Ocean

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It has been suggested that World Ocean be merged into this article.
(Discuss) Proposed since February 2021.
Not to be confused with Sea or World Ocean.
For other uses, see Ocean (disambiguation).

Surface view of the Atlantic Ocean

World map of the five-ocean model with approximate boundaries

Earth's oceans

 Arctic
 Atlantic
 Indian
 Pacific
 Southern
 World Ocean

 v
 t
 e

An ocean is a body of water that composes much of a planet's hydrosphere.[1] On Earth,

an ocean is one of the major conventional divisions of the World Ocean. These are, in
descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern (Antarctic),
and Arctic Oceans.[2][3] The phrases "the ocean" or "the sea" used without specification
refer to the interconnected body of salt water covering the majority of the Earth's
surface.[2][3] As a general term, "the ocean" is mostly interchangeable with "the sea"
in American English, but not in British English.[4] Strictly speaking, a sea is a body of
water (generally a division of the world ocean) partly or fully enclosed by land. [5]
Saline seawater covers approximately 361,000,000 km2 (139,000,000 sq mi) and is
customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas, with the ocean
covering approximately 71% of Earth's surface and 90% of the Earth's biosphere.[6] The
ocean contains 97% of Earth's water, and oceanographers have stated that less than
20% of the World's Ocean has been mapped.[6] The total volume is approximately 1.35
billion cubic kilometers (320 million cu mi) with an average depth of nearly 3,700 meters
(12,100 ft).[7][8][9]
As the world ocean is the principal component of Earth's hydrosphere, it is integral
to life, forms part of the carbon cycle, and influences climate and weather patterns. The
World Ocean is the habitat of 230,000 known species, but because much of it is
unexplored, the number of species in the ocean is much larger, possibly over two
million.[10] The origin of Earth's oceans is unknown; oceans are thought to have formed in
the Hadean eon and may have been the cause for the emergence of life.
Extraterrestrial oceans may be composed of water or other elements and compounds.
The only confirmed large stable bodies of extraterrestrial surface liquids are the lakes of
Titan, although there is evidence for oceans' existence elsewhere in the Solar System.
Early in their geologic histories, Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water
oceans. The Mars ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars
was once covered by water, and a runaway greenhouse effect may have boiled away
the global ocean of Venus. Compounds such as salts and ammonia dissolved in water
lower its freezing point so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrial
environments as brine or convecting ice. Unconfirmed oceans are speculated beneath
the surface of many dwarf planets and natural satellites; notably, the ocean of the
moon Europa is estimated to have over twice the water volume of Earth. The Solar
System's giant planets are also thought to have liquid atmospheric layers of yet to be
confirmed compositions. Oceans may also exist on exoplanets and exomoons, including
surface oceans of liquid water within a circumstellar habitable zone. Ocean planets are
a hypothetical type of planet with a surface completely covered with liquid. [11][12]