Oceans

The five oceans

Ranked by area. Mean depths are basin averages, and each deepest point sits in a trench.

• Pacific Ocean

  Mean depth 4,280 m (14,042 ft) · Challenger Deep 10,935 m (35,876 ft)

  165.25M km²

  ≈ 63.8M mi²

• Atlantic Ocean

  Mean depth 3,646 m (11,962 ft) · Puerto Rico Trench 8,376 m (27,480 ft)

  106.46M km²

  ≈ 41.1M mi²

• Indian Ocean

  Mean depth 3,741 m (12,274 ft) · Java Trench 7,290 m (23,917 ft)

  70.56M km²

  ≈ 27.24M mi²

• Southern Ocean

  Mean depth 3,270 m (10,728 ft) · South Sandwich Trench 7,434 m (24,390 ft)

  20.33M km²

  ≈ 7.85M mi²

• Arctic Ocean

  Mean depth 1,205 m (3,953 ft) · Molloy Deep 5,550 m (18,209 ft)

  14.06M km²

  ≈ 5.43M mi²

What fills them

The ocean is a living system, not just water — most of the planet's habitable space is in it.

• Mid-ocean ridges

  A 65,000 km (40,389 mi) volcanic mountain chain runs through every ocean, where new sea floor is made.

• Coral reefs

  Less than 0.1% of the sea floor, yet home to a quarter of all marine species.

  ~284,000 km²

  ≈ 109,653 mi²

• The deep sea

  Below 1,000 m (3,281 ft), sunlight never reaches. About 90% of ocean volume is in permanent darkness.

• Currents

  The Gulf Stream moves 30 million m³ of water a second — 100 times the flow of all rivers combined.

Did you know?

• The Pacific holds more than half of all the free water on Earth and is wider than the Moon's diameter five times over.
• At the Challenger Deep you would need to stack about 2,000 adult humans to reach the bottom from the surface.
• Sea water at depth is around 4°C (39.2 °F) almost everywhere, because cold, salty water sinks and spreads along the sea floor.
• More than 80% of the ocean has never been mapped at high resolution — we have better maps of Mars.

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