Southern ocean
Most learned about the world’s oceans, which are the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic. But soon in the Atlas there will be a fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean.
A sea change is coming, thanks to National Geographic.
You will soon see a fifth ocean on your maps.
Four oceans or five? It's #WorldOceansDay🌊 and National Geographic is making a change to recognize the Southern Ocean as a fifth official ocean in our atlases and maps! https://t.co/HSHRUAyWuE
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) June 8, 2021
Now the Southern Ocean, the waters that swirl around Antarctica, marking the first time the organization has made such a change since it began mapping more than a century ago.
On World Oceans Day earlier this week, National Geographic announced the distinction, which many scientists and researchers have unofficially recognized for decades.
“Traditionally, there have been four [oceans] defined primarily by land masses,” Alex Tait, a geographer at the National Geographic Society, tells NPR’s All Things Considered. “We think it is important to add this fifth ocean region because it is very unique and because we want to draw attention to all areas of the ocean.”
National Geographic has produced maps, atlases and globes since 1915. But this is the first time they are making a new map that will reshape the oceans.
The measure catches up with recognition by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Southern Ocean in 1999, when it gained approval from the US Board of Geographical Names.
‘Antarctica is melting,’ says NASA, showing effects of record heat spell
The change caused a sensation among experts who were already familiar with the area.
But the south is special, it is defined by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a critical flow, which helps regulate the Earth’s climate.
The Southern Ocean is thought of as “lungs” or “heart”. The ocean is “pumping water to all the world’s oceans”
Antarctica is so far away that most people don’t think about it on a day-to-day basis. They don’t see how important it is to literally all of our survival.
