Portal:Oceans

The Oceans Portal
A portal dedicated to oceans, seas, oceanography and related topics

Selected panorama

– Hover over image and scroll to middle for controls to see more selected panorama images –

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   Caesio teres in the South Pacific Ocean in Fiji

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   Satellite view of the Pacific Ocean and the main windward Hawaiian Islands

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   A panorama of Zanzibar, Tanzania, particularly the Stone Town, taken from the Indian Ocean

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   A view of the South China Sea, Bacuit Archipelago, municipality of El Nido, Palawan, Philippines

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   A view of the Southern Ocean from Great Ocean Road, Port Campbell, Princetown, Victoria, Australia

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   A mother sperm whale and her calf in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mauritius

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   Clouds over the Southern Ocean, with continent labels

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   A surfer in the Pacific Ocean at the 2010 Mavericks competition, village of Princeton-by-the-Sea, northern California

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   A view of Myrtos Beach and the Ionian Sea, Cephalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece

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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.

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   Icebergs broken off from glaciers in northern Baffin Bay, Cape York, Greenland

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   A sea anemone in the Pacific Ocean, Baja California, Mexico

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   Orca (Orcinus orca) hunting a Weddell seal in the Southern Ocean

Introduction

Surface view of the Atlantic Ocean

The ocean (also known as the sea or the world ocean) is a body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. The term ocean also refers to any of the large bodies of water into which the world ocean is conventionally divided. Distinct names are used to identify five different areas of the ocean: Pacific (the largest), Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and Arctic (the smallest). Seawater covers approximately 361,000,000 km² (139,000,000 sq mi) of the planet. The ocean is the primary component of the Earth's hydrosphere, and thus essential to life on Earth. The ocean influences climate and weather patterns, the carbon cycle, and the water cycle by acting as a huge heat reservoir. (Full article...)

Waves in Pacifica, California

A sea is a large body of salty water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the wider body of seawater. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order sections of the oceanic sea (e.g. the Mediterranean Sea), or certain large, nearly landlocked bodies of water. (Full article...)

Oceanography (from Ancient Greek ὠκεανός (ōkeanós) 'ocean', and γραφή (graphḗ) 'writing'), also known as oceanology, sea science and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; plate tectonics and seabed geology; and fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers utilize to glean further knowledge of the world ocean, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, climatology, geography, geology, hydrology, meteorology and physics. Paleoceanography studies the history of the oceans in the geologic past. An oceanographer is a person who studies many matters concerned with oceans, including marine geology, physics, chemistry, and biology. (Full article...)

Read more about oceans...
Read more about the sea...
Read more about oceanography...

Selected article -

One version of the Bermuda Triangle area

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The idea of the area as uniquely prone to disappearances arose in the mid-20th century, but most reputable sources dismiss the idea that there is any mystery. (Full article...)

Interesting facts -

• The west coast seabream and the sand steenbras (pictured) start their adult lives as males and later change sex.

• Sea fans such as Leptogorgia sarmentosa and Eunicella singularis are sometimes overgrown by false coral.

• The Islamic prophet Muhammad, while in Mecca, was a merchant involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Selected list articles and Marine habitat topics

• 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

edit tasks

Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : List of oceanographers, create a comprehensive article on Concentrations of marine debris out of all the gyre and "garbage patch" articles Expand : Coral Sea, Endeavour Strait, Greenland Sea, Solomon Sea Photo : find images for Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in the oceans Stubs : Oceanography stub articles, Marine geography stub articles, Aleutian Trench, Bellingshausen Sea, Caernarfon Bay, Gerlache Strait, Gulf of Oman, Iceland Sea Update : Botany Bay, Wilkins Sound, Mariana Trench, Challenger Deep Verify : Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Bering Sea, Gulf of Aden, Iceberg B-15, Ionian Sea, Japan Trench, Moreton Bay, Sound (geography), Timor Sea Other : add ISBNs and remove excessive or inappropriate external links from Aral Sea; check La Belle (ship) for GA status; improve citations or footnotes and remove excessive or inappropriate external links from MS Estonia

General images -

The following are images from various ocean-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  An adult and sub-adult Minke whale are dragged aboard the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru. (from Southern Ocean)

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  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)

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  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)

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  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. (from Arctic Ocean)

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  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)

