First of all, i have tried finding answers on internet and too using google. But either everyone is talking about measuring sea levels and the acceptance of fifth ocean or i am not using correct keywords.
**My question is** if ocean is a single water body, then why it is divided into 5. What’s the basis of division? Does two different seas have difference in water? Because i have seen a photo some years ago about 2 Ocean meeting but not dissolving. Is that thing real?
Edit: THANKYOU ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR ANSWERS
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It’s the same reason we devide up our landmasses into different states/countries and even further in counties then cities and towns. For navigation purposes. If we called the entire ocean one thing it would be a bit confusing when trying to navigate.
Because we’ve decided to call the different parts by different names. This makes it easier to identify them.
This is also why your state is different from another state even though they’re both part of the same land body.
Like the landmasses are split at continental plates, in ancient times normally found at mountain ranges… So are the oceans by its currents
The oceans are, depending on how you count between 3 to 7…
1-3: Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean.
4: Southern Ocean, all ocean south of the 60° S. Also called Antarctica Ocean.
5: Arctic Ocean, more or less all ocean north of 60° N.
6-7: Split the Atlantic and Pacific in an north and south part due to the currents not really crossing the equator
In ancient (European) times, the seven seas was mainly the different areas of the Mediterranean sea and/or the Arabian seas
The earth is a big place and there’s a whole lot of water on it. The oceans are actually quite different from each other despite all being connected. The weather patterns, plants, animals, and chemical properties all vary significantly just like how it does on land. The Indian ocean is subjected to the Asian monsoon weather patterns for example which is a whole lot different than what you’d expect in the Artic ocean. The artic will also have a different salinity due to the fresh water ice that is melting.
It’s no different than how land masses can have different biomes over distances too. The US has deserts, mountains, prairies, forests, swamp, etc but it’s all one land mass. Just cus it’s connected doesn’t mean it can’t vary enough to warrant a different name.
Tradition. It’s the same with continents: there are geological reasons to separate the continents and political ones and none of these really correspond to what we call them.
There is one ocean
Edit: lots of stuff in the natural world is like this: we try to categorize and understand nature using our tiny monkey brains, but it’s always more complicated and interesting than we can really easily compartmentalize. Nature is under no obligation to be casually comprehensible. [Check out this video about the concept of “species”, for example.](https://youtu.be/tduwq0I4lYw) (Best YouTuber currently operating, IMHO.)
“nature is not only odder than we think, but odder than we can think.” – J.B.S. Haldane
This is like asking why the Yukon and South America are classified as different places even though they’re ‘connected.’
Yes they’re connected but geographically they are astoundingly different places. Different climates. Different animals. Different biomes. Different geography. Etc.
The ocean is the same way.
Because it’s useful for navigation.
The oceans and seas were named by sailors and other people who had to travel around on the water. They needed a way to talk about where things were and refer to different regions of the world, so they gave different areas of water different names, since “it’s in the ocean” isn’t a great way to describe something.
For the same reason you have six different names for major segments of your one body. Each part is different from each other even though they’re made up of mostly the same stuff and the different names make it easier to identify the particular part.
Each ocean is connected and made up of mostly the same thing (salt water) but each one has it’s own properties and ecosystem and due to currents they don’t mix together all that much.
But really the biggest reason is navigation. Just like the land being divided up into different geographic regions, dividing the water on the planet up into oceans makes navigation easier as there is a label attached. If you’re in the ocean south of India, it’s easier to grab the chart of the area if it’s labelled “Indian Ocean” and also it’s easier to organize said charts by the particular regional ocean.
The only exception to this would be the North and South Atlantic and Pacific, but in those cases there isn’t anything significant dividing the two regions other than the equator.
When you stand at the southern tip of South Africa, Cape Agulhas, and you look West, the ocean is normally blue and quiet. This water is very cold and came a long way from Antartica without impacting many “obstacles” which cause turbulence and picking up dirt. We call this the Atlantic ocean.
If you then look east, the ocean looks green and violent. The water is much warmer, dirtier and tends to make waves while its flowing counter to the wind direction. This is called the Indian ocean, and you guessed it, this water comes from the area south of India (and Asia in general, but the Dutch on their way to India in the 1600s didn’t care about other places yet), where it spent a lot of time near the equator, heating up.
It is easier for me to see the natural border between the two oceans, than what it is to see the natural border between Europe and Asia.
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