South China Sea

South China Sea 

South China Sea western arm of the Pacific Ocean, c.1,000,000 sq mi (2,590,000 sq km), between the SE Asian mainland and Taiwan, the Philippines, and Borneo. It is connected with the East China Sea by the Taiwan Strait. The Gulf of Tonkin and the Gulf of Thailand are its chief embayments. The southwestern part of the sea from the Gulf of Thailand to the Java Sea is an enormous submerged plain called the Sunda Platform; water is generally shallow (less than 200 ft/61 m) throughout this vast area. In contrast, the northeastern part of the sea is a deep basin, reaching depths of up to c.18,000 ft (5,490 m). The Pearl, Red, Mekong, and Chao Phraya are the largest rivers flowing into the South China Sea. Many islands and reefs dot the sea, which is a region subject to violent typhoons. The Paracels, Spratlys, and other islands and reefs in the sea are variously claimed by China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam. The conflicting claims, important because of the sea's fisheries and oil and natural gas deposits, have been a source of international tension at times.

Physiography

The sea’s major feature is a deep rhombus-shaped basin in the eastern part, with reef-studded shoals rising up steeply within the basin to the south (Reed and Tizard banks and the Nanshan Island area) and northwest (Paracel Islands and Macclesfield banks). The deep portion, called the China Sea Basin, has a maximum depth of 16,457 feet (5,016 metres) and an abyssal plain with a mean depth of some 14,100 feet (4,300 metres).

Along the eastern side of the basin, the continental shelf falls off sharply near the Philippine islands of Luzon and Palawan and forms the Palawan Trough near the latter island. Along the northwest side of the basin toward the mainland is a broad, shallow shelf as wide as 150 miles (240 km). This shelf includes the Gulf of Tonkin and the Taiwan Strait and the large islands of Hainan and Taiwan.

To the south, off Vietnam, the shelf narrows and connects with the Sunda Shelf, one of the largest in the world, which covers the area between Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula and includes the southern part of the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, and the Java Sea. This broad trough is about 130 feet (40 metres) deep at its periphery and up to 330 feet (100 metres) in its central part. On the bottom of the shelf is a network of submerged river valleys that converge into the Sunda Depression and then into the China Sea Basin.

The Sunda Shelf is covered with littoral sediments contributed by submerged valleys. The inner zone of mud is characteristic of the continental shelf near the Mekong and Red river deltas, while the sediment of the deeper parts of the South China Sea is mainly composed of clay. A characteristic part of the sediments in both deep and shallow water is volcanic ash. This is found in layers, derived from large volcanic eruptions in the East Indies, notably the enormous eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, during which ash was transported through the entire area by both wind and currents.

The South China Sea has connecting channels. The Taiwan Strait on the north is about 100 miles (160 km) wide, with a depth of about 230 feet (70 metres). The Luzon Strait, the main deep channel connecting the South China Sea with the Pacific Ocean, lies between Taiwan and the Philippines and has a depth of about 8,500 feet (2,600 metres). Shallow channels are found on the east along the Philippine island chain and on the south between Borneo and Sumatra. The western connection to the Indian Ocean is the long Strait of Malacca. At its narrowest it is 19 miles (31 km) wide and about 100 feet (30 metres) deep.

The South China Sea is the largest marginal sea of the western Pacific. Some 1 million to 60 million years ago, it rifted and then collapsed as a result of seafloor spreading. The China Sea Basin is believed to have dropped 2.5 miles (4 km), leaving residual plateaus studded with numerous coral reefs, islets, and banks, some of which are drowned atolls.

Climate

Weather in the sea is tropical and largely controlled by monsoons. In summer, monsoonal winds blow predominantly from the southwest; in winter, winds blow from the northeast. Annual rainfall varies from about 80 inches (2,000 mm) to more than 120 inches (3,000 mm) around the southern basin. Summer typhoons are frequent.

Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean Facts

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the five oceanic divisions in the world, to be found in the Northern Hemisphere and mainly in the Arctic North Polar Region. Throughout the year, the ocean is largely covered with a sheet of sea ice due to very low temperatures. The Arctic Ocean is nearly completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America. Like Antarctica, the Arctic Ocean lacks the fabled history and beauty. It's actually a place for the most brutal and exposing adventure on earth. To know some more interesting, fun facts about the Arctic Ocean, read on.

