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The document outlines the geography of the world's oceans, detailing the five main oceans: Arctic, Southern, Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific, and their characteristics. It discusses ocean sediments, the structure of the Arctic and Southern Oceans, and the impact of global warming on these bodies of water. Additionally, it highlights the significance of marine life and ocean currents in these regions.

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31 views7 pages

Untitled Document

The document outlines the geography of the world's oceans, detailing the five main oceans: Arctic, Southern, Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific, and their characteristics. It discusses ocean sediments, the structure of the Arctic and Southern Oceans, and the impact of global warming on these bodies of water. Additionally, it highlights the significance of marine life and ocean currents in these regions.

Uploaded by

nandhini.mailme2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ocean Geography

The five oceans are connected and are


actually one huge body of water, called the
global ocean or just the ocean.

The Global Ocean

The five oceans from smallest to largest are: the Arctic, Southern, Indian, Atlantic and

Pacific.
If you were to add the smaller seas like the Barents, Beaufort, Chukchi, Kara, Laptev,

East Siberian, Lincoln, Wandel, Greenland and Norwegian, etc. you would have a total

area of the ocean of about 361,000,000 km² (which is ~71% of the Earth’s surface), a

total volume of roughly 1,370,000,000 km³, and an average depth of 3,790 m. Our

hydrosphere (ocean plus all freshwater in ground water, lakes, rivers, snow, ice and

the atmosphere) makes up about 0.023% of the total mass of the Earth.
The word “Ocean” comes from Okeanos, the Greek god of the Ocean.
Terrigenous, pelagic, and authigenic materials composes most of ocean sediments.

Erosion, weathering and volcanic activity on land washes out to sea and creates the

sand, mud, and rock particles that make up terrigenous deposits. Consequently,

terrigenous deposits are confined to narrow marginal bands close to land like

continental shelves and are deepest near the mouths of large rivers or desert coasts.

Pelagic deposits derived from seawater are red clays and the skeletal remains of

organisms that have died and sunk to the ocean floor. These include pelagic red clays

and globigerina, pteropod and siliceous oozes. Most of the ocean floor is actually

covered in these organic remains with a depth ranging anywhere from 60 to 3,300 m

deep, but they are thickest in convergence belts and upwelling zones. Authigenic

deposits are made up of particles like manganese nodules and include montmorillonite
and phillipsite and can be found in places where the sedimentation process occurs

very slowly or currents sort out the deposits.

The Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean is divided by an underwater ocean ridge called the Lomonosov ridge

into the 4,000-4,500 m deep Eurasian or Nasin basin and the 4,000 m deep North

American or Hyperborean basin. The topography of the Arctic Ocean bottom varies

consisting of fault-block ridges, abyssal plains, and ocean deeps and basins that have

an average depth of 1,038 m due to the continental shelf on the Eurasian side.

The greatest inflow of water to the Arctic Ocean comes from the Atlantic via the

Norwegian Current, (which then travels along the Eurasian coast) although water also

enters from the Pacific via the Bering Strait. The greatest outflow comes from the East

Greenland Current. Ice used to cover most of the Arctic Ocean year round (this is now

changing drastically due to global warming). When the ice melts, salinity and

subfreezing temperatures vary. The subfreezing temperatures cool the air traveling

towards the equator, mixing with warmer air at middle latitudes, resulting in rain and

snow. Marine life is thought to be relatively scarce in the cold waters of the Arctic

Ocean except in the open, southerly waters. Air traffic is common over the Arctic

because it is the shortest route between the Pacific coast of North America and

Europe. For boats, major ports are the Russian cities known as Murmansk and

Arkhangelsk (Archangel).
The Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean is the world’s fourth-largest body of water. It encircles Antarctica

and is actually divided among the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Most people of

North America and Continental Europe have no name for the area and regard the area

as parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans simply extending to Antarctica.

However, because mariners have long referred to this area as the “Southern Ocean” it

was accepted as an ocean in 2000 by the International Hydrographic Organization.

This ocean is predominantly deep water, averaging 4,000-5,000 m deep, and includes

the Antarctic continental shelf, an unusually deep and narrow area with an edge of

400-800 m deep (over 270-670 m deeper than average). The lowest point is 7,235 m
deep at the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench. There is a seven-fold

increase in the size of the Antarctic ice pack between March and September (though

this is also changing due to global warming), ranging from 2,600,000 km² to

18,800,000 km². The world’s largest ocean current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

(21,000 km in length) moves perpetually eastward here and transports 130,000,000 m³

of water per second—100 times the flow of all the world’s rivers combined.

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