When I was learnin’ stuff in school, I was taught four oceans: pacific, atlantic, indian, arctic.
I just learned that there is a 5th ocean named The Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica. This was news to me and I’m a fairly learned 27 year old man!
So, how many oceans have you learned about in your life? Is this 5 ocean model very commonly taught or very widely used?
5 oceans is what I learned. Being in the Southern hemisphere might have something to do with not ignoring the Southern Ocean.
Wut?! I learned 4, same as drew!
People be makin’ up oceans, Pluto isn’t a planet. Maybe it was a deal? “OK, we’ll degrade Pluto, but you gotta give us an ocean?”
MrDibble, could you please elaborate on your usage of Southern Ocean? I’m not sure which continent you hail from, but for example, if it’s Australia, do you usually see it labeled on maps as Southern Ocean, does it get referred to in the news like “a boat sank in the Southern Ocean today”, etc?
It’s hardly “made up” when the Southern Ocean is, in fact, bigger than the Arctic Ocean.
Not wanting to answer for MrDibble, but yes it’s on maps and yes you hear that such and such happened in the Southern Ocean.
Tony Bullimore from Britain was rescued by the Australian navy in the Southern Ocean when his boat capsized during a single handled around the world yacht race some years ago. Apparently he survived for days in complete darkness in the upturned hull in freezing waters with only a chocolate bar to eat. I think there was also another sailor rescued in a similar (but less remote) area during the same race. It was big news here (Australia), and also around the world I would have thought? Most people were amazed that he was still alive when the navy got to the yacht. They knocked on the hull, just like in the movies.
There’s only one ocean the world around, in reality. Anything else is made up.
Hey, are you telling the ocean its -ss is fat? 
Yes. I’m South African. It’s generally used in the context of our Antarctic base and our annual missions there. I’m reasonably sure we use the 60deg S definition for it. Maps vary, some label it “Antarctic Ocean” and some (under NGS influence, no doubt) don’t include it.
Huh. I just checked my class globe, and while the four other seas are labeled with capital letters, and various Antarctic seas are labeled along with various trenches and wind patters, there’s no Southern Ocean.
I left all the "citation needed"s in because I don’t want to pretend the article is authoritative :).
There is either one ocean, or as many as you want there to be.
Two, if you count the Caspian Sea.
The Caspian is landlocked. It’s a huge inland salt lake with no outlet.
What’s unique about the Southern Ocean is that it’s the only one that allows unimpeded* circumnavigation of the globe.
*With respect to land; ice might be a problem, though.
I was never taught that there was only one ocean. Of course, we knew all the oceans connected and that the boundaries might be a little fuzzy.
But I’m talking about what people were TAUGHT and what they think of immediately when someone asks “how many oceans?”
So drop the pedantic crap and answer my question as I asked it. How many oceans were you taught? Do you know about the Southern Ocean, and do you use that term and hear it regularly?
I was taught that they are 7 continents and 5 oceans. And the Southern Ocean was one of the later.
It’s not surrounded by land. The land is surrounded by it.
(Actually the ancients considered it an ocean; it used to be part of the world ocean; and it has some geological characteristics of an ocean. So an argument could be made that it is an ocean.)
I was taught seven continents and five oceans.
And, it was called the ‘Antarctic Ocean’.
That seems more symmetrical than ‘Southern Ocean’ to me.
But then there are the ‘Seven Seas’.
How does that fit in?
Van the man Morrison taught me there are seven oceans.
[QUOTE=Tupelo Honey]
You can take all the tea in china
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail right around the seven oceans
Drop it straight into the deep blue sea
[/QUOTE]
For most of us, there are as many oceans as the people who devote their lives to studying such questions say that there are. I see no reason not to defer to their expertise on such a matter.
Honestly, this is the first I’ve ever heard of the Southern Ocean, except possibly in a Captain Jack Aubrey novel where I glossed over it, thinking it some weird nautical term like mainmast and jibberdeflibbet.
Is the Department of Figuring Out How Many Oceans There Are affiliated with the Ministry of Decided Whether or Not Tomatoes are Fruit?