The World's Oceans and Seas

The world’s oceans and seas vary greatly in their average depth, area, and volume. Currently, the Pacific Ocean is the deepest ocean, it covers the most area, and thus it has the greatest volume. The so-called world ocean refers to all of the earth’s major bodies of water combined.

	Average Depth		Area		Volume
Ocean or Sea	m	ft	million sq km	million sq mi	million cu km	million cu mi

Pacific Ocean	4,300	14,000	155.6	60.1	679.6	163.1
Atlantic Ocean	3,900	12,900	76.8	30	313.4	75.2
Indian Ocean	3,900	12,800	68.5	26.5	269.3	64.7
Southern Ocean	4,500	14,450	20.3	7.8	91.5	22
Arctic Ocean	1,300	4,300	14.1	5.4	17	4.1
Australasian Central Sea	1,200	3,900	8.1	3.1	9.9	2.4
Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea	2,200	7,300	4.3	1.7	9.6	2.3
Mediterranean and Black Seas	1,430	4,690	3.0	1.1	4.2	1
Bering Sea	1,440	4,720	2.3	0.9	3.33	0.8
Sea of Okhotsk	838	2,750	1.6	0.6	1.3	0.3
Hudson Bay	101	331	1.2	0.5	0.16	0.04
North Sea	94	310	0.6	0.2	0.05	0.01
Baltic Sea	55	180	0.4	0.2	0.02	0.005
Irish Sea	60	200	0.10	0.04	0.006	0.001
English Channel	54	180	0.08	0.03	0.004	0.001
The World Ocean	3,790	12,430	361.1	139.4	1,370	329

Appears in these articles:

Atlantic Ocean; Pacific Ocean; Indian Ocean; Ocean and Oceanography

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