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The borders of the oceans are the limits of Earth's oceanic waters.The definition and number of oceans can vary depending on the adopted criteria. The principal divisions (in descending order of area) of the five oceans are the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern (Antarctic) Ocean, and Arctic Ocean.
' Sea of Atlas ') and in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BC (Hdt. 1.202.4): Atlantis thalassa (Ancient Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς θάλασσα, ' Sea of Atlas ' or ' the Atlantic sea ' [7]) where the name refers to "the sea beyond the pillars of Hercules" which is said to be part of the sea that surrounds all land. [8]
The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, [3] [4] mostly surrounded by the North American continent. [5] It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; and on the ...
The ocean was first mapped by Abraham Ortelius; he called it Maris Pacifici following Ferdinand Magellan's description of it as "a pacific sea" during his circumnavigation from 1519 to 1522. To Magellan, it seemed much more calm (pacific) than the Atlantic. [83] The andesite line is the most significant regional distinction in the Pacific.
The terms "the ocean" or "the sea" used without specification refer to the interconnected body of salt water covering the majority of Earth's surface. [10] [11] It includes the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern/Antarctic, and Arctic oceans. [19] As a general term, "the ocean" and "the sea" are often interchangeable. [20]
The North Pacific Gyre is a larger system that circulates warm water from the northern Pacific along the western U.S. coast and then west toward Asia, where it warms and helps create typhoons.
The sea is the interconnected system of all the Earth's oceanic waters, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern and Arctic Oceans. [1] However, the word "sea" can also be used for many specific, much smaller bodies of seawater, such as the North Sea or the Red Sea.
The term originally derives from the early fourteenth century sense of trade (in late Middle English) still often meaning "path" or "track". [2] The Portuguese recognized the importance of the trade winds (then the volta do mar, meaning in Portuguese "turn of the sea" but also "return from the sea") in navigation in both the north and south Atlantic Ocean as early as the 15th century. [3]