Oceans - We call different parts of the ocean by different names:  the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Artic, the Antarctic, and the Indian oceans.  They are all part of one vast world ocean.  Oceans together comprise the world ocean or global ocean. The main part of this single world ocean are the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic oceans. The continents are really islands in this single ocean.

Most countries have territorial rights over the first 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of ocean off their shores. 

Pacific Ocean - named by Ferdinand Magellan.  When he sailed on the ocean, it was peaceful.  In Spanish, the word for peaceful is "pacifico" - pacific.  But that doesn't mean that the Pacific Ocean is always peaceful.  Raging typhoons and tidal waves battle the coastlines many times during the year.  Magellan just didn't see any bad storms.

Atlantic Ocean - named by the ancient Romans.  In ancient times, people thought that the Atlas Mountains in Africa were the end of the world.  Since the ocean was on the other side of the mountains, they named it the Atlantic Ocean.

Sea - A body of salt water that is closed off from the ocean, like the Dead Sea, or partly closed off, like the Mediterranean.  The ocean is frequently called the sea as well.

Dead Sea - (in Israel and Jordan) named by travelers many years ago.  They never saw any birds fly over the sea so they thought the air above the sea was poisonous.  Now we know that birds don't fly over the sea because there's no food in it - no fish and only a few plants because the sea is too salty.

Red Sea - (between Africa and Asia) named for several possibilities - the hills near the sea are a reddish color; the coral reefs and seaweed in the sea are reddish; the tiny sea animals in the water are reddish.

Black Sea - (between Europe and Asia) named for the winter heavy fogs that make the water look dark and murky.

Sargasso Sea - named for the sargassum fish that swims through the seaweed of this sea.  The water is warm and still in the Sargasso Sea and the wind seldom blows.  Great ocean currents swirl and sweep around it.  Many years ago, the currents brought seaweed that now fills the surface of this sea.  Long ago, when all the big ships had sails, sailors thought that monsters lurked beneath the water of this sea and that any ship that went there would get trapped in the seaweed, never to be seen again.

Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth's surface.

Oceans are where the first life on Earth began many millions of years ago. Without oceans, there could be no life on Earth.

Oceans are a crucial source of food (sea plants and animals), energy (oil and gas), and minerals (salt, sand, gravel.)

Oceans are a major force in weather. They help regulate Earth's climate by retaining and releasing heat from the sun. They also fuel the water cycle, providing the moisture necessary for rainfall.

Oceans support an enormous variety of plant and animal life, from microscopic organisms such as plankton to the largest animal that ever lived, the blue whale.

Oceans are home to about 13,300 kinds of fish, which have enormous variations in color, size and shape.

Oceans support an intricate food cycle that begins with phytoplankton - microscopic, plantlike organisms. Tiny animals called zooplankton, feed on phytoplankton. Larger and larger animals, in turn, feed on these organisms and on each other.

Ocean tides, or the rising and falling of the water, are caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon.

Ocean currents are caused by wind blowing across the ocean's surface and by variations in temperature and salinity that cause the rising and sinking of ocean waters.

Oceans have a remarkably varied landscape on their floors, including Earth's highest mountains and deepest canyons.

Oceans' land features are shaped in part by volcanic activity.

Oceans have long served as a medium for transportation, providing a means for trade among people of different countries.

Ocean pollution, including garbage dumping and oil spills, threatens the vitality of the seas.

Oceans are being studied by oceanographers, who explore the mysteries of the deep using research ships, submarines, satellite photographs, and computers to analyze data.

There are 3 zones in the ocean and different plants and animals live in each zone. The sunlight zone, or photic zone, is up to 300 feet in depth and most fish other living things live in this area: jellyfish, porpoise, sea star, shark, grouper, seaweed, and sea turtle. The twilight zone is from 300 feet - 3,000 feet in depth and the following live there: octopus, lantern fish, hatchet fish, squid, and sperm whale. Below 3,000 feet in depth to the ocean floor is called the midnight zone or abyssal zone and you would find the following: gulper eel, anglerfish, sea cucumber and tripod fish.

Ocean resources include: