What is the smallest ocean in the world? The answer to this question can be found in this article. In addition, it tells about where it is located, what its territory is, who lives in it, what interesting facts are connected with it.
Oceans
Two-thirds of the surface of our planet is occupied by water. Its total area is about 370 million km22. Today, the geographical community identifies five world oceans:
- Quiet;
- Indian;
- Southern;
- Atlantic;
- Arctic.
This classification was adopted by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000, when the World Ocean was officially divided into the five above.
The line separating one huge body of water from another is conditional. Water can flow freely from one ocean to another. Climate differences, peculiarities of currents and some other phenomena appear on their borders.
Let's see what is the smallest ocean in the world, what makes it interesting, who inhabits it. Answers to these difficult questionsgives the science of oceanography.
Arctic
The smallest ocean in the world is the Arctic Ocean. A thick layer of Arctic ice covers most of its territory all year round.
The ocean first appeared on a German map in the seventeenth century. At first it was called Hyperborean. In general, during the history of its existence, it had many names, many of which indicate its geographical location.
The modern name of the ocean was fixed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, after the research of the navigator Admiral F. P. Litke.
This is the coldest of all the oceans on earth, bordering the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic. The depth ranges from 350 m to 5527 km, the average is more than 1200 meters, the volume of water is 18 million km3. The water in the ocean is multi-layered: different in temperature and degree of salinity. Often there are mirages that are formed due to the collision of warm and cold air masses.
The water area of the Arctic Ocean includes twelve seas. The most famous of them are: Beloe, Chukchi, Laptev, Barents and others.
Geographic location
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest ocean in the world. The name is determined by its geographical location. Its territory covers the North Pole, as well as most of the arctic and subarctic bands of the globe. The shores of the two largest continents are washed by its waters.
Very low temperatures, the dominance of cold arctic winds, long polar nights and, as a result,This, the lack of solar heat and light, very little rainfall - all this makes the climate very harsh. In addition, this smallest ocean in the world, due to the lack of heat, is mostly covered with huge ice plates.
These plates are in constant motion, and therefore huge ice piles are formed.
Sizes
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest ocean in the world in terms of area. It accounts for 3.5% of the total world water supply. In general, this is almost 15 million km2. Compared to the Pacific Ocean, which is the largest in the world, the Arctic Ocean is only a tenth of it.
Almost half of the area is occupied by continental shelves. The depth here is shallow, about 350 meters.
In the central part there are several deep depressions up to 5000 meters. They are separated from each other by transoceanic ridges (Haeckel, Mendelev, Lomonosov).
Inhabitants
Most of the Arctic Ocean is covered with ice for almost the entire year, so it does not attract the attention of sailors and fishermen. There are few marine life and plants here. Although there are still representatives and lovers of a cold climate.
Where the waters are more or less ice-free, seals, walruses, polar bears, whales, small fish and shellfish can be found.
For the fauna of the Arctic Ocean, as, indeed, for all northern territories, somepeculiarities. One of them is gigantism. This is confirmed by the presence here of the largest mussels and jellyfish, corals, sea spiders.
Another feature is longevity. Its secret is that at low temperatures all life processes slow down.
Mussels here live up to twenty-five years, and in the Black Sea - only six; cod live up to the age of twenty, and halibut in general up to thirty or forty years.
Interesting facts
- The smallest ocean in the world is the second largest after the Pacific in terms of the number of islands that are located on its territory.
- Its water area includes the largest island on earth (Greenland) and the largest archipelago (Canadian Arctic).
- Most of the ocean is under ice all year round.
- Among the inhabitants, the largest jellyfish was discovered. It was called cyania, it is about two meters in diameter and the length of the tentacles is up to twenty meters.
- There is also a sea spider with a leg span of up to thirty centimeters.
- On the shores of the smallest ocean you can see an unusual animal - the musk ox.
- Due to climate warming, the area and thickness of ice are greatly reduced. This develops into a serious environmental problem: water from melting glaciers will enter the World Ocean, and its level will rise. Assuming all the glaciers melt, the level would rise by six meters.
- Travellers talk about the sound phenomenon of the ocean, carrying sounds for tens of kilometers.
- The phenomenon of Fata Morgana, formed from successive mirages, characteristic of the Arctic, more than once confused travelers. This phenomenon greatly changes the terrain, shows the real in a very distorted form.
