We all know how important water is to us. More than half earth’s surface is covered with water. This water is still distributed throughout the planet in various forms and forms, called bodies of water. These bodies of water vary in size, from large as oceans and seas to as small as lakes. So the various bodies of water we see on the surface of the earth are in the form of oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, lakes, waterfalls.
Let’s look at different types of bodies of water and their properties.
1. Oceans
- Oceans are large and deep waters. Usually, it is these oceans that divide continents. Oceans are corpses of salt water.
- We have five seas on our land. It is the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Southern Ocean or the Antarctic Ocean.
- The largest and deepest ocean in the world is the Pacific Ocean, covering one third of the earth’s surface.
- This is followed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean in size.
- Oceans are home to a wide variety of marine flora and fauna as well as thousands of marine creatures such as sea urchins, whales, sharks, octopus, fish species, snakes, squid etc.
- In fact, the oceans are home to millions of small dead animals called coral polyps that form beautiful coral reefs, Australia is the world’s largest coral reef.
- Oceans are good for us in many ways as they are a rich source of minerals, providing energy and essential oils such as petroleum.
- They serve as an important transport route
2. Seas
- Seas are also large bodies of water but certainly smaller than oceans. In part, they are closed to the earth and open to the sea.
- We see many oceans end up connecting to the ocean. An example is the Mediterranean Sea attached to or joining the Atlantic Ocean.
- Other oceans are the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Caribbean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
- In the Red Sea and the Black Sea, they have their names because the Red Sea has millions of small red plants that grow at the bottom and in the Black Sea because of the thick black mud at the bottom.
- Under the oceans we find vast plains, high mountains and even deep valleys, it is unfortunate, however, that these various earth conditions also exist under the sea.
- In the largest sea the South China Sea is expected to hold hundreds of islands in its waters.
- The ocean, like the oceans, is useful to us in many ways. It is a rich source of food that gives us a wide variety of seafood.
- It also serves as a transit station.
- Like oceans, seas are a source of food, and are also usually used extensively as transport lanes for ships.
3. Lakes
- A lake is a body of water that surrounds by land on all sides. It is actually the opposite of an island, which is a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides.
- Lakes can be salty or freshwater pools. Saline lakes are caused by excessive evaporation.
- Other famous lakes are Lake Superior, Caspian Sea, Lake Victoria, Lake Aral and Dal Lake.
- The Caspian Sea is, in fact, the largest salt lake in the world, so large that it is called the ocean.
- Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake.
- The Dead Sea is a saltwater lake.
- It is said that nothing can survive in the Dead Sea because it has too much salt.
4. Glaciers
- Glaciers are huge mass of ice that moves slowly over land.
- Glaciers are often called “rivers of ice.”
- Glaciers fall into two groups: alpine glaciers and ice sheets.
- Alpine glaciers form on mountainsides and move downward through valleys.Ice sheets, unlike alpine glaciers, are not limited to mountainous areas. They cover everything around them with a thick blanket of ice and spread over vast areas.
5. Rivers and Streams
- Rivers are large streams flowing over the land. They are therefore large bodies of water flowing, usually ending up in the sea or in the ocean.
- Rivers are new bodies of water derived from mountainous areas or highlands.
- We have two types of rivers namely: snow-fed rivers and the second are rain-fed rivers.
- Snow-fed rivers find their source in snow-capped mountains, where glaciers melt, run down to merge with rivers, and rain-fed rivers as the name suggests are built in areas where rainfall is high.
- The place where the river begins its journey, is called the spring and the place where it ends its journey, is called the mouth of the river.
- Rivers are also very helpful as we have seen in history, that most civilizations were built near the banks of rivers, such as Egyptian civilization on the banks of the Nile River, Indus Valley civilization on the banks of the Indus River.
- This is because rivers produce a lot of fertile soil called silk which is very good for plant growth.
Keep exploring EnglishBix to learn more about words related to geography.