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The ocean is an incredible place. Although more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water, there is still so much we don't know about its depths.
The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. [8] In English, the term ocean also refers to any of the large bodies of water into which the world ocean is conventionally divided. [9] The following names describe five different areas of the ocean: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and Arctic.
In open water, when the wind blows continuously as happens in the Southern Hemisphere in the Roaring Forties, long, organised masses of water called swell roll across the ocean. [3]: 83–84 [47] [48] [d] If the wind dies down, the wave formation is reduced, but already-formed waves continue to travel in their original direction until they meet ...
The world ocean covers an area of 3.618 × 10 8 km 2 with a mean depth of 3682 m, resulting in an estimated volume of 1.332 × 10 9 km 3. [17] If all of Earth's crustal surface was at the same elevation as a smooth sphere, the depth of the resulting world ocean would be about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi).
From shallow waters to the deep sea, the open ocean to rivers and lakes, numerous terrestrial and marine species depend on the surface ecosystem and the organisms found there. [28] The ocean's surface acts like a skin between the atmosphere above and the water below, and harbours an ecosystem unique to this environment.
The ocean contains 97% of Earth's water and is the primary component of Earth's hydrosphere and is thereby 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 salt water.
The oceans are not just a marine habitat. They are also a workplace, a highway, a prison, a grocery store, a trash can, a cemetery — and much more. Why we need to think about the oceans differently
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea.Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy.