As kids, who would have even thought that the main four oceans we are learning about would turn five one day! The National Geographic Society has been working on maps for quite a long time and now has at long last concluded that Earth consists of five oceans and rectified the previously marked record of four oceans.
The Southern Sea entering the list of oceans is the icy cold water body surrounding Antarctica. It was initially named in the 1500s. The researchers commonly inquire about the southern sea in their work; Live Science reports, the body of water has been advanced and downgraded from “ocean” status a few times over the years. It never received the true recognition as an ocean which was long due, says the National Geographic Society. At last, the official acknowledgment converts the formerly known “Southern Sea” to an ocean.
Tumultuous History
In 1921, when the Worldwide Hydrographic Organization (IHO) was established, it promptly alluded to the Southern Sea as a particular body of water, Live Science reports. Later the organization changed its stance and downgraded the sea in new regulations distributed in 1953. But researchers and exchange organizations proceeded to allude to the sea as such anyway.
The National Geographic Society geographer Alex Tait clarified that giving the Southern Ocean its deserved position would have a tangible impact. It would be visible as improved learning of kids pertaining to their science training.
“Students learn information about the ocean world through what oceans you’re studying,” Tait said in the NatGeo article. “If you don’t include the Southern Ocean, then you don’t learn the specifics of it and how important it is.”
Arbitrary Delineation
About 71% of the Earth’s surface is water-covered; therefore, assigning names, numbers, and frontiers to the seas is a hard-hitting endeavor. One of the most splendid things about all the five oceans is that they all are different yet so beautifully tied to one another. Still, there might be a circular current within the region that separates the southern sea from the other four regarding temperature and saltiness, giving the fifth one a diversified version.
“Scientists have long recognized the Southern Ocean, but because there was never agreement internationally, we never officially recognized it,” Tait said in the NatGeo article. “It’s geographic nerdiness in some ways.”