Interesting and Fun Facts About Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the five oceans of the world. It's roughly 8% the size of the Pacific Ocean.
With total area of 14.056 million sq km, the Arctic Ocean includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies.
The Arctic Ocean has a coastline of 45,389 km and has depth of 4,665 m (from basin).
The Ocean boasts several important ports and harbors like Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia) and Prudhoe Bay (US).
The economic activity from the ocean is limited to the utilization of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.
The Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways of the Arctic Ocean.
The Arctic Ocean's cold sheet of floating ice is quarters to seals, polar bears and arctic fox.
The floating ice is around 16 million sq. km, which shrinks to 9 million sq. km. in summers. When the ice shrinks, open water leads expose the black water.
The Arctic Ocean's ice sheet is four times as large as the state of Texas.
More fish live along the edges of the Arctic Ocean than anywhere else on the Earth.
Its average winter temperature is minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. However, during summers, the temperature can rise up to plus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Arctic is the only place on the Earth where polar bears live. It receives roughly 8 inches of rain every year.
Most of the Arctic Ocean is permanently covered with a vast floating raft of sea ice.
Temperatures are low all year round, averaging -30°C in winter and sometimes dropping to -70°C.
During the long winters, which last more than four months, the Sun never rises above the horizon.
The Arctic gets its name from arctos, the Greek word for ‘bear, because the Great Bear constellation is above the North Pole.
There are three kinds of sea ice in the Arctic: polar ice, pack ice and fast ice.
Polar ice is the raft of ice that never melts through.
Polar ice may be as thin as 2 m in places in summer, but in winter it is up to 50 m thick.
Pack ice forms around the edge of the polar ice and only freezes completely in winter.
The ocean swell breaks and crushes the pack ice into chunky ice blocks and fantastic ice sculptures.
Fast ice forms in winter between pack ice and the land around the Arctic Ocean. It gets its name because it is held fast to the shore. It cannot move up and down with the ocean as the pack ice does.
The seal is one of the few creatures that can survive the bitter cold of the Arcticwinter.

Indian Ocean

Facts About Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean, the third largest saline-water body of the world, derives its name from India. On the northern side, the ocean is bounded by South Asia, including India. On the west, it is bounded by Africa, while Indochina, the Sunda Islands and Australia corner it from the east. Down south, Indian Ocean is bounded by Antarctica. The Island nations housed by the Indian Ocean are Madagascar (formerly Malagasy Republic), the world's fourth largest island; Comoros, Seychelles, Maldives, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. Indian Ocean covers 20 percent of the water on the Earth's surface. Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Ayeyarwady River are the major rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean. For some more interesting and fun facts about Indian Ocean, go through the following lines.
The Indian Ocean is located between Africa and Austral-Asia.

The waters of the Indian Ocean provides the largest breeding grounds of the world for humpback whales and also a fish which was thought to be extinct was discovered there: the Coelacanth is found in the warm waters off the Comoro islands between Mozambique and Madagascar.

The Northern Indian Ocean also is the most important transport route for oil as it connects the oil-rich countries of the Middle East Each with Asia. Every day tankers are carrying a cargo of 17 million barrels of crude oil from the Persian Gulf on its waters.

