World's Largest Bodies of Water

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World's Largest Bodies of Water

World's Largest Bodies of Water

Largest bodies of the water in the world ranked by area

Pacific Ocean 155,556,651 sq km (60,060,759 sq mi)

The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest body of water.

Atlantic Ocean 76,761,938 sq km (29,637,950 sq mi)

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface. The ocean's name, derived from Greek mythology, means the "Sea of Atlas." The oldest known mention of this name is contained in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BC .

Indian Ocean 68,555,923 sq km (26,469,590 sq mi)

The Indian Ocean is the third largest body of water in the world, covering about 20% of the Earth's water surface. It is bounded on the north by Southern Asia; on the west by the Arabian Peninsula and Africa; on the east by the Malay Peninsula, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean.

Southern Ocean 20,327,001 sq km (7,848,299 sq mi)

The Southern Ocean, also known as the South Polar Ocean , is the body of water encircling the continent of Antarctica. It is the world's fourth largest ocean and the latest to be defined, having been accepted by a decision of the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000, though the term has long been traditional among mariners.

Arctic Ocean 14,055,930 sq km (5,427,025 sq mi)

The Arctic Ocean, located mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest of the world's five oceans and the shallowest. Even though the International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, oceanographers may call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean.

South China Sea 2,974,601 sq km (1,148,500 sq mi)

The South China Sea is a marginal sea south of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from Singapore to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 km. It is the largest sea body after the five oceans. The minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds.

Caribbean Sea 2,515,898 sq km (971,394 sq mi)

[image:IMG_2908.JPG|thumb|250px|right|A Caribbean beach in Isla Margarita, Venezuela.]] The Caribbean Sea is a tropical sea in the Western Hemisphere, part of the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the Gulf of Mexico. A mediterranean sea, it covers most of the Caribbean Plate and is bounded on the south by South America, on the west and south by Central America, and on the north and east by the Antilles: the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica

Mediterranean Sea 2,513,169 sq km (970,340 sq mi)

The Mediterranean Sea is a part of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. It covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km , but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide.

Bering Sea 2,260,971 sq km (872,966 sq mi)

The Bering Sea is a body of water north of, and separated from, the north Pacific Ocean by the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. Covering over two million square kilometers , it is bordered on the east and northeast by Alaska, on the west by Russia's Siberia and Kamchatka Peninsula, on the south by the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands and on the far north by the Bering Strait which separates the Bering Sea from the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea.

Gulf of Mexico 1,507,476 sq km (582,040 sq mi)

The Gulf of Mexico is a major body of water bordered and nearly landlocked by North America.