More than 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by a vast, continuous body of water: the ocean. Traditionally, this is divided into 5 regions: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. These oceans are in turn divided into so-called secondary oceans, such as the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea. An overview of the most important oceans and their most beautiful destinations can be found on this page.
What are the seas and oceans?
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean, or Pacific for short, is by far the largest of the world's three oceans. Topographically, the Pacific Ocean lies between Australia and Asia to the west and from the Americas to the east. When all of its tributary seas are added, it nearly reaches the size of ...
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean, or Atlantic for short, is the second largest sea on earth. It lies between America and Europe/Africa. The northern and southern borders are formed by the polar circles. The Atlantic Ocean is home to numerous islands, such as the Caribbean Islands, the Azores, the Canary Islands ...
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean and is located between Africa, Asia and Australia. In the south, it merges with the Southern Ocean. The largest and best known island in the Indian Ocean is Madagascar, located just off the coast of Africa. The islands of Indonesia are located ...
Southern Ocean
Before 2000, there were only four major oceans, consisting of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans. Now the Antarctic Ocean has gained another ocean, called the Southern Ocean, which is not yet found on the old maps, but has been officially recognized since 2000.
Previously, the area was called the Southern ...
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the sea that lies in the Arctic. Largely covered by ice, the Arctic Ocean is also called the Northern Arctic Ocean, Arctic Sea or Arctic Ocean. With a depth of just under 1000 meters, it is the smallest ocean on the planet, which is why the Arctic ...
Philippine Sea
One of the deepest seas in the world is the Philippine Sea, reaching more than 10,500 meters from the sea surface to the bottom in the Philippine Trench. This is where the infamous sea-to-air battle between Japan and America took place during the Pacific War. The Philippine Sea forms a secondary ...
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is part of the Indian Ocean. In the northwest, it is connected to the Gulf of Oman, which in turn has a connection to the Persian Gulf; in the southwest, there is access to the Gulf of Aden, which flows into the Red Sea. Thus, the Arabian ...
South China Sea
The South China Sea, as part of the China Sea, is located in Asia and on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Located between the Gulf of Thailand and the Gulf of Tonkin, it forms a link between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Its area is 3.685.000 km², the ...
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean attracts many vacationers every year. The Caribbean Sea enchants with crystal clear and turquoise waters and miles of white sandy beaches with palm trees and tropical vegetation. It is a tributary sea of the Atlantic Ocean and forms a unit with the American Mediterranean and the Gulf of ...
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is an approximately 2.5 million square kilometer body of water between the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean in the western part by a small strait, the Strait of Gibraltar. The body of water is home to more than 4,300 islands, including ...
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea, also known as the Bering Sea, is one of the marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean, stretching between northwest America and northeast Asia. On its east coast is Siberia, and on the west coast is Alaska. To the south, the Bering Sea is bounded by the Aleutian ...
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay is an inland sea in the northeast of the Federal Parliamentary Monarchy of Canada. It is named after the English navigator Henry Hudson, who discovered the waters during exploratory voyages in 1610. Its total length is almost 1,400 km, on which numerous islands are spread. The Canadian regions of Manitoba, ...
Sea of Japan
A trip to the Land of the Rising Sun promises to experience Japan's unique culture and tradition. Here, the cherry trees bloom, heralding new beginnings, and smiling is part of the typical manners. A vacation is also recommended near the coast in the west. There, the Sea of Japan lies ...
Labrador Lake
The Labrador Sea is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that covers an area of 841,000 square kilometers between the Labrador Peninsula (Canada) and Greenland. This tributary sea of the Atlantic Ocean has an average depth of 1,898 meters, with the deepest point at 4,316 meters. It is enclosed by continental shelf ...
Andaman Sea
Around the Andaman Sea, there are numerous island paradises for vacationers to discover in Thailand. Not for nothing the sea is one of the popular snorkeling and diving paradises. The water in the south of Thailand is unique in color and washes up on white sandy beaches with tropical vegetation ...
East China Sea
The East China Sea is located between China to the west, Taiwan to the south, South Korea to the north and Japan to the east. Its area is about 1.25 million km². Large areas of this sea are shallow shelf seas with an average depth of about 275 meters. Towards the southeast, ...
Laptevsee
The Arctic ice is formed in the Laptev Sea. The sea was named after the Russian polar explorer Khariton Prokofievich Laptev and his cousin Dimitri, who extended their expeditions much further and thus discovered some of the islands lying there. The Laptev Sea lies between Russia and Asia and is ...
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay is a northern marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between Greenland and Canada. Its deepest point is on Baffin Island at 2,905 meters. Baffin Bay is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by Davis Strait. There is a connection with the Arctic Ocean in the north through Smithsund, and in ...
