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Ocean covers almost three quarters (71%) of the surface of the Earth. This global, interconnected body of salt water is divided by the continents and larger archipelagos into five oceans as follows:

• Arctic Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Indian Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Southern Ocean — in some regions and cultures, including North America and most of Continental Europe, the Southern Ocean is generally not considered an ocean in its own right, and is divided among the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

The area of the global ocean is 361 million square kilometres, its volume is 1370 million cubic kilometres, and its average depth 3790 metres. This does not include seas not connected to the oceans, such as the Caspian Sea.

The boundaries between the oceans are set by the International Hydrographic Organization; e.g., the Southern Ocean extends from the coast of Antarctica to 60 degrees south latitude. Smaller regions of the oceans are known as seas, gulfs, straits, etc.

See sea water for a detailed discussion of ocean water composition, most notably its salinitySalinity in Australian English may refer to soil salinity, see Salinity in Australia Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. Definitions The salt content of most natural lakes, rivers, and streams is so small that these wat.

1 Exploration

Study of Earth's oceans is called oceanographyOceanography (also called oceanology and marine science ) is the study of the earth's oceans and their interlinked ecosystems and chemical and physical processes. There are five major divisions within the science: biological oceanography (also sometimes c. Travel on the surface of the ocean through the use of boats dates back to prehistoric times, but only in modern times has extensive underwater travel become possible.

The deepest point in the ocean is the Mariana TrenchThe Mariana Trench is the deepest known submarine trench. It is located in the floor of the western North Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands. The trench has a maximum depth of 10,924 m (35,840 ft). It was fully surveyed in 1951 by the Briti located in the Pacific Ocean near the Northern Mariana IslandsThe Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a commonwealth in political union with the United States of America at a strategic location in the West Pacific Ocean. It consists of 14 islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the. It has a maximum depth of 10,924 m (35,838 ft)To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 10 and 100 km (104 to 105 m). See also lengths of other orders of magnitude. Distances shorter than 10 km 10 km is equal to: 10,000 metres 6. 2 miles 1 mil unit of measure commo. It was fully surveyed in 1951Events January events January 9 United Nations headquarters officially opens ( New York City). January 15 Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald," wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in We by the British navy vessel, "Challenger II" which gave its name to the deepest part of the trench, the " Challenger DeepThe Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the oceans, 10,911 meters (35,797 feet) deep at its maximum, near 11° 22'N 142° 36'E. It is in the Pacific Ocean, off the island of Guam in the Mariana Islands group at the southern end of the Mariana Tren".