Ways to use this list
- Globe lesson for young children: spin an ocean, trace it with a finger on a globe and name a continent it touches.
- Sea life research: spin an ocean and find one animal that lives there, such as narwhals in the Arctic or emperor penguins in the Southern Ocean.
- Deep sea science: press Ocean zones and draw the light, pressure and creatures you would meet at that depth.
- Explorer stories: write about a voyage across the ocean you spin, with real details about its weather and wildlife.
- Seas quiz: press Famous seas, spin, and the first to point to it on a map wins; the Sargasso Sea is the tricky one.
Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.
The full list (5 entries)
- Pacific Ocean – the largest and deepest
- Atlantic Ocean – the second largest
- Indian Ocean – the warmest
- Southern Ocean – flows all the way around Antarctica
- Arctic Ocean – the smallest and shallowest
Questions people ask
How many oceans are there?
Five: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic. Older books often list only four, because the Southern Ocean around Antarctica was recognised more recently, but most maps and schools now include it.
Which ocean is the biggest and deepest?
The Pacific, which covers about a third of the Earth's surface, more than all the land put together. Its deepest point, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, is nearly 11 kilometres down.
What is the difference between a sea and an ocean?
Seas are smaller and usually partly surrounded by land, and most are part of an ocean: the Caribbean Sea belongs to the Atlantic, for example. The Sargasso Sea is unusual because it has no coastline at all, and the Caspian Sea is really the world's largest lake.
Is there a sea animal version?
Yes: the random sea animal generator spins creatures from the shallows to the deep. Spin an ocean here first, then pick an animal to go with it.
How deep is each ocean zone?
The sunlight zone reaches about 200 metres down, the twilight zone to 1,000 metres and the pitch-black midnight zone to about 4,000 metres. Below that lies the abyssal zone, down to around 6,000 metres, and the hadal zone exists only inside deep trenches.
Why is sea water salty?
Rain slowly wears minerals out of rocks on land, and rivers carry them down to the sea. When sea water evaporates, the salt stays behind, so over millions of years it has built up to about 35 grams in every litre.