Sea Information
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean.[1] It is also used sometimes to describe a large saline lake that lacks a natural outlet, such as the Caspian Sea. Every sea is connected to one of the five oceans or is landlocked.
Arctic (belonging to the Arctic Ocean) and Antarctic (Southern Ocean) seas, as well as some other seas freeze in winter. This occurs below the freezing point of pure water, at about -1.8 °C (28.8 °F). Frozen salt water becomes sea ice.[2]
History
Phoenician (yellow) and Greek (red) colonies in the Mediterranean in the 1st milennium BC
Main articles:
History of navigation and
Ancient maritime history
Humans were navigating the seas from antiquity. Ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians navigated the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Hannu was the first see explorer of whom there is any information. He sailed along the Red Sea and further to the Arabian Peninsula and the African Coast around 2750 BC.[3] In the 1st milennium BC, Phoenicians and Greeks established colonies all over the Mediterranean, including its outlets like the Black Sea. The seas along the eastern and the southern Asian coast were used by Arabs and Chinese for navigation, and the North Sea and the Baltic Sea were known to Europeans in Roman times. Other seas were not used for navigation in the antiquity and were actually discovered, mostly in the Age of Discovery.
The White Sea was known to Novgorodians and used for navigation since not later that the 13th century.[4] Pomors, living at the White Sea coast, also sailed to Svalbard, but the Barents Sea got its name later, due to the 16th century Dutch expedition headed by Willem Barents.
List of seas
Others
Some large inland lakes, usually brackish, are called "seas".
List of seas by surface area
| No. |
Name of the Water Body |
Surface area (sq.mi) |
Surface area (sq.km) |
| 1 |
Philippine Sea |
2,000,000 |
5,177,762 |
| 2 |
Coral Sea |
1,850,000 |
4,791,000 |
| 3 |
Arabian Sea |
1,491,130 |
3,862,000 |
| 4 |
South China Sea |
1,351,936 |
3,500,000 |
| 5 |
Weddell Sea |
1,081,548 |
2,800,000 |
| 6 |
Caribbean Sea |
1,063,000 |
2,754,000 |
| 7 |
Mediterranean Sea |
965,000 |
2,500,000 |
| 8 |
Tasman Sea |
900,000 |
2,330,000 |
| 9 |
Bering Sea |
873,000 |
2,260,100 |
| 10 |
Bay of Bengal |
838,970 |
2,172,000 |
Nomenclature
- The Sea of Galilee is a small freshwater lake with a natural outlet, which is called Lake Tiberias or Lake Kinneret on modern Israeli maps, but its original name remains in use.
- The Sea of Cortés is more commonly known as the Gulf of California.
- The Dead Sea is actually a lake, as is the Caspian Sea and the mainly dried up Aral Sea.
See also
Notes
- ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sea
- ^ "Sea ice (ice formation)". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 2012 [last update]. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/939404/sea-ice. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ^ "The Ancient World - Egypt". marinersmuseum.org. Mariners' Museum. 2012 [last update]. http://www.marinersmuseum.org/education/ancient-world-egypt. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ^ "Зацепились за Моржовец" (in Russian). Русское географическое общество. 2012 [last update]. http://www.rgo.ru/2010/08/zacepilis-za-morzhovec/. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ^ a b c often treated as part of Mediterranean Sea
External links
|
Look up sea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Seas |
Categories:
|
The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Mon Mar 5 21:41:20 2012.
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.
|
|
