The Blue Planet

The Southern Ocean encircles Antarctica and hosts the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The Mariana Trench, the ocean's deepest known point, hosts organisms adapted to crushing pressure.

Ocean currents are driven by wind, water density, and Earth's rotation, moving seawater across the globe.

The Gulf Stream's warm North Atlantic current significantly warms the climate of Western Europe.

Tides rise and fall on a regular cycle, driven primarily by the Moon's gravitational pull.

Ocean gyres form large rotating current systems shaped by global winds and Earth's rotation.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch traps floating debris where converging Pacific currents meet.

Ocean salinity, the measure of dissolved salt, varies globally with evaporation, rainfall, and ice melt.

Coral bleaching, often triggered by warm water, causes corals to expel the algae living in their tissue.

Hydrothermal vents release heated water and support unique ecosystems that don't depend on sunlight.

Bioluminescence, light produced by living organisms, is especially common among deep-sea creatures.

The continental shelf's shallow seabed hosts a large share of the world's commercial fishing activity.

Whale migration carries many species thousands of miles between feeding and breeding grounds each year.

The Pacific Ocean, the largest and deepest ocean, covers more area than all of Earth's land combined.

The Atlantic Ocean, the second-largest, slowly widens each year due to shifting tectonic plates.

The Indian Ocean, the third-largest and warmest of the major oceans, borders Africa, Asia, and Australia.

The Arctic Ocean, the smallest and shallowest ocean, stays largely covered by sea ice much of the year.

Ocean acidification, linked to rising carbon dioxide, threatens marine organisms that build shells.

The deep sea, beyond sunlight's reach, remains one of the least explored environments on Earth.

Icebergs break off glaciers into the sea, with only a small fraction of their mass visible above water.

Sea level rise is driven largely by melting ice and the thermal expansion of warming ocean water.

Marine biodiversity's vast variety of ocean life remains largely undiscovered, especially in the deep sea.

Tsunamis, often triggered by undersea earthquakes, can race across an entire ocean basin at high speed.

Estuaries, where rivers meet the sea, rank among the most biologically productive environments on Earth.