Earth has now 5 oceans: New ocean named Southern Ocean

Since National Geographic began making maps in 1915, it has recognized four oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans. But it’s time for everyone to update their geography knowledge because a fifth ocean has entered the picture. Starting on June 8, World Oceans Day, it will recognize the Southern Ocean as the world’s fifth ocean. 

“The Southern Ocean has long been recognized by scientists, but because there was never settlement internationally, we never officially recognized it,” says National Geographic Society Geographer Alex Tait.

The Southern Ocean “encompasses unique and fragile marine ecosystems that are domestic to wonderful marine life such as whales, penguins, and seals,” notes the National Geographic Explorer in Residence Enric Sala.

What’s more, the Southern Ocean has ecological outcomes someplace else as well. Humpback whales, for example, feed on krill off Antarctica and migrate some distance north to wintry weather in very exceptional ecosystems off South and Central America. Some seabirds migrate in and out too.

By drawing interest in the Southern Ocean, the National Geographic Society hopes to promote its conservation. The influences of industrial fishing on species like krill and Patagonian toothfish (which is marketed as Chilean sea bass) have been a subject in the Southern Ocean for decades. In 1982, seize limits have been imposed in the region. The greatest marine-covered vicinity (MPA) in the world was once mounted in the Ross Sea off West Antarctica in 2016.

A quantity of agencies are working to set apart extra MPAs to defend the Southern Ocean’s most integral feeding grounds, for instance off the Antarctic Peninsula.

Generally, National Geographic has observed the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) on marine names. While now not at once accountable for finding out them, the IHO works with the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names to standardize names on a global scale. The IHO diagnosed the Southern Ocean in its 1937 pointers however repealed that designation in 1953, citing controversy. It has deliberated on the count number since however, has but to acquire full settlement from its individuals to reinstate the Southern Ocean.

An ocean defined by its current

While the various oceans are characterized by the continental countries around them, the Southern Ocean is marked by an ebb and an ebb, and researchers estimate that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) was formed about 34 million years earlier when it was isolated from Antarctica in South America takes into account the unhindered flow of water around the ground.

West-east ACC currents around Antarctica circled in an extensive fluctuating band generally around 60 degrees south, the line that currently marks the northern limit of the Southern Ocean. Inside the ACC, the water is colder and slightly less sharp than the sea to the north.

Coming from the surface to the depths of the ocean, the ACC moves more water than any other ocean current. Waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and help advance a global course framework known as a transport line that carries heat around the world. Water that sinks to the depths of the ocean off Antarctica also helps store carbon in the deep ocean. In both cases, The Southern Ocean has a significant impact on the Earth's environment.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, nonetheless, has utilized the name since 1999. What's more, in February of this current year, NOAA authoritatively perceived the Southern Ocean as particular. 

Tait says National Geographic's new arrangement will affect how youngsters utilizing maps in school figure out how to see the world.

“I think one of the biggest impacts is through education,” he says. “Students learn information about the ocean world through what oceans you’re studying. If you don’t include the Southern Ocean then you don’t learn the specifics of it and how important it is.” 

Earlier the following four oceans were there :

1.The Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean is divided by an underwater oceanic ridge called the Lomonosov Ridge into the Eurasian or Nasin Basin, 4,000 to 4,500 m deep, and the North American or Hyperborean Basin, 4,000 m deep. , abyssal plains and ocean depths and basins that have an average depth of 1,038 m due to the continental shelf on the Eurasian side. The greatest water entry into the Arctic Ocean comes from the Atlantic via the Norwegian Current of the Eurasian coast), although water from the Pacific also passes through the Bering Strait invades.

The largest outflow comes from the East Greenland Current. Ice used to cover most of the Arctic Ocean all year round (this is now changing dramatically due to global warming). When ice melts, salinity and sub-zero temperatures vary. Sub-zero temperatures cool the air flowing to the equator and mix with warmer air in mid-latitudes, resulting in rain and snow. It is believed that life in the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean is relatively rare, except in the open waters of the south. Air traffic is common over the Arctic because it is the shortest route between the Pacific coast of North America and Europe. The most important ports are the Russian cities of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk (Archangel).

2.The Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest on earth and makes up about 20% of the earth's water surface. It is bordered by South Asia to the north, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa to the west, the Malay Peninsula, the Sundra Islands, and Australia. in the east and the Southern Ocean in the south. Meridian 20 ° East isolates the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean and Meridian 147 ° East isolates it from the Pacific Ocean.

The Indian Ocean extends into the Persian Gulf area at about 30 ° N at its northernmost degree. At the southern end of Africa and Australia, it is nearly 10,000 km (or 6,200 miles) wide and its region is 73,556,000 km² (or 28,400,000 square miles) when the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf are incorporated. The volume of this huge waterway has been estimated at 292,131,000 km³ (or 70,086,000 mi³). The various highlights include small islands on the edges of the continent such as Madagascar (the fourth largest island in the world), Comoros, Seychelles, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

3.The Atlantic Ocean

The second-largest sea on earth is the Atlantic, a name derived from the "Atlas Ocean" in Greek folklore. It covers about a fifth of the entire ocean. Both the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. The Atlantic area excluding the nearby oceans is 82,400,000 km² and the volume is 323,617,637 km³. With the adjacent oceans, the region is 106,400,000 km², and the volume 354,700,000 km³. If you count the adjacent oceans, the midpoints of the Atlantic are 3,332 m (10,932 ft) deep. The Atlantic Ocean is bordered by adjacent oceans and has a normal depth of 3,926 m (12,881 ft). The deepest region is in the Puerto Rico Trench at 8,605 m or 28,232 ft. Wide everywhere, from just under 2,848 km between Brazil and Liberia to a width of 4,830 km between the United States and North Africa.

4.The Pacific Ocean

The Pacific is the largest waterway in the world and was named after the Portuguese adventurer Ferdinand Magellan, who followed the calm Pacific ("Pacifique", which means calm in French) for most of his excursion from the Strait of Magellan to the Philippines according to the islands of the "calm sea" are regularly hit by tropical storms and typhoons. Nations bordering the Pacific or the Pacific Rim regularly experience volcanoes and seismic tremors. Entire cities have been cleared by tsunamis, the giant waves caused by a submerged earthquake. The Pacific Ocean covers 33% of the earth's surface, has an area of ​​179.7 million km² and extends approximately 15,500 km from the Bering Sea in the Arctic to the icy waters of the Ross Sea in the Antarctic in the Pacific, it is further extended in the east with a range from 5 ° N, where it reaches the entire route from Indonesia to the Colombian coast, a distance of 19,800 km. The Pacific Ocean also contains the absolute bottom of the earth and the deepest part of the ocean known as the Mariana Trench, a region that is 10,911 m below sea level. There are 25,000 Pacific islands in the Pacific Ocean, more than some other seas.

World Ocean Day is celebrated on 8th June to shed light on the importance of oceans. The theme this year is "The Ocean: Live and Livelihood" and people can participate virtually. World Ocean Day is celebrated to highlight the negative impact of human activities on the ocean and aquatic plants and animals.