The sea is the interconnected system of all the Earth's oceanic waters, including

the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern and Arctic Oceans.[2] However, the word "sea" can also be used for many
specific, much smaller bodies of seawater, such as the North Sea or the Red Sea. There is no sharp distinction
between seas and oceans, though generally seas are smaller, and are often partly (as marginal seas) or wholly
(as inland seas) bordered by land.[3] However, the Sargasso Sea has no coastline and lies within a circular
current, the North Atlantic Gyre.[4](p90) Seas are generally larger than lakes and contain salt water, but the Sea of
Galilee is a freshwater lake.[5][a] The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that all of the
ocean is "sea".[9][10][b]

Physical science[edit]

Composite images of the Earth created by NASA in 2001

Main articles: Oceanography and Physical oceanography

Earth is the only known planet with seas of liquid water on its surface,[4](p22) although Mars possesses ice

caps and similar planets in other solar systems may have oceans.[12] Earth's 1,335,000,000 cubic kilometers
(320,000,000 cu mi) of sea contain about 97.2 percent of its known water[13][c] and cover more than 70 percent of
its surface.[4](p7) Another 2.15% of Earth's water is frozen, found in the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean, the ice
cap covering Antarctica and its adjacent seas, and various glaciers and surface deposits around the world. The
remainder (about 0.65% of the whole) form underground reservoirs or various stages of the water cycle,
containing the freshwater encountered and used by most terrestrial life: vapor in the air, the clouds it slowly
forms, the rain falling from them, and the lakes and rivers spontaneously formed as its waters flow again and
again to the sea.[13]
The scientific study of water and Earth's water cycle is hydrology; hydrodynamics studies the physics of water
in motion. The more recent study of the sea in particular is oceanography. This began as the study of the
shape of the ocean's currents[18] but has since expanded into a large and multidisciplinary field:[19] it examines
the properties of seawater; studies waves, tides, and currents; charts coastlines and maps the seabeds; and
studies marine life.[20] The subfield dealing with the sea's motion, its forces, and the forces acting upon it is
known as physical oceanography.[21] Marine biology (biological oceanography) studies the plants, animals, and
other organisms inhabiting marine ecosystems. Both are informed by chemical oceanography, which studies
the behavior of elements and molecules within the oceans: particularly, at the moment, the ocean's role in
the carbon cycle and carbon dioxide's role in the increasing acidification of seawater. Marine and
maritime geography charts the shape and shaping of the sea, while marine geology (geological oceanography)
has provided evidence of continental drift and the composition and structure of the Earth, clarified the process
of sedimentation, and assisted the study of volcanism and earthquakes.[19]

Seawater[edit]
Main article:  Seawater
Salinity map taken from the Aquarius Spacecraft. The rainbow colours represent salinity levels: red = 40 ‰, purple = 30 ‰

The water in the sea was thought to come from the Earth's volcanoes, starting 4 billion years ago, released by
degassing from molten rock.[4](pp24–25) More recent work suggests much of the Earth's water may come
from comets.[22] A characteristic of seawater is that it is salty. Salinity is usually measured in parts per thousand
(‰ or per mil), and the open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) solids per litre, a salinity of 35 ‰. The
Mediterranean Sea is slightly higher at 38 ‰,[23] while the salinity of the northern Red Sea can reach 41‰. [24] In
contrast, some landlocked hypersaline lakes have a much higher salinity, for example the Dead Sea has 300
grams (11 oz) dissolved solids per litre (300 ‰).
While the constituents of table salt sodium and chloride make up about 85 percent of the solids in solution,
there are also other metal ions such as magnesium and calcium, and negative ions including sulphate,
carbonate, and bromide. Despite variations in the levels of salinity in different seas, the relative composition of
the dissolved salts is stable throughout the world's oceans. [25][26] Seawater is too saline for humans to drink
safely, as the kidneys cannot excrete urine as salty as seawater. [27]

Major solutes in seawater (3.5% salinity)[26]

Solute Concentration (‰) % of total salts

Chloride 19.3 55

Sodium 10.8 30.6

Sulphate 2.7 7.7

Magnesium 1.3 3.7

Calcium 0.41 1.2

Potassium 0.40 1.1

Bicarbonate 0.10 0.4

 Bromide 0.07 0.2

Carbonate 0.01 0.05

Strontium 0.01 0.04

Borate 0.01 0.01

Fluoride 0.001 <0.01

All other
<0.001 <0.01
solutes

Although the amount of salt in the ocean remains relatively constant within the scale of millions of years,
various factors affect the salinity of a body of water.[28] Evaporation and by-product of ice formation (known as
"brine rejection") increase salinity, whereas precipitation, sea ice melt, and runoff from land reduce it.
[28]
 The Baltic Sea, for example, has many rivers flowing into it, and thus the sea could be considered
as brackish.[29] Meanwhile, the Red Sea is very salty due to its high evaporation rate. [30]
Sea temperature depends on the amount of solar radiation falling o