1. Ocean Basics

Water is an essential component of all life forms. The earth fortunately has an abundant supply of water on its surface. Hence, our planet is called the Blue Planet. About 97 per cent of the planetary water is found in the oceans. Oceans account for more than 70 per cent or 140 million square miles of the earth's surface.

Oceanography, the science of the oceans, has become such an important subject in recent years and many researches into the deep seas have been conducted. The oceans, unlike the continents, merge so naturally into one another that it is hard to demarcate them. The geographers have divided the oceanic part of the earth into four oceans, namely the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic.

1.1. Relief of the Ocean Floor 1.1.1. Continental Shelf 1.1.2. Continental Slope 1.1.3. Continental Rise 1.1.4. Deep Sea Plain 1.1.5. Oceanic deeps or Trenches Figure 1. Major relief features of the ocean floor.Figure 2. Minor Relief features of the ocean floor.1.3. The Oceanic Deposits of the Ocean Floor 1.4. Temperature 1.4.1. Factors Affecting Temperature Distribution 1.4.2. Vertical Distribution of Temperature Figure 3. Variation of temperature with depth in oceans 1.4.3. Horizontal Distribution of Temperature Figure 4. Horizontal Distribution of temperature of oceans around the world 1.5.1. Factors Affecting Ocean Salinity 1.5.2. Vertical Distribution of Salinity 1.5.3. Horizontal Distribution of Salinity