Thread title’s the question: What constitutes a given body of water as a “sea” rather than a “bight,” a “gulf,” a “bay,” etc.?
Examples of what I’m talking about: the Indian Ocean has two northward extensions, divided by India and Sri Lanka. One is the Arabian Sea; the other is the Bay of Bengal. But down the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal are the Andaman Islands, with the Andaman Sea between them and the mainland to the east. The Arabian Sea, on the other hand, has two double-indentations indenting the land to the north of it: to the west, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, to the east the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. Why are the Arabian, Andaman, and Red Seas “seas” while Bengal, Aden, Oman, and Persian are a bay and gulfs. Then, east of Mexico and Central America are two other similar-sized bodies of water, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Why is one a sea and the other not?
In the Malay and Philippine Archipelagos, it looks like every section of water between islands large enough to fit two ocean-going ships on it at the same time constitutes a sea. Same thing appears to hold true in the Aegean. But there are other island groups where nothing of the sort is done. Why?
Disclaimer: There are a number of large salt-water lakes called “seas” – Caspian, Aral, Dead, Salton. That’s fine by me; it’s a separate specialized use, and I’m not worried about it.
Is there any clear definition of what makes something a “sea” geographically? If there is a general rule, but there are traditional exceptions to it, that’s OK – but I’d like to know what the rule-before-exceptions is.
Yeah, I thought the same thing myself after looking at a map of the world. I thought the terms were thrown around willy nilly, but there are rules it would seem.
With regards seas and oceans, Wikipedia is our friend. A sea is part of an ocean, or a large saline lake. An ocean is an area of oceanic crust covered by water.
There are rules on what makes up a bay, gulf and sound too, all to do with size and shape.
I don’t think there are really any hard-and-fast rules. “Seas” tend to be less enclosed than gulfs or bays, often defined by chains of islands, but there are many obvious exceptions, such as the Baltic, Red, and Adriatic Seas.
While gulfs are usually larger than bays, there are exceptions; Hudson’s Bay is far larger than the Gulf of Panama (which contains within it the Bay of Panama, Bay of Parita, and others, as well as the Gulf of San Miguel) or the Gulf of Chiriqui in these parts.
So it’s purely a matter of usage? – what people felt like hanging “sea” on became seas, and the rest gulfs, bays, etc. Thanks to all who responded.
Picunurse, there are a lot of salt lakes worldwide, mostly identified as such. Some got hung with the “sea” appellation, some with the “lake.” The early Mormon pioneers missed a bet; they should have called it the “Sea of Deseret.”
