homonymous fictional evil goddess from the Forgotten Realms role-playing game setting.
- The Guanacaste Conservation Area, located in Northwest Costa Rica, is a 163,000-hectare (400,000-acre) expanse of protected land and sea.
- The pea crab Tunicotheres moseri lives inside the water-filled chamber of a sea squirt.
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 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)
Seas that are parts of the Southern Ocean (from Southern 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)
Embarked and disembarked slaves in the Atlantic slave trade 1525–1863 (first and last slave voyages) (from Atlantic Ocean)
Madagascar's elephant bird, Mauritius's dodo bird and ostrich (from left to right) (from Indian Ocean)
Mombasa Port on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast (from Indian Ocean)
A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia (from Southern Ocean)
Marine debris strewn over the beaches of the South Atlantic Inaccessible Island (from Atlantic Ocean)
The Austronesian maritime trade network was the first trade routes in the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707 (from Pacific Ocean)
Agulhas Bank (from Atlantic Ocean)
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals. (from Southern Ocean)
Continents and islands of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)
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)
Thule archaeological site (from Arctic Ocean)![Image 18"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)
Sunset in Monterey County, California, U.S. (from Pacific Ocean)
Major ocean trade routes in the world include the northern Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
Minke whale (from Arctic Ocean)
James Weddell's second expedition in 1823, depicting the brig Jane and the cutter Beaufroy (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 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)
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)
According to the Coastal hypothesis, modern humans spread from Africa along the northern rim of the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)
Fish of the Notothenioidei suborder, such as this young icefish, are mostly restricted to the Antarctic and Subantarctic. (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)
1928 delineation (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)
Air pollution in the Indian subcontinent spread over the Bay of Bengal and beyond. (from Indian Ocean)
USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica in early 1840 (from Southern Ocean)
Typhoon Tip at global peak intensity on 12 October 1979 (from Pacific 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)
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)
A general delineation of the Antarctic Convergence, sometimes used by scientists as the demarcation of the Southern Ocean (from Southern 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 island geography of the Pacific Ocean Basin (from Pacific Ocean)
Excavation of the Ertebølle middens in 1880 (from Atlantic Ocean)
The Kennedy Channel. (from Arctic 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.
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)
Location of the Southern Ocean gyres (from Southern Ocean)
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![Image 18"Terres Australes" [sic] label without any charted landmass (from Southern Ocean)](/location/wiki/File:Geography_world_map.jpeg)
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Related portals
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
Ocean currents and gyres | |||||||||||
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Categories
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Oceans
Seas
Oceanography
Associated Wikimedia
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Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Admiralty law
| Admiralty and maritime law |
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| Features |
| Contract of carriage / charterparty |
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| 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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