About 70% of the world’s surface is covered by water, most of which is the salt water in the oceans. Although there has been debate about the number of oceans that world largest bodies of water should be divided into, the figure is usually fixed at five.

The largest of the oceans is the Pacific. It is just under half of the surface of all oceans and measures 186 square kilometers. It covers virtually all the coastal areas of Asia and the western edges of North America and South America.
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The second largest is the Atlantic, which covers 85 million kilometers from the eastern edges of North and South America to the west of all of Europe and down the west coast of Africa.

The third largest is the Indian Ocean, which covers 71 million square miles between India to Australia. The Southern Ocean rings Antarctica and covers 22 million square kilometers. And the Arctic Ocean covers 16 square kilometers.

Another measure of oceans is how deep they are.

The deepest part of the oceans is the Mariana Trench. It runs south of Japan and just east of Guam. Its greatest depth is 11 kilometers below the surface, which translates into 6.8 miles. Most commercial jets fly about six miles above the Earth’s surface. If Mount Everest was put into the trench, its peak would be under water.

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The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is nearly five times more than it is at the surface, which makes it almost impossible for humans to explore. The U.S. Navy’s bathyscaphe Trieste did reach the bottom on January 23, 1960.

Nearly all of the deepest parts of the oceans are in the Pacific, with the exception of an area near Puerto Rico and another near Peru and Chile.

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