Differences between Ocean and Sea

Differences between Ocean and Sea : Many of us must have used the term ocean since childhood. But hardly we know the exact difference between these two large water bodies.

We often mix one term with the other. We will discuss in succeeding paragraphs about the differences between the two in very easy and understandable manner. It is also pertinent to mention that the both water bodies are made up of salty water.

Ocean 

Oceans are the largest water bodies on earth surface. All oceans collectively covers 70% area of the earth. The remaining 30% area is covered by land mass. The oceans also influence weather and climate patterns. They are total five in numbers oceans in the world. They are as follows:- Atlantic, arctic, Antarctic, Indian and Pacific ocean.

Sea 

When we talk about the sea, they are smaller water bodies when compared to the size of oceans. The sea lies between the land mass and ocean. Typically seas are partially enclosed by land. From sea we get substantial supplies of food for humans, primarily fish. Seas are also used for trade, mineral extraction and also for power generation in some parts of the world.

Now lets see the key differences between these two in tabular format.

Differences between Ocean and Sea

OceanSea
The depth of the ocean is much more greater than sea. The deepest ocean is pacific ocean with depth around 10,911 meters.The depth of the sea is lesser than the ocean due to the proximity of land nearer to sea is Caribbean sea with depth around 6,946 meters.
The largest ocean among the five oceans is Pacific ocean. It is having an area of approx. 60 millions square miles. It is also important to know that the smallest ocean on our planet is Arctic ocean with an area of 5.4 millions square miles.When it comes to sea the largest sea is Meditterian sea. The area of Meditterian sea is around 1.14 million square miles.
Oceans have reduced and very little aquatic life as it is far away from the land. It is also more deeper for sunlight penetration. On the other hand sea have abundance amount of aquatic life. Because of its close proximity to land and penetration of sunlight into the water.
The marine life in oceans is usually confined to bacteria, shrimp, microscopic planktons etc. The reason is mentioned in previous point. Low sunlight pentation.Whereas in sea there is huge amount of marine life presence. Because here the sunlight is able to penterate deep inside sea water and the process of photosynthesis is happening very easily.
We do not see that an ocean encloses another ocean into it. But usually seas used to enclosed one sea into another eg. Meditterian sea encloses Libyan sea, Ionian sea, Balearic sea etc.
We do not use Ocean for salt production due to its long distance from shore.Sea water is used for salt production because it is enclosed by land from one or more side.
Difference between Ocean and Sea

We hope that we have covered all major differences about today’s topic. If you have more doubt you can shoot the questions in comment section right now.

Read Also

Leave a Comment