Nearly all of the earthʼs
surface is water, with
97% salt and 3% fresh.
There are five oceans: from largest
to smallest, Pacific (North
and South), Atlantic (North and
South), Indian, Southern, and
Arctic.

There were only four oceans
officially recognised until the
spring of 2000, when the International
Hydrographic Organization
(IHO) established the Southern
Ocean, but more about that
later.

The Pacific Ocean
The Pacific comes from the
Latin, Mare Pacificum, which
means ʻpeaceful seaʼ. It is the
largest ocean in the world, covering
about 46% of the Earthʼs
water surface and about 30% of
its total surface.

It is larger than all land areas
combined, extending from the
Arctic in the north to the Southern
Ocean in the south, bounded
by Asia and Australia in the west,
and the Americas in the east.

The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand
Magellan crossed the Strait
of Magellan between Antarctica
and South America, and ʻdiscovered
ʼ the ʻnewʼ ocean. At the time
of crossing he thought that it appeared
very calm and peaceful,
thus he christened it ʻPacificʼ.

However, the Pacific is not
always peaceful. Many tropical
storms batter the islands of the
Pacific. The lands around the Pacific
rim are full of volcanoes and
often affected by earthquakes and
tsunamis.

The Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is said to
come from the Greek Atlantis, referring
both to the legendary lost
continent and the ʻSea of Atlasʼ.
In Greek mythology, Atlantis (in
the Atlantic Ocean) was established
by Poseidon, the God of
the Sea. He fathered five pairs of
male twins with mortal women,
and the eldest of these was Atlas
the Titan.

Atlas revolted against the gods,
and as punishment, he was compelled
to support the heavens
on his head and shoulders for
all eternity. Growing weary, he
asked Perseus to turn him into
stone by showing him the Medusa
ʼs head, and was transformed
into Mount Atlas.

Atlas became the personification
of the mountains or pillars
that held up the sky. The Atlas
mountains in North Africa were
said to be the place where he
stood, because Zeus told him to
stand at the ʻWestern Edge of the
Worldʼ.

The Atlantic Ocean appears to
be the second youngest of the five
oceans. Apparently it did not exist
prior to 130 million years ago,
when the continents that formed
from the breakup of the ancestral
super continent, Pangaea, were
drifting apart.

The South Atlantic Ocean
was once called The Ethiopic
Ocean or Ethiopian Ocean
(Okeanos Aithiopos), a term
which appeared until the mid-
19th century.

The Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean was formerly
called the Western
Ocean by the Chinese. From
1405 to 1433, Admiral Zheng
He led large fleets of the Ming
Dynasty on several voyages to
the Western Ocean, reaching
the coastal country of East Africa.

In the ancient Sanskrit literature,
The Indian Ocean is
known as Ratnakara, which
means ʻthe maker (creator) of
pearlsʼ. Early European navigators
and sea traders may
have renamed it the Indian
Ocean because they sailed it in
order to reach India.

The Indian Ocean is the third
largest of the worldʼs oceanic
divisions, covering about 20%
of the water on the Earthʼs surface.
On December 26, 2004, the
countries surrounding the Indian
Ocean were hit by a tsunami
caused by the 2004 Indian
Ocean earthquake. The waves
resulted in more than 226,000
deaths and over one million
people were left homeless.

The Arctic Ocean
Oxford Dictionaries claims
that the name Arctic comes
from Greek, arktikos, of the
north, relating to the Ursa major
constellation and the Pole Star.
The word also means northern;
frigid. Wikipedia states that
ʻThe name Arctic comes from
the ancient Greekʼ, meaning
ʻbearʼ, and is a reference to
the constellations of the Great
Bear and Little Bear, which are
located near the North Star.

The Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean is the
fifth and ʻnewestʼ world ocean.
Composed of the southern portions
of the Atlantic Ocean, Indian
Ocean, and Pacific Ocean,
it is now the fourth largest
ocean.

Why a new Southern Ocean?
According to Commodore
John Leech of the IHO, “A
great deal of oceanographic
research in recent years has
been concerned with ocean
circulations, first because of
El Nino, and then because of a
wider interest in global warming…

one of the main drivers
of ocean systems is the ʻSouthern
Circulation,ʼ which sets the
Southern Ocean apart as a separate
eco-system. Thinking of
this body of water as various
parts of the Atlantic, Indian
and Pacific Oceans makes no
scientific sense. New national
boundaries arise for geographical,
cultural or ethnic reasons.

Why not a new ocean, if there
is sufficient cause?”
The Southern Ocean, half of
which freezes in winter, completely
surrounds Antarctica
and extends from the coast of
Antarctica north to 60 degrees
south latitude.

Antarctica is an enormous
continent. Britain could fit into
it more than 50 times. More
than 99% of it is covered by
ice which, in places, is more
than three miles thick.

The name ʻAntarcticʼ again
shows Greek influence, as over
2,000 years ago, Greek writers
described a large mass of land
in the south of the world. Even
though they had never seen it,
they believed it must exist so
that it could ʻbalanceʼ the land
they knew about in the northern
half of the world. They named
this imagined land ʻAnti-Arkitos
ʼ, meaning the ʻopposite of
the Arcticʼ.

Despite the demarcation of
this new ocean, itʼs likely that
the debate over the number of
oceans will continue. After all,
there is but one ʻworld oceanʼ
as all oceans on our planet are
connected.

Top left: There is a very good
reason which the Earth viewed
from space has so many blue
expanses.

Above: Ernest Shackletonʼs
ship ʻEnduranceʼ is shown being
slowly crushed to matchwood
by ice in the Weddell
Sea, Antarctica in 1915.