Oceanic Types and Their Controls

Abstract

Oceans occupy some 70% of the Earth’s surface and extend from the North Pole to the shores of Antarctica. There are great differences in the character of the oceans, and these differences are of fundamental importance, both in the geography of the oceans themselves, and to the climatic patterns of the whole Earth. The surface of the ocean is differentiated into regions, or zones, with different hydrologic properties resulting from unevenness in the action of solar radiation and other phenomena of the climate of the atmosphere.