Indian Ocean, body of salt water covering approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world. It is the smallest, geologically youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans.
What is the youngest sea?
The Atlantic Ocean is the planet’s youngest ocean. It was believed to have been created by the splitting apart of a vast super continent on Earth about 180 million years ago.
Which ocean is the oldest?
The Pacific is the oldest of the existing ocean basins.
Which ocean is the youngest and the warmest ocean?
The Atlantic Ocean is the world’s saltiest sea with a water salinity level of between 33 – 37 parts per thousand. It’s the world’s youngest ocean, formed long after the Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans of the Triassic Period.
Where is the youngest part of the ocean found?
The youngest crust of the ocean floor can be found near the seafloor spreading centers or mid-ocean ridges. As the plates split apart, magma rises from below the Earth’s surface to fill in the empty void.
What happens to the oldest seafloor?
One place where the crust is the oldest is at edge of a subduction zone. It is here that the oldest ocean crust is pushed under a continental crust and destroyed. In the image below, the oldest oceanic crust is pink/purple. As you can see, the newest crust (red) is adjacent to where there is seafloor spreading.
Why is there no ocean floor much older than 280 million years?
While the Earth’s continental crust can exist for billions of years, movement of tectonic plates causes subduction, which is when the ocean crust is shoved down into the molten mantle. So the ocean floor rarely lasts longer than 200 million years.
Which ocean is most dangerous?
Finally, let’s look at one of the biggest and most dangerous seas to sail in the world: the Indian Ocean. To its north lies Asia, to the east Australia, and to the west Africa. In the middle lies an ocean spanning some 20% of the Earth’s watery surface.
What is the oldest country?
San Marino
What is the most famous ocean?
Pacific Ocean – 4.6 stars. The Pacific is the largest, and arguably the most famous, of the world’s oceans.
What are the 7 Seven Seas?
The Seven Seas include the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans. The exact origin of the phrase ‘Seven Seas’ is uncertain, although there are references in ancient literature that date back thousands of years.
What ocean is coldest?
The Arctic Ocean is found at the North Pole and Antarctica is found in the Southern Ocean at the South Pole. Antarctica is covered in ice and is the coldest place on earth.
What ocean is the deepest?
The deepest part of the ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located beneath the western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the U.S. territorial island of Guam. Challenger Deep is approximately 36,200 feet deep.
Where are deep ocean trenches found?
Deep-sea trenches generally lie seaward of and parallel to adjacent island arcs or mountain ranges of the continental margins. They are closely associated with and found in subduction zones—that is, locations where a lithospheric plate bearing oceanic crust slides down into the upper mantle under the force of gravity.
What is Earth’s crust broken into?
The Earth’s crust is broken up into a series of massive sections called plates. These tectonic plates rest upon the convecting mantle, which causes them to move.
Why is no oceanic crust older than 200ma?
Most oceanic crust is less than 200 million years old, because it is typically recycled back into the Earth’s mantle at subduction zones (where two tectonic plates collide). But a new study shows that part of the eastern Mediterranean Sea may contain the oldest known oceanic crust.