Typically people use the expressions Ocean and Sea replaceable when talking about the ocean, but there is a huge difference between ocean and sea. When we are talking about it geographically, following are the dissimilarities and differences between both of them;

Difference between Ocean and Sea

What is Ocean?

Oceans are actually a very big spread of the salt water that usually covers the three-quarters of the surface of the earth. These are only connected to the land by the surface of the sea. They are vast bodies of water that covers almost 70% of the earth surface. There are only “five main oceans” in the world, they are Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern (Antarctic), and Arctic.  The deepness of these are in ranges up to 36,000 feet. Pacific is the world largest and deepest, which covers approximately 59 million square miles and more than a half of the free water on the Earth.

No light reaches the Oceans beds because they are much deeper than the seas and support only very basic life like bacteria and shrimp to survive while the other marine life is un-survivable. It can influence the world’s weather or climate when they transfer their currents, which are the consequences of the cold and hot air in an atmosphere.

Ocean can lead to the discovery of new continents, an origin of the newer world (as the discovery of America) rather than to any enjoying spots like beaches. Its bed is almost impossible to reach for the experimental purpose. To get into the bottom, one has to get on special vessels and equipment which can resist the tremendous pressure that exists in the bottom of the ocean. The ocean’s storms are always responsible for the huge distractions held in the world. They only meet the other ocean at their endpoints. It cannot be a part of the sea and it is the ocean in which the seas empty their water while they do not pursue any outlets like this. Technically both are interconnected as the seas are originated from the oceans.

What is Sea?

Sea is the body of the salt water that is always or mostly surrounded by the land on all of its sides. it is part of an Ocean partially enclosed by land area. They are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land meets. The seas are numerous in numbers which of them are the Mediterranean, Baltic, Bering, Black, Caribbean, Coral, North, Red and the Yellow. These are shallower at 22,788 feet which is very much less than oceans. The largest one in the world is the Mediterranean with a total area of 1,144,800 square miles, which is very much smaller than the smallest ocean in the world i.e. The Arctic at 5,427,000 square miles. Mostly shallow allowing the light to reach at the bottom so the seas are enriched with marine life and are survivable that’s why the seabed’s can be used for the experimental purpose.

Culturally people are much closer and recognized more with the seas, as we have known historically, all the previous communities in the world lived near or next to the Seas. These are connected to the land so they have turned into the beaches while the Oceans are not. People can often dive into the bed of quite a few, with the very basic equipment with them. The seas are associated with heavy waves that are not visible on the surface of oceans.

A sea can be a part of an ocean that’s why they are not able to change the climate because they themselves depend upon the oceans. As we know that the biggest sea is very much smaller than the smallest ocean. So we can refer the “Sea as Oceans” but we cannot refer these words opposite because of the depth or deepness, area covered and difference from the surface of the earth. It may have their end point somewhere.