Overview of the world's seas
This is a list of seas of the World Ocean, including marginal seas, areas of water, various gulfs, bights, bays, and straits.
Terminology
- Ocean – the four to seven largest named bodies of water in the World Ocean, all of which have "Ocean" in the name. See Borders of the oceans for details.
- Sea has several definitions:[a]
- A marginal sea is a division of an ocean, partially enclosed by islands, archipelagos, or peninsulas, adjacent to or widely open to the open ocean at the surface, and/or bounded by submarine ridges on the sea floor.[4]
- A division of an ocean, delineated by landforms,[5] currents (e.g., Sargasso Sea), or specific latitude or longitude boundaries. This includes but is not limited to marginal seas, and this is the definition used for inclusion in this list.
- The World Ocean. For example, the Law of the Sea states that all of the World Ocean is "sea",[6][7][8][b] and this is also common usage for "the sea".
- Any large body of water with "Sea" in the name, including lakes.
- River – a narrow strip of water that flows over land from a higher elevation to a lower one
- Tributary – a small river that flows into a larger one
- Estuary – the piece of a river that flows into the sea or ocean
- Strait – a narrow area of water connecting two wider areas of water, also sometimes known as a passage
- Channel – usually wider than a strait
- Passage – connects waters between islands, also sometimes known as a strait
- Canal – a human-made channel
- Fjard – a large open water between groups of islands
There are several terms used for bulges of ocean that result from indentations of land, which overlap in definition, and which are not consistently differentiated:[10]
- Bay – generic term; though most features with "Bay" in the name are small, some are very large
- Gulf – a very large bay, often a top-level division of an ocean or sea
- Fjord – a long bay with steep sides, typically formed by a glacier
- Bight – a bay that is typically shallower than a sound
- Sound – a large, wide bay which is typically deeper than a bight, or a strait
- Cove – a small, typically sheltered bay with a relatively narrow entrance
- Inlet – a narrow and long bay similar to a land peninsula, but adjoining the sea
- Polynya – least used of these terms, a patch of water surrounded by ice
Many features could be considered to be more than one of these, and all of these terms are used in place names inconsistently; especially bays, gulfs, and bights, which can be very large or very small. This list includes large areas of water no matter the term used in the name.
Largest seas by area
The largest terrestrial seas are:
- Philippine Sea – 5.695 million km2
- Coral Sea – 4.791 million km2
- American Mediterranean Sea – 4.200 million km2
- Arabian Sea – 3.862 million km2
- Sargasso Sea – 3.5 million km2
- South China Sea – 3.5 million km2
- Weddell Sea – 2.8 million km2
- Caribbean Sea – 2.754 million km2
- Mediterranean Sea – 2.510 million km2
- Gulf of Guinea – 2.35 million km2
- Tasman Sea – 2.3 million km2
- Bay of Bengal – 2.172 million km2
- Bering Sea – 2 million km2
- Sea of Okhotsk – 1.583 million km2
- Gulf of Mexico – 1.550 million km2
- Gulf of Alaska – 1.533 million km2
- Barents Sea – 1.4 million km2
- Norwegian Sea – 1.383 million km2
- East China Sea – 1.249 million km2
- Hudson Bay – 1.23 million km2
- Greenland Sea – 1.205 million km2
- Somov Sea – 1.15 million km2
- Mar de Grau – 1.14 million km2
- Riiser-Larsen Sea – 1.138 million km2
- Sea of Japan – 1.05 million km2
- Argentine Sea – 1 million km2
- East Siberian Sea – 987,000 km2
- Lazarev Sea – 929,000 km2
- Kara Sea – 926,000 km2
- Scotia Sea – 900,000 km2
- Labrador Sea – 841,000 km2
- Andaman Sea – 797,700 km2
- Laccadive Sea – 786,000 km2
- Irminger Sea – 780,000 km2
- Solomon Sea – 720,000 km2
- Mozambique Channel – 700,000 km2
- Cosmonauts Sea – 699,000 km2
- Banda Sea – 695,000 km2
- Baffin Bay – 689,000 km2
- Laptev Sea – 662,000 km2
- Arafura Sea – 650,000 km2
- Ross Sea – 637,000 km2
- Chukchi Sea – 620,000 km2
- Timor Sea – 610,000 km2
- North Sea – 575,000 km2
- Bellingshausen Sea – 487,000 km2
- Beaufort Sea – 476,000 km2
- Red Sea – 438,000 km2
- Black Sea – 436,000 km2
- Gulf of Aden – 410,000 km2
- Yellow Sea – 380,000 km2
- Baltic Sea – 377,000 km2
- Caspian Sea – 371,000 km2
- Libyan Sea – 350,000 km2
- Mawson Sea – 333,000 km2
- Levantine Sea – 320,000 km2
- Java Sea – 320,000 km2
- Gulf of Thailand – 320,000 km2
- Celtic Sea – 300,000 km2
- Gulf of Carpentaria – 300,000 km2
- Celebes Sea – 280,000 km2
- Tyrrhenian Sea – 275,000 km2
- Sulu Sea – 260,000 km2
- Cooperation Sea – 258,000 km2
- Persian Gulf – 251,000 km2
- Flores Sea – 240,000 km2
- Gulf of Saint Lawrence – 226,000 km2
- Bay of Biscay – 223,000 km2
- Aegean Sea – 214,000 km2
- Gulf of Anadyr – 200,000 km2
- Molucca Sea – 200,000 km2
- Oman Sea – 181,000 km2
- Ionian Sea – 169,000 km2
- Gulf of California – 160,000 km2
- Balearic Sea – 150,000 km2
- Adriatic Sea – 138,000 km2
Not included
Entities called "seas" which are not divisions of the World Ocean are not included in this list. Excluded are:
Other items not included: