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What's the difference between a sea and an ocean? |
“Sea” and “ocean” can be two pretty confusing terms, especially if you look up “sea” and read that one of the definitions is actually “ocean.” Seawater can be found in both seas and oceans, but are these two words the same?
The sea is often thought of as the opposite of the land, so in that sense, all of the oceans are parts of the sea. When we talk about specific bodies of water, that’s when the differences between these two words start to show up.
An ocean is one of the great, big bodies of salt water that wrap around the Earth. They may share some borders with continents, but they aren’t surrounded by pieces of land. Seas are generally smaller bodies of salt water, though they are still huge! They are connected to the oceans, but they are usually separated by pieces of land.
Map Exploration!
Here is a list of oceans and seas. Use a map or a globe and see if you can figure out which sea is connected to which ocean!
Seas:
Hudson Bay, Arabian Sea, Scotia Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Japan
Oceans:
Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, Southern
