The word “ocean” comes to us through the Greek ōkeanos , which means “great current that surrounds the disk of the earth”, named after Oceanus, the Titan father of almost 3,000 gods in Greek mythology.
The world is surrounded by five oceans, Antarctic, Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, and Pacific ; a great sea mass where life was born.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of all with around 155,557,000 square kilometers; about a third of the Earth’s surface and with an average depth of 4,280 meters. Precisely the place where we can find the deepest region on the planet: the Mariana Trench (almost 11,000 meters deep); a depression on the seabed about 200 km east of the Mariana Islands.
We also have to go back many centuries to find the origin of the name of the oceans. And it would not be until 1919 when the first International Conference of Hydrographers took place, whose mission was to define and officially establish the limits of the oceans. Later, the International Hydrographic Organization would be born, which “promotes uniformity in nautical charts and documents.” The first World Oceans Day was celebrated in 2009.
Atlantic Ocean
Most seas and oceans have fairly simple names, depending on their location . Initially baptized as the Great Western Ocean or Ethiopian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean nomenclature dates back to the middle of the 6th century BC, receiving these other names according to the different cartographers of the different countries . Its name is related to Atlas, the Titan that the ancient Greeks said held the heavens. Thus, Atlantic was used as an adjective to refer to the northwestern coast of Africa, where the Atlas Mountains are located.
Pacific Ocean
We focus on the year 1519 , when the Portuguese navigator Fernando de Magallanes, hired by Spain, begins a journey across the Atlantic Ocean to seek a western route to the Spice Islands or Moluccas Islands (Indonesia) through South America . After braving dangerous seas and navigating through what is now known as the Strait of Magellan, his small fleet entered an unknown ocean in November 1520. He baptized it as peaceful, due to the calm of the water at that time and the favorable winds. Unknowingly, the explorers had ventured into the largest ocean on Earth; the largest ocean basins in the world. It is so large that every continent in the world could fit in the Pacific basin.
Arctic Ocean
Arctic comes from the Greek word ἀρκτικός (arktikos), which means north or near the bear, derived from the word ἄρκτος (arktos ) which is literally bear. It refers to the constellation Ursa Major, which is prominent in the northern sky, or Ursa Minor where Polaris is, also known as the North Star, the brightest in this constellation.
Indian Ocean
It receives this name for bathing the coasts of India and Indonesia . The Roman writer Pliny the Elder gave it the name Oceanus Indicus , which means “Indian Ocean.” Later, it was named as the Western Oceans (by Chinese cartographers of the 15th century), Eastern Ocean (by Western geographers during the 18th century), while the ancient Greeks called it the Eritrean Sea. In Indian cultures, it was known as the Sindhu Mahasagara.
Antartic Ocean
In this case, the name of the ocean refers to its location. Antarctica simply means the opposite of north. It is the penultimate ocean in extension and refers to the geographical opposition to the Arctic.
