Interesting Facts about Seas for Kids

The sea is an awesome place to go to have a cool holiday and chill out. Here we take a look at interesting facts about the sea.

But first, do you think the sea and the ocean are the same thing? Read on to find out.

What is the difference between an Ocean and a Sea?

You often hear people talking about the ocean and the sea as if they’re the same thing. But they really aren’t at all.

Seas are much smaller than oceans and are normally found where the land and ocean meet. So, now you know the difference. Let’s get onto some cool facts so you’ll be sea smart for that next test or project.

Interesting Facts about Seas

The sea and ocean are words used to describe all the connected salt waters of the world, but as we know they are actually different.
Seas of the world are usually made up of areas that are partly surrounded by land within the big oceans of the world.
Where seas are only partially surrounded by land or ridges on the sea floor, these are often called marginal seas. But opinions aren’t all the same about what a marginal sea is and what is not. Some marginal seas are found in Mediterranean seas.
Marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean include Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, Kara Sea and Laptev Sea.
Some marginal seas of the Southern Ocean are the Amundsen Sea, Ross Sea, and Weddell Sea.
Marginal seas of the Atlantic Ocean are the Argentine Sea, English Channel, Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay, Irish Sea, North Sea, and Norwegian Sea.
Indian Ocean marginal seas are the Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
Pacific Ocean marginal seas are the Bering Sea, Celebes Sea, Coral Sea, East and South China Seas, Philippine Sea, Japan Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Tasman Sea and the Yellow Sea. Wow, there are loads of marginal seas here!

A Mediterranean sea is a sea that is nearly completely enclosed by land. Because of this they don’t really mix a lot with outer oceans. The circulation of water in these seas is often dependent on the amount of salt they have in them as well as the temperature. They are different in that they don’t have open ocean winds and currents.

There are two types of Mediterranean seas which include concentration basins and dilution basins.
A concentration basin has higher salt levels than the open oceans due to evaporation, where the water goes back up into the atmosphere. The upper part of water has fresh ocean water that flows in. The bottom part of the water is saltier water that flows out.
A dilution basin has a lower level of salt because to the amount of freshwater that comes into the sea from rainfall and rivers. Water at the top is fresher and it flows out of the sea, while at the deeper parts the saltier ocean comes flowing in.
Now this is a bit confusing! The Mediterranean Sea is a type of mediterranean sea and within it there are marginal seas. Wow! Two in one it seems. These marginal seas are the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Alboran Sea, Balearic Sea, Ionian Sea, Ligurian Sea, and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

In the Atlantic Ocean, the American Mediterranean Sea is the combination of the marginal seas of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

Mediterranean seas of the Indian Ocean include the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.

The Australasian Mediterranean Sea includes the marginal seas of the Banda Sea, the Sulu Sea, the Sulawesi Sea and the Java Sea.

Some inland salt waters are often called seas, but these water bodies are actually saltwater lakes or lakes that contain lots of salt. Examples of inland saltwater seas include the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea.

Interesting Facts

The Dead Sea is certainly one of the most famous seas, and we’ve got some cool facts for you on the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is in the Jordan Rift Valley in West Asia.
A famous place here is the Al-Lisan Peninsula. ‘Lisan’ in Arabic means ‘tongue’. It is the most salty parts of the sea. Sounds a bit weird that the name means tongue!
Here the water doesn’t leave the lake by flowing out. It’s extremely hot and dry here, so there’s lots of evaporation, which is why there is so much salt left over.
Apparently the Dead Sea can be very healing and apparently helps with diseases! Wow. The minerals found in the sea are the same as what we have in our bodies, so we absorb its goodness quickly. Don’t go swallowing the water here though as it can make you choke.
Now this is weird. The Dead Sea is seriously salty, but if you had to taste it, you would think it was bitter. It doesn’t taste like salt at all. Scientists think that the 340g of salt per litre makes it so salty that the sensation tricks our minds to think that it’s bitter. Wow that’s interesting.

So now you know all there is to know about the seas of the world and how they are different to oceans. Take some of these facts and use them in your next school project! You’ll ace it!