The deep blue seas have fascinated Man for thousands of years. While Man has conquered even the highest mountain peaks on land, he has not been successful in exploring the oceans fully. Oceans are a very different world!
Water covers about two-thirds of the earth’s surface. Oceans are the largest ecosystems existing on Earth. Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean are the five great oceans of the earth. The Pacific and Atlantic may be further subdivided by the equator into northerly and southerly portions.
Smaller regions of the oceans are known as seas, gulfs and bays. There are also salt lakes, which are smaller bodies of landlocked saltwater. Most of these lakes are not interconnected with the larger oceans. Two notable examples of salt lakes are the Aral Sea and the Great Salt Lake.
The ocean bed is not plain. There are huge mountains, trenches, ridges and volcanoes under the water. Such diverse landscape underwater makes many different habitats possible.
Life exists in various forms in oceans. However, the oceans do not contain a large variety of species. Just 20 percent of the species existing on Earth live in the oceans.
Picture Credit : Google