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  Bahama Banks (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  During summer, warm continental masses draw moist air from the Indian Ocean hence producing heavy rainfall. The process is reversed during winter, resulting in dry conditions. (from Indian Ocean)

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  A stratovolcano in Ulawun on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Fish of the Notothenioidei suborder, such as this young icefish, are mostly restricted to the Antarctic and Subantarctic. (from Southern Ocean)

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  1928 delineation (from Southern Ocean)

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  Continents and islands of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)

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  The Arctic region showing the Northeast Passage, the Northern Sea Route within it, and the Northwest Passage. (from Arctic Ocean)

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  Portrait of Edmund Halley by Godfrey Kneller (before 1721) (from Southern Ocean)

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  For most of the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade. (from Indian Ocean)

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  Orca (Orcinus orca) hunting a Weddell seal in the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)

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  Map showing the migration of the Austronesian peoples (from Pacific Ocean)

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  USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica in early 1840 (from Southern Ocean)

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  MS Explorer in Antarctica in January 1999. She sank on 23 November 2007 after hitting an iceberg. (from Southern Ocean)

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  The Aethiopian Ocean in a 1710 French map of Africa (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  A copepod (from Arctic Ocean)

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  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)

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  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)

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  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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  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)

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  A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia (from Southern Ocean)

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  Tarawa Atoll in Kiribati (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a keystone species of the food web. (from Southern Ocean)

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  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)

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  A bathymetric/topographic map of the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding lands. (from Arctic Ocean)

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  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.

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  Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, U.S. in 2020 (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Aldabra giant tortoise from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles (from Indian Ocean)

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  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)

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  Greco-Roman trade with ancient India according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei 1st century CE (from Indian Ocean)

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  Embarked and disembarked slaves in the Atlantic slave trade 1525–1863 (first and last slave voyages) (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  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)

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  An exclusive economic zone map of the Pacific which excludes non-tropical islands. (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Pacific Ocean currents have created three islands of debris. (from Pacific Ocean)

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  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)

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  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)

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  James Weddell's second expedition in 1823, depicting the brig Jane and the cutter Beaufroy (from Southern Ocean)

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  Excavation of the Ertebølle middens in 1880 (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  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)

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  1911 South Polar Regions exploration map (from Southern Ocean)

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  The Pacific Ocean, photograph taken from space by the Apollo 11 crew in July 1969 (from Pacific Ocean)

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  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)

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  The bathyscaphe Trieste before her record dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 23 January 1960 (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707 (from Pacific Ocean)

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  The Austronesian maritime trade network was the first trade routes in the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)

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  Emanuel Bowen's 1780s map of the Arctic features a "Northern Ocean". (from Arctic Ocean)

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  Three polar bears approach USS Honolulu near the North Pole. (from Arctic Ocean)

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  Location of the Southern Ocean gyres (from Southern Ocean)

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  1937 delineation (from Southern Ocean)

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  Sea cover in the Arctic Ocean, showing the median, 2005 and 2007 coverage (from Arctic Ocean)

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  "Southern Ocean" as alternative to the Aethiopian Ocean, 18th century (from Southern Ocean)

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  Seas that are parts of the Southern Ocean (from Southern Ocean)

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  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)

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  Upwelling in the Southern Ocean

  (from Southern Ocean)
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  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).

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  Banks of the North-East Atlantic (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the strongest current system in the world oceans, linking the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific basins. (from Southern Ocean)

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  Cod fishery in Norway (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  A female warty squid (Moroteuthis ingens) (from Southern Ocean)

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  Madagascar's Elephant bird, Mauritius's Dodo bird and ostrich (from left to right) (from Indian Ocean)

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  Made in 1529, the Diogo Ribeiro map was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size (from Pacific Ocean)

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  The International Hydrographic Organization's delineation of the "Southern Ocean" has moved steadily southwards since the original 1928 edition of its Limits of Oceans and Seas. (from Southern Ocean)

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  According to the Coastal hypothesis, modern humans spread from Africa along the northern rim of the Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)

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  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)

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  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)

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  The Kennedy Channel. (from Arctic Ocean)

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  Walruses on Arctic ice floe (from Arctic Ocean)

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  False color map of ocean depth in the Atlantic basin (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  Maris Pacifici by Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Major ocean trade routes in the world include the northern Indian Ocean. (from Indian Ocean)

