World ocean and its basic characteristics

2023-03-30

Table of contents

World ocean and its basic characteristics
- Distribution of soil and water on earth
The division of the world’s oceans
- Oceans.
- Bays and straits

World ocean and its basic characteristics

Distribution of soil and water on earth

The surface of the earth is 510 million km², which is 361 million km of the water surface of oceans and seas and 149 million km².

It is occupied by land, meaning the water surface is almost 2.5 times larger than the land. The water and land surface are very unevenly distributed over the two hemispheres and across latitudes.

In the northern hemisphere, water covers 61% of the area, and in the southern hemisphere – it is 81%.
The unequal distribution of land and water across the hemispheres is typical of planet earth.

Another feature is that the land consists of separate, non-contiguous continents, and the ocean and sea water pass through the straits with each other, forming a continuous area of water called the Ocean world.

The water volume of the World’s Oceans is equal to 1370 million km³ and occupies 1:800 of the world’s volume.

The division of the world’s oceans

The world ocean is divided into oceans, seas, bays, and straits… according to the physical and topographic characteristics of those waters.

Oceans.

The ocean is the larger part of the World Ocean that is bounded by continents. According to their natural characteristics, people divide the World Ocean into four oceans: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean, the border between them is the coast of the continents semi-southern latitudes have no such boundary and are traditionally recognized according to certain meridians.

The western borders of the Pacific Ocean are the coast of Asia, the archipelago of Malaysia, the coast of Australia, along the meridian 146°55E from the southeastern tip of the island of Tasmani; south – the Antarctic coast; the East coast of North America and South America, from the Dreica Strait to Antarctica to Cape Gorn: north – Bering Bay, following the line from Cape Unikun to the southern tip of Sismarev Bay.

The boundary of the Atlantic Ocean: on the west the eastern coast of North and South America, then from Cape Gorn along the 62° 04′ W meridian, south the Antarctic coast, the eastern European coast, the African coast, and longitude 20° East Cape Igon, north – Statlan peninsula, Sorlan island, Farec island, Islan, Denmark Strait, Devixo Strait, Baffinor coast, Gutdonov Strait.

Border of the Indian Ocean: the Asian coast to the north; along the west coast of Africa and 20° East longitude from Cape Igon; south – the Antarctic coast; It borders the Pacific Ocean along the east – 146 ° 55’E meridian.

The borders of the Arctic Ocean: the Atlantic Ocean, the north of the oceans such as the Pacific Ocean, the coasts of Europe, Asia, North America, and Grenlan.

The largest by area is the Pacific Ocean, which makes up 50% of the total area of the World Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean – 25.8%, the Indian Ocean – 20.8%, and the Arctic Ocean – only 3.6%.

Table 1 gives the main data on the oceans.

Bays and straits

a. Sea – a part of the ocean that is more or less bordered by the coasts of continents, islands, and heights of underwater land. Seas differ from oceans in their hydrological regimes.

Large lakes, such as the Caspian Sea and the Aran Sea, are also called seas, they are the remnants of the ancient ocean that existed on earth during the period of geological formation.

Table 1.

Ocean

An area of thousands of square km²

Volume thousand km³

Depth (m)

Medium

Maxima

Arctic Ocean

$\frac{13100}{5035}\bigl(\begin{smallmatrix}1\end{smallmatrix}\bigr)$

10970

2179

5220

AtlanticIndian

$\frac{93363}{82442}$

323613

3925

9219

Ocean

$\frac{74917}{73443}$

291030

3963

7450

Pacific

$\frac{179679}{165246}$

707555

4282

11034

(1) The numerator is the area of the ocean with seas, and the denominator – is no seas

Depending on the degree of separation and the characteristics of the hydrological regime of the sea, people divide them into three groups: Inland seas, inland seas, and seas between islands:

– All inland seas are surrounded by oceans, or only one or a few of the lands connected to the sea are straits. They are characterized by a high degree of separation of natural conditions, closed surface water circulation, and a great degree of independence in salinity and temperature distribution.

For example, the Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Gibranta Strait at its mouth, 14-21 km wide and 366 m deep; The White Sea is connected to the Barenx Sea by a strait 45-55 km wide and with a maximum depth of 20 m. The Black Sea is connected to the Mormon Sea by a narrow channel. The box is 30 km long and 27.5-121 m deep, and even closer to the Aegean Sea via the Dardanelles.

Between the seas there are many seas located between the land and the sea, and this group can be mentioned: the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhot, and the Sea of Japan,…

Coastal sea: not too far from the mainland, it is separated from the oceans by peninsulas and islands; continents and oceans have the same effect on the formation of the flow system, the distribution of salinity, and water temperature. These are the seas above northern Europe North Asia except Bach Hai.

– Sea between Islands: Xulu Sea, Xelebes Sea, Banda is surrounded by an arc with islands such as lavan…

There are about 50 seas of all types in the whole World Ocean.

b. Gulf – an inland part of the ocean or sea. The sheep have many names according to their shape and size: region, pond, fior…

Clumsy – the bay is not large, it is separated from the sea by a strait.

Puddle – is the inner part of the bay.

Fior – long, high shore in the bay’s interior, separated from the sea by an underwater threshold.

There are many bays larger than the Black Sea – the Bay of Biskai, Gviney, Bengal, Mexico, Aliaska – larger by size than the entire sea, such as the Baltic Sea, the White Sea, and others.

c. Strait – The relatively narrow area of water that divides the mainland into parts and connects two water tanks.