Oceanfront Hotels
Hotels by the ocean are often demanded by some tourists for a vacation. Some want a vacation that is by the ocean so they can have good view of the ocean or sea. They may want once by cliff or a beach, or a bay, or harbour but the main thing is to have a view of the sea or ocean. Some may want the hotel in a large city or in rural areas. Some may want a hotel that can offer easy acces to transport links. Some may want a hotel that offers easy views from all rooms.
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere.
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres. It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas". The oldest known mention of this name is contained in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BC (I 202); see also: Atlas Mountains. Another name historically used was the ancient term Ethiopic Ocean, derived from Ethiopia, whose name was sometimes used as a synonym for all of Africa and thus for the ocean. Before Europeans discovered other oceans, the term "ocean" itself was to them synonymous with the waters beyond Western Europe that we now know as the Atlantic and which the Greeks had believed to be a gigantic river encircling the world; see Oceanus.
The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between the Americas to the west, and Eurasia and Africa to the east. A component of the all encompassing World Ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic), to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south. (Alternatively, in lieu of it connecting to the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic may be reckoned to extend southward to Antarctica.) The equator subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. In the north and northeast, it is separated from the Arctic Ocean by the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Greenland, Iceland, Jan Mayen, Svalbard, and mainland Europe. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Barents Sea. To the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar (where it connects with the Mediterranean Sea, one of its marginal seas, and, in turn, the Black Sea), and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the border being defined by the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica. While some authorities show the Atlantic Ocean extending south to Antarctica, others show it as bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean. In the southwest, the Drake Passage connects it to the Pacific Ocean. A man-made link between the Atlantic and Pacific is provided by the Panama Canal. Beside those mentioned, other large bodies of water adjacent to the Atlantic are the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay, the Arctic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Celtic Sea.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the Pacific and in the world, reaching a depth of around 10,000 metres.
The Pacific contains about 25,000 islands (more than the total number in the rest of the world's oceans combined), the majority of which are found south of the equator. Including partially submerged islands, the figure is substantially higher.
Along the Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which are the Celebes Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sea of Japan, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Tasman Sea, and Yellow Sea. The Strait of Malacca joins the Pacific and the Indian Oceans on the west, and Drake Passage and the Strait of Magellan link the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean on the east. To the north, the Bering Strait connects the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean.
As the Pacific straddles the ± 180° meridian, the West Pacific (or western Pacific, near Asia) is in the Eastern Hemisphere, while the East Pacific (or eastern Pacific, near the Americas) is in the Western Hemisphere.
The largest landmass entirely within the Pacific Ocean is the island of New Guinea the second largest island in the world. Almost all of the smaller islands of the Pacific lie between 30°N and 30°S, extending from Southeast Asia to Easter Island; the rest of the Pacific Basin is almost entirely submerged. During the Last glacial period, New Guinea was part of Australia so the largest landmass would have been Borneo-Palawan.
The great triangle of Polynesia, connecting Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand, encompasses the island arcs and clusters of the Cook Islands, Marquesas, Samoa, Society, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuamotu, Tuvalu and the Wallis and Futuna islands.
North
of the equator and west of the International Date Line are the numerous small
islands of Micronesia, including the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands and
the Mariana Islands.
In the southwestern corner of the Pacific lie the islands of Melanesia, dominated by New Guinea. Other important island groups of Melanesia include the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Islands in the Pacific Ocean are of four basic types: continental islands, high islands, coral reefs, and uplifted coral platforms. Continental islands lie outside the Andesite Line and include New Guinea, the islands of New Zealand, and the Philippines. These islands are structurally associated with nearby continents. High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active volcanoes. Among these are Bougainville, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands.
The ocean encompasses almost a third of the Earth's surface,
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost lobe of the all-encompassing World Ocean. Almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America, the Arctic Ocean is largely covered by sea ice throughout the year. The Arctic Ocean's temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation, heavy freshwater inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities.
The Arctic Ocean contains a major choke point in the southern Chukchi Sea, which provides northern access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait between North America and the Russian city of Arkhangelsk. The Arctic Ocean also provides the shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern and western Russia. There are several floating research stations in the Arctic, operated by the US and Russia.
An underwater ridge, the Lomonosov Ridge, divides the deep sea North Polar Basin into two oceanic basins: the Eurasian Basin, which is between 4,000 and 4,500 m deep, and the Amerasian Basin (sometimes called the North American, or Hyperborean Basin), which is about 4,000 m deep.
Some notable ports and harbours from west to east include:
United States ; Barrow, Alaska, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
Canada ; Inuvik, Northwest
Territories, Tuktoyaktuk, Nanisivik, Nunavut
Norway ; Longyearbyen, Kirkenes,
Vardø
Russia ; Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Dudinka, Dikson, Tiksi, Pevek
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia (including the Indian subcontinent, after which it is named); on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, traditionally, by Antarctica). One component of the all-encompassing World Ocean, the Indian Ocean is delineated from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20° east meridian running south from Cape Agulhas, and from the Pacific by the 147° east meridian. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf and, thus, has asymmetric ocean circulation. This ocean is nearly 10,000 kilometres wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia; its area is 73,556,000 square kilometres, including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Malacca, southern access to the Suez Canal, and the Lombok Strait. Seas include Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Great Australian Bight, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Laccadive Sea, Mozambique Channel, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Strait of Malacca, and other tributary water bodies.
Indian Ocean Island States is the name given to those island states in the Indian subcontinent which lie in the Indian Ocean. These include:
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Republic of Maldives, Chagos Archipelago
The
Southern Ocean, also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean
and the South Polar Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean
south of 60° S latitude. The International Hydrographic Organization has designated
the Southern Ocean as an oceanic division encircling Antarctica. Geographers disagree
on the Southern Ocean's northern boundary or even its existence, sometimes considering
the waters part of the South Pacific, South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans instead.
The
Southern Ocean includes the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (which circulates around
Antarctica) the Amundsen Sea, Bellingshausen Sea, parts of the Drake Passage,
Ross Sea, Cooperation Sea, the Cosmonaut Sea, a small part of the Scotia Sea,
and Weddell Sea. Its total area comprises 20,327,000 square kilometers.
The Southern Ocean differs from the other oceans in that its largest boundary, the northern boundary, does not abut any landmass, but merges into the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. This calls into question why geographers should consider the Southern Ocean a separate ocean, as opposed to a southward extension of the other three oceans. One reason stems from the fact that much of the water of the Southern Ocean differs from the water in the other oceans. Because of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, that water gets transported around the Southern Ocean fairly rapidly, so that the water in the Southern Ocean south of, for example, South America, resembles the water in the Southern Ocean south of New Zealand more closely than it resembles the water in the mid Indian Ocean.
Several processes operate along the coast of Antarctica to produce, in the Southern Ocean, types of water masses not produced elsewhere in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. One of these is the Antarctic Bottom Water, a very cold, highly saline, dense water that forms under sea ice.
The Southern Ocean, geologically the youngest of the oceans, formed when Antarctica and South America moved apart, opening the Drake Passage. The separation of the continents allowed the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
In
many respects, the Southern Ocean forms the opposite of the Arctic Ocean, located
on the opposite end of the globe.
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