Sea

This article is about the body of water. For other uses, see SEA and seas. For the ancient Jewish unit of volume, see Seah (unit). For the Smirnoff advertising campaign, see Sea (Smirnoff advert)

The term sea refers to certain large bodies of water, but there is inconsistency as to its precise definition and application. Most commonly, a sea may refer to a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, but it is also used sometimes of a large saline lake that lacks a natural outlet, e.g. the Aral Sea. Colloquially, the term is used as a synonym for ocean. Additionally, large lakes, such as the Great Lakes, are occasionally referred to as inland seas.

Contents 1 International Hydrographic Organization 2 List of seas 2.1 Atlantic Ocean 2.2 Arctic Ocean 2.3 Indian Ocean 2.4 Pacific Ocean 2.5 Southern Ocean 2.6 Landlocked seas 3 Nomenclature 4 Extraterrestrial seas 5 Science 6 See also 7 References

International Hydrographic Organization

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is the international authority that sets forth nomenclature and definition of bodies of water.^[1] The IHO's Limits of Oceans and Seas was first published in 1928, with its current working document the third edition published in 1953.^[2] A fourth draft edition was proposed in 1986 but has yet to be ratified due to outstanding issues such as the Sea of Japan naming dispute.

List of seas

Atlantic Ocean Adriatic Sea Aegean Sea Alboran Sea Argentine Sea Bay of Biscay Bay of Bothnia Bay of Campeche Bay of Fundy Baltic Sea Black Sea Bothnian Sea Caribbean Sea Celtic Sea Central Baltic Sea Chesapeake Bay English Channel Gulf of Bothnia Gulf of Guinea Gulf of Finland Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Sidra Gulf of St. Lawrence Gulf of Venezuela Ionian Sea Ligurian Sea Irish Sea Marmara Sea Mediterranean Sea Mirtoon Sea North Sea Sea of Azov Sea of Crete Sea of the Hebrides Sargasso Sea Thracian Sea Tyrrhenian Sea

Arctic Ocean Amundsen Gulf Baffin Bay Barents Sea Beaufort Sea Bering Sea Cambridge Bay Chukchi Sea Cold Bay Davis Strait Denmark Strait East Siberian Sea Greenland Sea Hudson Bay James Bay Kara Sea Kara Strait Labrador Sea Laptev Sea Lincoln Sea Norwegian Sea White Sea Indian Ocean Andaman Sea Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal Gulf of Aden Gulf of Oman Mozambique Channel Persian Gulf Red Sea Timor Sea

Pacific Ocean Arafura Sea Banda Sea Bering Sea Bismarck Sea Bohai Sea Bohol Sea (Mindanao Sea) Camotes Sea Celebes Sea Ceram Sea Chilean Sea Coral Sea East China Sea Flores Sea Gulf of Alaska Gulf of California (Sea of Cortés) Gulf of Carpentaria Gulf of Thailand Halmahera Sea Java Sea Koro Sea Molucca Sea Philippine Sea Salish Sea Savu Sea Sea of Japan Sea of Okhotsk Seto Inland Sea Solomon Sea South China Sea Sulu Sea Tasman Sea Yellow Sea

Southern Ocean Amundsen Sea Bass Strait Bellingshausen Sea Davis Sea Great Australian Bight Gulf Saint Vincent Ross Sea Scotia Sea Spencer Gulf Weddell Sea Landlocked seas Aral Sea Lake Balkhash Caspian Sea Lake Chad Lake Chilwa Chott Melrhir Dead Sea Lake Eyre Issyk Kul Namtso Sea of Galilee Great Salt Lake Qinghai Lake Salton Sea Lake Torrens Lake Turkana Lake Van

Nomenclature

Some bodies of water that are called "seas" are not actually seas; there are also some seas that are not called "seas". The following is an incomplete list of such potentially confusing names.

• The Sea of Galilee is a small freshwater lake with a natural outlet, which is called Lake Tiberias or Lake Kinneret on modern Israeli maps, but its original name remains in use.
• The Sea of Cortés is more commonly known as the Gulf of California.
• The Persian Gulf is a sea.
• The Dead Sea is actually a lake, as is the Caspian Sea.

Extraterrestrial seas

See also Extraterrestrial liquid water

Lunar maria are vast basaltic plains on the Moon that were thought to be bodies of water by early astronomers, who referred to them as "seas".

Liquid water may have existed on the surface of Mars in the distant past, and several basins on Mars have been proposed as dry sea beds. The largest is Vastitas Borealis; others include Hellas Planitia and Argyre Planitia.

Liquid water is thought to be present under the surface of several moons, most notably Europa.

Liquid hydrocarbons are thought to be present on the surface of Titan, though it may be more accurate to describe them as "lakes" rather than "seas".

Science

The term "sea" has also been used in quantum physics. Dirac sea is an interpretation of the negative energy states that comprises the vacuum.

See also

• Oceanography
• Inlet
• International Maritime Organization
• List of places on land with elevations below sea level
• Pole of inaccessibility: the locations farthest from any coastline
• Marine debris
• Sea level
• Sea level rise
• Sea salt
• Seven Seas

References

1. ^ "IHO Background Information". International Hydrographic Organization (25 August 2004). Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
2. ^ International Hydrographic Conference of 1952 (1953). "Limits of Oceans and Seas: Special publication S-23" (.PDF). Third edition. International Hydrographic Organization. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008)

Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History