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  Impact of El Niño and La Niña on North America (from Pacific Ocean)

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  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)

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  Banks of the North-West Atlantic (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  The three major cultural areas of the Pacific Ocean islands: Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Sunset in Monterey County, California, U.S. (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Marine debris on a Hawaiian coast in 2008 (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars taking over Tahiti on 9 September 1842 (from Pacific Ocean)

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  An unnamed Chagossian on Diego Garcia in 1971 shortly before the British expelled the islanders when the island became a U.S. military base. The man spoke a French-based creole language and his ancestors were most likely brought to the uninhabited island as slaves in the 19th century. (from Indian Ocean)

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  Thule archaeological site (from Arctic Ocean)

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  Admiral von Bellingshausen (from Southern Ocean)

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  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)

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  Manganese nodule (from Southern Ocean)

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  Minke whale (from Arctic Ocean)

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  "Terres Australes" [sic] label without any charted landmass (from Southern Ocean)

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  Mombasa Port on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast (from Indian Ocean)

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  The island geography of the Pacific Ocean Basin (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Malé's population has increased from 20,000 people in 1987 to more than 220,000 people in 2020. (from Indian Ocean)

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  A wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) on South Georgia (from Southern Ocean)

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  Path of the thermohaline circulation. Purple paths represent deep-water currents, while blue paths represent surface currents.

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  Typhoon Tip at global peak intensity on 12 October 1979 (from Pacific Ocean)

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  Coral reefs of the Maldives (from Indian Ocean)

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  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)

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  Agulhas Bank (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  Iceberg A22A in the South Atlantic Ocean (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals. (from Southern Ocean)

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  Regional Working Group zones for SOOS (from Southern Ocean)

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  Capture of Atlantic north-west cod in million tons (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  Marine debris strewn over the beaches of the South Atlantic Inaccessible Island (from Atlantic Ocean)

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  Air pollution in South Asia spread over the Bay of Bengal and beyond. (from Indian Ocean)

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  Decrease of old Arctic Sea ice 1982–2007 (from Arctic Ocean)

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  A general delineation of the Antarctic Convergence, sometimes used by scientists as the demarcation of the Antarctic Ocean (from Southern Ocean)

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  Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1754. (from Pacific Ocean)

Related portals

In the news

27 November 2023 –

The British Antarctic Survey confirms that the world's largest iceberg, A23a, is now leaving the Weddell Sea and drifting into the Southern Ocean after being in the Weddell Sea for more than 30 years. The iceberg is expected to follow the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and continue to drift away from Antarctica. (The Guardian)

10 November 2023 – Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–Philippines relations

China imposes "control measures" against Philippine vessels at a contested South China Sea location after a Philippine auxiliary ship entered the area which China deemed as infringing on its sovereignty. (AFP via TOI)

9 November 2023 – 2023 Israel–Hamas war

An unidentified drone strikes a building in the port city of Eilat, after Israel intercepts a ballistic missile over the Red Sea with its Arrow missile defense system. The Yemen-based Houthis claim responsibility, but the Israel Defense Forces blame an unspecified organization in Syria for the strike. (Reuters)

1 November 2023 – 2023 Israel–Hamas war

Israel deploys Sa'ar-class corvettes to the Red Sea in response to missile and drone attacks from Yemen. Israeli National Security Council official Tzachi Hanegbi says that the Houthi attacks on Israel are "intolerable". (Reuters)

29 October 2023 – Russian invasion of Ukraine

Russia says that it has shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimea. (DW)

WikiProjects

WikiProjects

• WikiProject Oceans
• WikiProject Limnology and Oceanography
• WikiProject Marine life
• WikiProject Cetaceans
• WikiProject Fishes
• WikiProject Sharks

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Related WikiProjects

• WikiProject Arthropods
• WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing
• WikiProject Lakes
• WikiProject Rivers

Topics

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More topics

Categories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories Oceans

Oceans

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Arctic Ocean

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Oceans and seas in fiction

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Research vessels

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Oceanography stubs

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

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  Commons
  Free media repository

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  Free textbooks and manuals

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  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

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  Free-content news

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  Collection of quotations

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  Free-content library

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  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools

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  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Admiralty law

Need assistance?

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

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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