For other uses, see Sea (disambiguation) and The Sea (disambiguation).

Coastal sea waves at Paracas National Reserve, Ica, Peru

Seas have always been essential for human development and trade, as at Singapore with its
harbour (the world's busiest transshipment port) and the important shipping lanes through the Singapore
Strait and the Strait of Malacca.

The sea, the world ocean or simply the ocean is the connected body of salty water that
covers over 70 percent of the Earth's surface. It moderates the Earth's climate and has
important roles in the water cycle, carbon cycle, and nitrogen cycle. It has been travelled and
explored since ancient times, while the scientific study of the sea—oceanography—dates
broadly from the voyages of Captain James Cook to explore the Pacific Ocean between 1768
and 1779. The word "sea" is also used to denote smaller, partly landlocked sections of the
ocean.
The most abundant solid dissolved in sea water is sodium chloride. The water also
contains salts of magnesium, calcium, and potassium, amongst many other elements, some in
minute concentrations. Salinity varies widely, being lower near the surface and the mouths of
large rivers and higher in the depths of the ocean; however the relative proportions of
dissolved salts varies little across the oceans. Winds blowing over the surface of the sea
produce waves, which break when they enter shallow water. Winds also create surface
currents through friction, setting up slow but stable circulations of water throughout the oceans.
The directions of the circulation are governed by factors including the shapes of the continents
and the rotation of the earth (the Coriolis effect). Deep-sea currents, known as the global
conveyor belt, carry cold water from near the poles to every ocean. Tides, the generally twice-
daily rise and fall of sea levels, are caused by the rotation of the Earth and the gravitational
effects of the orbiting Moon, and to a lesser extent of the Sun. Tides may have a very high
range in bays or estuaries. Submarine earthquakesarising from tectonic plate movements
under the oceans can lead to destructive tsunamis, as can volcanoes, huge landslides or the
impact of large meteorites.
A wide variety of organisms, including bacteria, protists, algae, plants, fungi and animals, live in
the sea, which offers a wide range of marine habitats and ecosystems, ranging vertically from
the sunlit surface waters and the shoreline to the enormous depths and pressures of the cold,
dark abyssal zone, and in latitude from the cold waters under the Arctic ice to the colourful
diversity of coral reefs in tropical regions. Many of the major groups of organisms evolved in
the sea and life may have started there.
The sea provides substantial supplies of food for humans, mainly fish, but
also shellfish, mammals and seaweed, whether caught by fishermen or farmed underwater.
Other human uses of the sea include trade, travel, mineral extraction, power
generation, warfare, and leisure activities such as swimming, sailing and scuba diving. Many of
these activities create marine pollution. The sea is important in human culture, with major
appearances in literature at least since Homer's Odyssey, in marine art, in cinema, in theatre
and in classical music. Symbolically, the sea appears as monsters such
as Scylla in mythology and represents the unconscious mind in dream interpretation.