Sea

This article is about the body of water. For other uses, see SEA and seas. For the ancient Jewish unit of volume, see Seah (unit). For the Smirnoff advertising campaign, see Sea (Smirnoff advert)

A sea is either a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, or a large, usually saline, lake that lacks a natural outlet such as the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea. The term is used colloquially as synonymous with ocean, as in "the tropical sea" or "down to the sea shore", or even "sea water" to refer to water of the ocean. Large lakes, such as the Great Lakes, are sometimes referred to as inland seas. Many seas are marginal seas, in which currents are caused by ocean winds; others are mediterranean seas, in which currents are caused by differences in salinity and temperature.

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is the world authority when it comes to defining seas. The current defining document is the Special publication S-23, Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition, 1953. The second edition dated back to 1937, and the first to 1928. A fourth edition draft was published in 1986 but so far several naming disputes (such as the one over the Sea of Japan) have prevented its ratification.

List of seas (by ocean)

Atlantic Ocean Adriatic Sea Aegean Sea Alboran Sea Argentine Sea Bay of Bothnia Bay of Fundy Baltic Sea Black Sea Bothnian Sea Caribbean Sea Catalan Sea Celtic Sea Central Baltic Sea Chesapeake Bay English Channel Gulf of Bothnia Gulf of Guinea Gulf of Finland Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Sidra Gulf of St. Lawrence Gulf of Venezuela Ionian Sea Irish Sea Marmara Sea Mediterranean Sea Mirtoon Sea North Sea Sea of Azov Sea of Crete Sea of the Hebrides Sargasso Sea Thracian Sea Tyrrhenian Sea

Arctic Ocean Amundsen Gulf Baffin Bay Barents Sea Beaufort Sea Bering Sea Cambridge Bay Chukchi Sea Cold Bay Davis Strait Denmark Strait East Siberian Sea Greenland Sea Hudson Bay James Bay Kara Sea Kara Strait Labrador Sea Laptev Sea Lincoln Sea Norwegian Sea White Sea Indian Ocean Andaman Sea Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal Gulf of Aden Gulf of Oman Persian Gulf Red Sea Timor Sea

Pacific Ocean Chilean Sea Bering Sea Gulf of Alaska Salish Sea Gulf of California   (Sea of Cortés) Sea of Okhotsk Sea of Japan Seto Inland Sea East China Sea South China Sea Sulu Sea Celebes Sea Bohol Sea   (Mindanao Sea) Philippine Sea Camotes Sea Flores Sea Banda Sea Arafura Sea Timor Sea Tasman Sea Yellow Sea Bohai Sea Coral Sea Gulf of Carpentaria Bismarck Sea Solomon Sea Ceram Sea Halmahera Sea Molucca Sea Savu Sea Java Sea Gulf of Thailand

Southern Ocean Amundsen Sea Bellingshausen Sea Davis Sea Great Australian Bight Gulf Saint Vincent Ross Sea Scotia Sea Spencer Gulf Weddell Sea Landlocked seas Aral Sea Caspian Sea Dead Sea Sea of Galilee Salton Sea Great Salt Lake

† Not listed in IHO S-23 4th ed.

Ambiguous terminology

Some bodies of water that are called "seas" are not actually seas; there are also some seas that are not called "seas". The following is an incomplete list of such potentially confusing names.

• The Sea of Galilee is a small freshwater lake with a natural outlet, which is properly called Lake Tiberias or Lake Kinneret on modern Israeli maps, but its archaic name remains in use.
• The Sea of Cortés is more commonly known as the Gulf of California.
• The Persian Gulf is a sea.
• The Dead Sea is actually a lake, as is the Caspian Sea.

Extraterrestrial seas

See also Oceans Beyond Earth

Lunar maria are vast basaltic plains on the Moon that were thought to be bodies of water by early astronomers, who referred to them as "seas".

Liquid water may have existed on the surface of Mars in the distant past, and several basins on Mars have been proposed as dry sea beds. The largest is Vastitas Borealis; others include Hellas Planitia and Argyre Planitia.

Liquid water is thought to be present under the surface of several moons, most notably Europa.

Liquid hydrocarbons are thought to be present on the surface of Titan, though it may be more accurate to describe them as "lakes" rather than "seas".

Science

The term "sea" has also been used in quantum physics. Dirac sea is an interpretation of the negative energy states that comprises the vacuum.

See also

• Oceanography
• Inlet
• International Hydrographic Organization
• International Maritime Organization
• Lake
• Ocean
• Mediterranean sea (oceanography)
• Marginal sea
• seaQuest DSV
• Sea level
• Sea level rise
• Sea salt
• Seven Seas
• Water
• World Ocean Day