Interesting and Fun Facts About Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. However, the warmth of the ocean resists the growth of phytoplankton, except for a few spots here and there, across the water body. Hence, life thriving in the Indian Ocean is limited.
Indian Ocean is known as 'Ratnakara' in the ancient Sanskrit literature. Ratnakara means 'the maker (creator) of jewels'.
The ocean's volume is estimated to be 292,131,000 cubic kilometers. Its average depth is 3,890 meters (12,760 ft).
Its fish are of significant importance to the bordering states, for domestic consumption and export.
The beach sands of Indian Ocean are rich in heavy minerals and the offshore deposits are vigorously exploited by the bordering nations, primarily India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The important ports and harbors of Indian Ocean include Chennai (Madras; India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban (South Africa), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kolkata (Calcutta; India) Melbourne (Australia), Mumbai (Bombay; India), and Richards Bay (South Africa).
Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman), and Strait of Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia) are the four main access points to the Indian Ocean.
Indian Ocean transports a heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products, from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia.
The largest container handling facility in the Indian Ocean has been termed as Port Louis.
The ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas.
Approximately 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean.
Fishing in Indian Ocean has been restricted to subsistence level.
The lowest point in Indian Ocean is Java Trench, with a depth of 7, 258 m.
The ocean was dominated by the United Kingdom in early 1800s. After the decline of British Empire, Indian Ocean was dominated by India and Australia.
Experts have discovered that a large continent named ‘The Kerguelen Plateau’ has been submerged in the southern part of the Indian Ocean. It is learnt that the submerged continent is of volcanic origin.
Occasional occurrence of icebergs has posed a threat to navigation in the southern regions of the ocean.

The Indian Ocean is also the world's warmest ocean, the world's only closed ocean, has the lowest oxygenated waters of all the world's oceans,has the most negative water balance of all the world's oceans, the highest concentrations of both floating and dissolved hydrocarbons of all the world's seas and consists of areas of water with both the world's highest and lowest surface, salinity levels.

The Indian Ocean consists of 57 island groups or archipelagos, 16 seas or large gulfs, borders 16 African countries, 18 Asian countries and 1 Australasian state, is home to 40% of the world's offshore oil reserves and covers 5 submerged, oceanic ridges, 5 divergent tectonic plate boundaries and 1 Triple Point.

Because of it's continually warm temperatures, the Indian Ocean also has the highest evaporation level, the lowest resistance to phytoplankton growth and draws the least atmospheric oxygen of all the world's seas, leading to it harbouring the lowest levels of marine life of all the world's oceans.



The Indian Ocean's sea bed is around 12,760 feet deep, but the ocean also consists of two deep trenches which drop to over 25,000 feet deep - the 8,500,000 feet long Java Trench and the Diamantina Trench.

For more information Visit:

http://geography.knoji.com/facts-about-the-indian-ocean/

Atlantic Ocean

Facts about Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean is the second largest ocean in the world, next only to the Pacific Ocean. It is slightly less than 6.5 times the size of the US. The ocean separates Northern and Southern America from Europe and Africa. It is one of the busiest sea routes in the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Apart from this, there are various other economic activities which are carried out in the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to know more about Atlantic Ocean, explore the interesting and fun facts provided below.

Interesting & Fun Facts about Atlantic Ocean

Of all the world's oceans, Atlantic Ocean is the youngest. It is believed to have been formed during the Jurassic Period.
Atlantic Ocean receives water from about half the world's land area. Numerous rivers flow into the ocean.
The name 'Atlantic' is derived from the legendary island of 'Atlantis', as described by Plato - one of the ancient writers.
Atlantic Ocean was the first ocean to be crossed by ship and airplane.
In South Atlantic, there is a wide stretch of ocean between the tips of South Africa and South America, which causes huge waves & continuous strong winds, known as the "Roaring Forties".
The warm Gulf Stream of Atlantic Ocean keeps harbors in the Northern Europe away from ice, during winters.
Sonar waves are used by scientists to map the floor of Atlantic Ocean.
Puerto Rico Trench is the deepest point in Atlantic Ocean. It is about eight and a half thousand meters deep.
The largest island in Atlantic Ocean is Greenland.
The Cancun reef of Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Yucatan (Mexico), is the world's second largest barrier reef, after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
The first successful telegraph cable was laid under Atlantic Ocean in 1866, by The Great Eastern, the then world's largest ship.
In World War II, the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth carried US troops across the Atlantic, to Europe.
Concorde, the first supersonic flight, was across Atlantic Ocean only.
In the winter storms of the Atlantic, waves can reach a great size and do untold damage to land.
Atlantic Ocean causes the highest tides in the world, which occur in the Bay of Fundy, Canada, with a rise of around fifty feet in the spring tides.
Atlantic Ridge, the underwater mountain range which runs 10,000 miles south from Iceland, is twice as wide as the Andes Mountains.
Diamonds are scooped from the sea bed off the coast of Namibia, in southern Africa.
A triangular area in Atlantic Ocean, called The Bermuda Triangle, is held responsible for mysterious shipwrecks, disappearances and air crashes.
It was in 1919 that the first non stop flight to Atlantic Ocean was taken by John Alcock and Arthur Brown. The journey was completed in sixteen and a half hours.
In 1928, Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
It was during 1850s that the Cunard Line began carrying passengers across the Atlantic.
Titanic, the largest ship in the world - when she was built and said to be unsinkable, sank in Atlantic Ocean in 1912, after being hit by an iceberg on her maiden voyage to America.
In 1938, a coelacanth, a type of fish that first appeared in the sea some 300 million years ago, was caught alive by the fishermen off the Southern coast of Africa. These fishes were thought to be extinct for more than 60 million years.
French Emperor Napoleon, after losing the Battle of Trafalgar, was exiled to St. Helena in Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between the Americas to the west, and Europe and Africa to the east. As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic), to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the far-south.

