Top 10 Largest Oceans in the World

70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water. Most of the waters are ocean and sea waters, which are saline water or saltwater. All the oceans in the world are connected to each other. However, they have been geographically divided into different sections and given separate names. 

How many major oceans are there? Out of the 5 major oceans in the world, the Pacific Ocean is the largest. It covers around 64 million square miles (166,266,877 sq km) and contains around half of the free water on Earth. The Pacific Ocean covers around 1/3rd of the total surface area, which is more than the combined land area of the Earth. The Pacific is the largest of the ocean basins in the world and all the continents of the world can fit into it. 

The periphery of the Pacific Ocean Basin is encircled by the “Ring of Fire”, which is a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, boundaries of several plates, volcanic mountain ranges, and island arcs. Among the existing ocean basins, the Pacific is the oldest, where the oldest rocks are dated back to around 200 million years. As intense earthquakes and volcanic activity occur near tectonic plate subduction areas, the Pacific Basin is also called the “Ring of Fire”. 

The largest basins are the Pacific Basin, Atlantic Basin, Indian Ocean basin, the Southern Ocean Basin, and the Arctic Ocean basin. The second-largest ocean in the world is the Atlantic Ocean, which covers around 33 million square miles (86,505,603 sq km). This ocean covers 1/5th of the earth’s total area. While it covers around 20% of the earth’s surface, it covers around 29% of the water surface area. 

The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean on the planet. It covers around 28.4 million square miles (73,555,662 sq km). The Indian Ocean (also called the Hind Mahāsāgar or the great Indian sea) is surrounded by Australia in the east, Africa in the west, and the Arabian Peninsula and Southeast Asia in the north. It has been named after India and in the ancient Sanskrit literature, the Indian Ocean is referred to as Ratnakara, “the mine of gems”. 

The Southern Ocean is also called the Antarctic Ocean or the Austral Ocean, which consists of waters around Antarctica. It has been defined only in 2000. The ocean zone of the 4th largest ocean sees the confluence of the Antarctic’s cold, northward flowing waters with the warmer sub-antarctic waters. 

The Arctic Ocean or the Arctic Mediterranean Sea (as preferred by some oceanographers) is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the smallest and shallowest ocean of the 5 major oceans of the world. The Arctic Ocean is recognized as an ocean by The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). 

Since 2008, the United Nations Organisation (UN) has recognized June 8 every year as World Oceans Day. It has become important to celebrate these days in an effort to conserve these oceans, the wide array of habitats living in them, and give them their due. 

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