The ocean and sea

Many people use the terms "OCEAN" and "SEA" interchangeably

when speaking about the ocean.
Seas are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land
and ocean meet
An ocean is a vast and a continuous frame of salty water that shelters
almost 70 percent of the total earth's surface while a sea is a large
body of saline water that occupies a greater part of the world's
surface but is smaller than an ocean. The difference between the two
water bodies is summarized in in terms of depth, area, and marine life

The Oceans
• In reality the Earth has one ocean.
• For our convenience it is divided into FOUR PRINCIPLE OCEANS, and
one other.
– Pacific Ocean
– Atlantic Ocean
– Indian Ocean
– Arctic Ocean
– Antarctic Ocean
While there is only one global ocean, the vast body of water that covers
71 percent of the Earth is geographically divided into distinct named
regions. The boundaries between these regions have evolved over time
for a variety of historical, cultural, geographical, and scientific reasons.
Historically, there are four named ocean basins: the Atlantic, Pacific,
Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries - including the United States
- now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean basin. The
Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian are the most commonly known.

The Southern Ocean is the 'newest' named ocean basin. It is recognized

by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names as the body of water extending
from the coast of Antarctica to the line of latitude at 60 degrees South.
The boundaries of this ocean were proposed to the International
Hydrographic Organization in 2000. However, not all countries agree on
the proposed boundaries, so this has yet to be ratified by members of
the IHO. The U.S. is a member of the IHO, represented by the
NOS Office of Coast Survey.

The pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest
of Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north
to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the
south and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west
and the Americas in the east.

At 165,250,000 square kilometers (63,800,000 square miles) in area (as

defined with an Antarctic southern border), this largest division of
the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of
Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area,
making it larger than all of Earth's land area combined.[1] The centers of
both the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the
Pacific Ocean. The equator subdivides it into the North(ern) Pacific
Ocean and South(ern) Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions:
the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are
deemed wholly within the South Pacific.[2] Its mean depth is 4,000 meters
(13,000 feet).[3] The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the
deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 meters (35,797
feet).[4] The western Pacific has many peripheral seas.

Though the peoples of Asia and Oceania have traveled the Pacific
Ocean since prehistoric times, the eastern Pacific was first sighted by
Europeans in the early 16th century when Spanish explorer Vasco
Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and
discovered the great "southern sea" which he named Mar del Sur (in
Spanish). The ocean's current name was coined
by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the
Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered
favorable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which
in both Portuguese and Spanish means "peaceful sea

The average depth of the ocean is about 12,100 feet. The deepest part
of the ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located beneath the
western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which
runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the U.S. territorial island of
Guam. Challenger Deep is approximately 36,200 feet deep. It is named
after the HMS Challenger, whose crew first sounded the depths of the
trench in 1875.

Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans, with an
area of about 106,460,000 square kilometers (41,100,000 square miles). [2]
[3]
 It covers approximately 20 percent of Earth's surface and about 29
percent of its water surface area. It separates the "Old World" from the
"New World".
The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending
longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and the Americas to
the west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is
connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the
southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in
the south (other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward
to Antarctica). The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into
the North(ern) Atlantic Ocean and the South(ern) Atlantic Ocean at
about 8°N.[6]
Scientific explorations of the Atlantic include the Challenger expedition,
the German Meteor expedition, Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory and the United States Navy Hydrographic Office.