The Earth contains five major oceans, and all of the five major oceans each have multiple sub-regional areas.

The menu list to the left has the five oceans listed alphabetically. Also, directly below are the same oceans listed with links and a brief description of each ocean and one photo.

The ocean, sometimes considered as one body, is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8 percent of the surface of the Earth. The ocean is conventionally and subsequently divided into several large bodies of water, which are also referred to as separate oceans including: Antarctic (Southern), Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific. Each of the separate oceans are themselves mostly divided into seas, gulfs and subsequent bodies of water. These five ocean together contains 97% of Earth′s water and is the primary component of Earth′s hydrosphere, (which is the total amount of water on Earth), as such, acts as a huge reservoir of heat for Earth's energy budget, as well as for its carbon cycle and water cycle, forming the basis for climate and weather patterns worldwide.

The ocean is essential to life on Earth, harboring most of the animals on the Earth including the protist life, (or otherwise known as single-celled organisms), originating photosynthesis and therefore most of the atmospheric oxygen of the Earth, and still the source of up to half of all such oxygen.

The term World Ocean, is a modern concept, coined in the early 20th century by an oceanographer to refer to the continuous ocean water that covers and encircles the surface of the Earth.

Sometimes referred to as the Global Ocean or the Great Ocean, this concept of a continuous body of water with relatively unrestricted exchange between its components is critical in oceanography.

The World Ocean has customarily been divided into successfully smaller bodies of water, the types and designations of such divisions not always being agreed upon. However, by general consensus, the World Ocean has five principle oceans, listed here in descending order of area and volume.

Pacific Ocean,    168,723,000 square kilometers, 669,880,000 cubic kilometers

Atlantic Ocean,     85,133,000 square kilometers, 310,410,900 cubic kilometers

Indian Ocean,      70,560,000 square kilometers, 264,000,000 cubic kilometers

Antarctic Ocean,  21,960,000 square kilometers, 71,800,000 cubic kilometers

Arctic Ocean,      15,558,000 square kilometers, 18,750,000 cubic kilometers

Different customs for subsequent divisions of the World Oceans are bodies of water smaller than the five oceans, including such adjourning bodies called: seas, gulfs, bays, bights, and straits. More on that later.

The World Ocean fills all of the deep oceanic basins, which basins cover different and separate geologic provinces of the Earth′s oceanic floor and, at times portions of the continental crust, commonly called the continental shelves. As such, the World Ocean covers the ocean floors including all of its many structural components, which components are know by the wise men of this world as the Ocean Basis).

How much and which areas of the continental shelves that are covered by the World Ocean is primarily determined by the location of Earth′s major land masses as they move gradually over the course of millenniums, movement referred to as continental drift and caused by the actions of plate tectonics, which encompasses a broader understanding of the crustal movements of the Earth. One thing however, is certain, over time, ever thing will change.

Every Ocean Basis contains a mid-ocean ridge, which ridge is composed of a long underwater mountain range below the surface. These mountain ranges form the global mid-oceanic ridge system that are composed of the longest mountain ranges on the entire Earth, which is an underwater mountain range about 40,000 miles long (65,000 kilometers), and several times longer that the longest above ocean continental mountain range, The Andes.

Also known as the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean is the forth largest ocean and comprises the southernmost waters of the Earth′s Global Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude encircling the continent of Antarctica. This ocean comprises just less than 7 percent of the total ocean surface area, and is larger than only the Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest (5th largest) and shallowest of the world′s five oceanic divisions, comprising about 4 percent of the total ocean surface area. However some oceanographers see it as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing world ocean. This ocean includes the North Pole region and extends south to about 60° N latitude. It is mostly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter.

The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest ocean on Earth and covers abouut 29 percent of all of the water surface area of the Earth.

The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean on Earth and covers some 20 percent of all of the water surface area of the Earth. The Indian Ocean is bounded by Australia to its East, Africa to the West, Asia to the North and the Antarctic Ocean to the South.

The Pacific Ocean is both the largest and deepest of the earth′s oceans and has the deepest point in the world, the Mariana trench. The Pacific Ocean covers around 46 percent of the Earth′s water surface and its surface is larger than the total land surface of the earth.