The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth world ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Atlantic Ocean south of 60 degrees south.

The average depth of the Atlantic, with its adjacent seas, is 3,339 metres (10,955 ft); without them it is 3,926 metres (12,881 ft). The greatest depth, Milwaukee Deep with 8,605 metres (28,232 ft), is in the Puerto Rico Trench.

The Atlantic's width varies from 2,848 kilometres (1,770 mi) between Brazil and Sierra Leone to over 6,400 km (4,000 mi) in the far-south.

Pacific Ocean

About Pacific Ocean 

The Pacific Ocean was named by legendary navigator Ferdinand Magellan. A native of Portugal, Magellan renounced his loyalty to that nation after King Emanuel rejected Magellan’s petition for a post within the royal navy. Magellan then left for Spain, which agreed to support Magellan’s claim of a western route to the Spice Islands through a seaway near the southern tip of South America.

On September 20, 1519, Magellan and a crew of 270 men set sail from Spain on their around-the-world voyage in five small vessels including his flagship Trinidad, Concepcion, San Antonio, Victoria, and Santiago. It took the fleet, or at least the three remaining ships in the fleet, 38 days to navigate the strait around South America that was to bear Magellan’s name. During the last week of November, the fleet emerged into what Magellan described as a “beautiful, peaceful ocean.” Thus, it was named the Pacific Ocean (“pacific” meaning “peaceful.”)

Upon entering the Pacific Ocean, Magellan mistakenly thought the Spice Islands were only a short voyage away. Nearly four months later, in March 1521, he and his crew finally reached what is known today as the Philippines. A few weeks later, he was fatally wounded after becoming involved in a dispute between warring Philippine tribes. Only one ship, Victoria, and 18 of Magellan’s original crew members returned to Spain, thereby completing the first circumnavigation of the globe. Although Magellan’s route proved impractical for the spice trade, his voyage has been called the greatest single human achievement on the seas.

Total Area :

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world’s five oceans, followed by the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. It covers an area of about 155 million square kilometers (about 60 million square miles). It is larger than the total land area of the world and about 15 times the size of the United States.

Depth:

Its average depth is 4,637 meters (2.8 miles). It is home to the deepest known point in the ocean — the Mariana Trench off Guam — which plunges to a depth of about 10,924 meters (nearly 7 miles). Because of the depth of the Pacific Ocean, tsunamis (huge waves created by earthquakes) can reach speeds of 750 kilometers an hour, the same velocity as a jet airplane.

Nations & Islands:

Seventeen independent nations are located in the Pacific: Australia, Fiji, Japan, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The U.S. state of Hawaii is also located here and several island territories and possessions of Australia, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The largest land mass in this ocean is the continent of Australia, which is about equal in size to the 48 contiguous states of the United States. There are some 25,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean — which is more than the rest of the world's oceans combined. Almost all the smaller islands lie between 30°N and 30°S latitude, extending from Southeast Asia to Easter Island. The rest of the Pacific Basin is almost devoid of land.

Climate:

The ocean and the atmosphere are closely linked — a fact that is clearly demonstrated by the global weather phenomena we know as "El Niño" and "La Niña," which arise in the Pacific Ocean.

