Any Geography experts out there?

Question

My wife and I , along with two other couples, like us in their late 30's were playing a trivia game. A question came up concerning the Southern Ocean. As far as any of the six of us can remeber being taught in school, there were only 4 oceans. The Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans. Has this ocean always been in existence? or is it like Congo turning in to Zaire and then into the Republic of Congo. I can't imagine we were all such bad Geography students.

Answer 1

The term "ocean" has always been an arbitrary one in geography. There have been many "oceans" and "seas", and the names and locations of them have changed constantly depending on the political climate and mankind's understanding of the geographical layout of the planet. Today's oceans are mostly defined by continents and lines of latitude and longitude.

The newest addition to the oceans - the Southern Ocean - is no exception. It contains all seawater south of the 60th degrees south line of latitude (between Australia and Antarctica, and between South America and Antarctica on the other side of the world). It was "defined" in 2000 by a meeting of the International Hydrographic Organization, which oversees these sorts of things in modern times. If you were done with school before the year 2000, then you probably never heard of this before.

Answer 2

Here's what is going on with that question.

Technically (i.e., to serious geographers), an ocean is a large body of saltwater that has its own gyre. (Definition of gyre: A circular or spiral motion, especially a circular ocean current.)

It turns out that the Atlantic ocean has two gyres, turning in opposite directions: counterclockwise north of the equator, and clockwise south of the equator. So geographers consider it to be two oceans: the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic Oceans (and most of us have heard those terms). Similarly, the Pacific consists of the North Pacific and the South Pacific.

The Indian Ocean and the Arctic Ocean also have their own circular currents (gyres), which are clockwise and counterclockwise, respectively.

Finally, there is also a separate current (separate from the South Atlantic, South Pacific, and Indian Oceans) that circles Antarctica in a clockwise direction. Therefore, there is a separate ocean encircling Antarctica, and it is referred to as the Southern Ocean.

If you add that up, you find there are seven official oceans. These are NOT the same as the famous "seven seas." And, incidentally, there are far more than seven seas. I guess the seven seas were probably the largest and best-known ones back in the Age of Exploration.

Answer 3

technically there are more than 4 oceans as a previous user explained

to keep it simple, people stick to the 4 (the North Atlantic, and South Atlantic may be different, but on a map they are the same and simplicity just makes it one ocean)

Answer 4

the southern ocean is down by Antarctica but its only been considered an ocean since like 2000 :-)

Answer 5

there are more than 4 oceans but they haven't always been in the geographic locations they are today. continents are usually the barriers separating them . they change size shape and location amount of them due to plate tectonics