On World Oceans Day, National Geographic is adding a fifth ocean into the list, an ocean that has been unofficially recognized by scientists all over the world for many years now.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021
The original four oceans are separated from each other by land, but the Southern Ocean is separated by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, or ACC for short. This fast moving current moves west to east around Antarctica and is colder and less salty than the neighboring ocean.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest current system in the world oceans and the only ocean current linking all major oceans: the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.
Southern Ocean is now considered to be the second smallest ocean, with the Arctic Ocean being the smallest.
This fifth ocean was first recognized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1999 and the U.S Boards on Geographic Names approved the name “Southern Ocean.”
It was in 2000, that the idea and boundaries of this new ocean were proposed to the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), but not all members of the IHO were in agreement with it.