Ages ago, Peruvian fishermen named the seasonal warming of the waters off their coast, which occurs in December, "El Nino," which is Spanish for "the Christ child." During a normal year, the waters off South America are typically cold and highly productive for fishing. Then in December (which is summer in the Southern Hemisphere), the water normally warms and fishing becomes less productive. Cold water usually returns again in June, when the fishing season begins again there. In some years, however, the water stays warm throughout the year and can cause dramatic weather around the world. The term "El Niño" is now used to refer to this climatic process.

Steady, westward-blowing trade winds cause warm water to pile up in the western Pacific. During El Niño, the trade winds weaken and cannot "contain" this huge pool of warm water. Consequently, warm water extends far eastward. In the United States, the effects of an El Niño winter include warmer than normal temperatures from the Great Lakes to Alaska, wetter than normal conditions across the southern tier of states, some dryness in the Midwest, and cooler than normal temperatures in the Southeast. It can also include a decrease in hurricanes that reach land.

In some ways, La Niña is the opposite of El Niño and is characterized by cooler than normal ocean water surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific. In the United States, a La Niña winter includes temperatures that are cooler than normal over the Northwest, warmer than normal over the Southeast, drier than normal from Florida to Arizona, and wetter than normal over the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Midwest. La Niña may also bring an increase in hurricanes that reach land in the United States.

According to the NOAA National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center, it's likely that El Niño conditions will persist through early 2005. Among the expected impacts around the globe are drier-than-average conditions in Indonesia (through early 2005), northern and northeastern Australia (Nov. 2004 – Feb. 2005), and southeastern Africa (Nov. 2004–March 2005). If the warming in the tropic Pacific strengthens and spreads eastward to the South American coast, then wetter-than-average conditions would be expected in coastal sections of Ecuador and northern Peru during the first few months of 2005, and drier-than-average conditions would be expected to develop in the eastern Amazon late this year and spread to northeast Brazil during Feb.–April 2005.

Bottom Terrain:

The ocean floor in the eastern Pacific is dominated by the East Pacific Rise, which is a part of the worldwide Mid-Ocean Ridge system. About 3,000 km (1,800 mi) across, the rise stands about 3 km (2 mi) above the adjacent ocean floor. The western part of the Pacific Ocean floor consists of mountain arcs that rise above the sea as island groups, such as the Solomon Islands and New Zealand, and deep trenches, such as the Mariana Trench, the Philippine Trench, and the Tonga Trench. Most of the deep trenches lie adjacent to the outer margins of the wide western Pacific continental shelf.

Natural Resources:

One of the Pacific Ocean’s greatest assets is fish, including herring, salmon, sardines, snapper, swordfish, tuna, and shellfish. In 1996, over half (60%) of the world’s total fish catch came from the Pacific Ocean. Pearls are harvested along Australia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Philippines. Exploitation of offshore oil and gas reserves is playing an ever-increasing role in the energy supplies of Australia, New Zealand, China, the United States, and Peru.

Environment:

The Pacific Ocean’s endangered marine species include the dugong, sea lion, sea otter, seals, turtles, and whales. Current major environmental issues include oil pollution in the Philippine Sea and South China Sea. In terms of natural hazards, the Pacific Ocean is surrounded by a zone of violent volcanic and earthquake activity (“The Ring of Fire”). Hurricanes may form south of Mexico and strike Central America and Mexico from June to October. The greatest typhoon frequency exists within the triangle from southern Japan to the central Philippines to eastern Micronesia.

Ports:

Bangkok (Thailand), Hong Kong, Kao-hsiung (Taiwan), Los Angeles (U.S.), Manila (Philippines), Pusan (South Korea), San Francisco (U.S.), Seattle (U.S.), Shanghai (China), Singapore, Sydney (Australia), Vladivostok (Russia), Wellington (New Zealand), Yokohama (Japan).

For more Information:

http://www.kids-world-travel-guide.com/pacific-ocean-facts.html

(http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/zn.html)

(http://www.mariner.org/age/magellan.html)

(http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/guide6.html)