North Sea
The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean. It is located in the northwestern part of Europe. It is bounded by land on three sides. The water temperature reaches up to 25 °C in summer and up to 10 °C in winter. The northern North Sea around Norway is ...
Red Sea
The Red Sea is considered a true diver's paradise and has long been an important transport route for ships. Geologically, it is relatively young and was formed just under 25 million years ago when the Asian and African continental plates split, creating a rift that filled with seawater.
The Red Sea ...
Black sea
The Black Sea, which is on average 1200 meters deep and has few islands, has an area of about 450,000 square kilometers. Thus, this sea, which is connected to the Aegean Sea by the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, is about as large as Sweden. The Black Sea is located between eastern Europe, ...
Yellow sea
The Yellow Sea is part of the China Sea, lies on the coasts of China and Korea, and is also a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It includes the Bohai Gulf and the Korea Bay, which lies to the north. In fact, unlike the Black Sea, the Yellow Sea ...
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea (also Baltic Sea) is an inland sea in Europe, which has a connection and thus a water exchange with the North Sea only via the Kattegat. In addition to Germany, the littoral states include: Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Finland and Sweden. In Germany, the coasts ...
Celebessee
The Celebes Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean located between the islands of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes, Indonesia), Borneo (Malaysia) and Mindanao (Philippines). This marginal sea, also called the Sulawesi Sea, borders the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Philippine Sea to the northeast, the Sulu Sea to ...
Tyrrhenian Sea
Named after the Etruscans, the Tyrrhenian Sea (Italian: Mar Tirreno) is a sub-area of the northern Mediterranean Sea covering almost 250,000 square kilometers. It lies between central and southern mainland Italy to the east, Sicily to the south and Corsica and Sardinia to the west. In the north, the Tyrrhenian Sea ...
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf is a bay of sea that stretches between modern-day Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Its name comes from the obsolete name Persia, which was used to name the adjacent landmass. Via the Strait of Hormuz there is a connection to the Gulf of Oman, which in turn ...
Beaufort Sea
The Beaufort Sea lies off the coast of Alaska and the Canadian territories of Yukon and North-West. The exact course of the border is still disputed between Canada and the USA. It received its name from the hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort. As part of the Arctic Ocean, the Beaufort Sea, ...
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a sea on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. It lies in the north of Norway and is bordered by Russia in the south. In the northern part lie the islands of Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land, and in the east extends the island of Novaya ...
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea, also called the Adriatic Sea, is the long northern bay of the Mediterranean Sea east of Italy. It lies between the Apennine Peninsula to the west and the Balkan Peninsula to the east, and extends south to the Strait of Otranto. Riparian states are Italy, Slovenia and ...
White sea
The White Sea is a tributary of the Arctic Ocean. It forms the northern coast of the European part of Russia and covers an area of about 90,000 km². Its average depth is 67 m; the maximum depth extent is over 350 m. Since the White Sea is almost completely surrounded by land ...
Bohai Gulf
The Gulf of Bohai is sometimes called Bohai Gulf, Bohai Sea, or the Bohai Sea, or Bo Hai for short; in earlier times it was called the Gulf of Chili or the Gulf of Pechili. The body of water is a marginal sea of the Yellow Sea, located in the ...
Sea of Azov
The Sea of Azov is an inland sea of 37,600 square kilometers with a connection to the Black Sea. Its tributary sea borders Ukraine to the west and north, Russia to the southeast, and the Crimean and Taman peninsulas, which form a strait at least four kilometers wide and 40 kilometers long: ...
Sea of Marmara
Between Europe and Asia lies the Sea of Marmara, which belongs to the Mediterranean Sea and connects with the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. During a vacation in Turkey, tourists can enjoy the low salinity, especially on the north coast near Istanbul.
The ...
English Channel
The English Channel is a strait in the Atlantic Ocean that was formed about 10,000 years ago. It measures 563 kilometers in length and 248 kilometers at its widest point. Its narrowest extent is the "Strait of Dover," which stretches between the port city of the same name in England and the French ...
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea is located between the countries of Italy, Greece and Albania and forms part of the Mediterranean Sea. In the north, this sub-sea is separated from the Adriatic Sea by the Strait of Otranto. In the south it passes directly into the Libyan Sea. On the coasts of ...
Irish Sea
As a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea lies between Ireland and Great Britain and also partly borders Wales and its St. George's Channel and Scotland. In the southwest, the Irish Sea merges with the Celtic Sea and shimmers in its mystical magic. With a depth of 175 ...
Ligurian Sea
The Ligurian Sea is a secondary sea of the Mediterranean and borders on the countries of France, Italy and Monaco. To the north, the sea is bordered by Monaco and the Riviera coast, while to the east it is bordered by Tuscany. At its deepest point, the Ligurian Sea is ...