Abstract
Sea-water covers approximately 71 per cent of the earth’s surface, an area of about 361 million square kilometres (139 million square miles) comprising the major ocean areas shown in Figure 1.1 (see page 2). In the deepest parts the bottom lies more than 10,000 m from the surface, and the average depth is about 3,700 m. Although marine organisms are unevenly distributed, they occur throughout this vast extent of water and have been brought up from the deepest places.
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Further Reading
Books
Defant, A. (1961). Physical Oceanography. Vols. 1 & 2. Oxford; Pergamon
Fairbridge, R. W. (1966). Encyclopaedia of Oceanography. New York; Reinhold
Sverdrup, H. U., Johnson, M. W. and Fleming, R. H. (1946). The Oceans. Their Physics, Chemistry and General Biology. ‘Chap. 2. The Earth and the Ocean Basins. Chap. 8. The Sea as a Biological Environment. Chap. 11. General Character of Ocean Currents. Chap. 15. The Water Masses and Currents of the Oceans.’ New York; Prentice-Hall
Weyl, P. K. (1970). Oceanography. An Introduction to the Marine Environment. London and Chichester; Wiley
Papers
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Stommel, H. (1955). ‘The Anatomy of the Atlantic’ Scient. Am. January
Emery, K. O. (1969). ‘The Continental Shelves’ Scient. Am. September
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© 1972 R. V. Tait
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Tait, R.V. (1972). The Oceans. In: Elements of Marine Ecology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8297-3_1
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