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Concept
Oceanic basin
Summary
In hydrology, an 'oceanic basin (or ocean basin') is anywhere on Earth that is covered by seawater. Geologically, most of the ocean basins are large geologic basins that are below sea level.
Most commonly the ocean is divided into basins following the continents distribution: the North and South Atlantic (together approximately 75 million km2/ 29 million mi2), North and South Pacific (together approximately 155 million km2/ 59 million mi2), Indian Ocean (68 million km2/ 26 million mi2) and Arctic Ocean (14 million km2/ 5.4 million mi2). Also recognized is the Southern Ocean (20 million km2/ 7 million mi2). All ocean basins collectively cover 71% of the Earth's surface, and together they contain almost 97% of all water on the planet. They have an average depth of almost 4 km (about 2.5 miles).
"Limits of Oceans and Seas", published by the International Hydrographic Office in 1953, is a document that defined the ocean's basins as they are largely known today. The main ocean basins are the ones named in the previous section. These main basins are divided into smaller parts. Some examples are: the Baltic Sea (with three subdivisions), the North Sea, the Greenland Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Laptev Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the South China Sea, and many more. The limits were set for convenience of compiling sailing directions but had no geographical or physical ground and to this day have no political significance. For instance, the line between the North and South Atlantic is set at the equator. The Antarctic or Southern Ocean, which reaches from 60° south to Antarctica had been omitted until 2000, but is now also recognized by the International Hydrographic Office. Nevertheless, and since ocean basins are interconnected, many oceanographers prefer to refer to one single ocean basin instead of multiple ones.
Older references (e.g., Littlehales 1930) consider the oceanic basins to be the complement to the continents, with erosion dominating the latter, and the sediments so derived ending up in the ocean basins.
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