Charles Francisco, age 12, of Us y, Waves or s question:

How many oceans are there?

Counting the oceans is somewhat like counting the clouds in a thunderstorm. You could say that the storm is one big cloud of merging light and dark grey masses of mist. Or you could say that the various dark masses were separate clouds. The vast areas of sea water also merge together. They cover almost three quarters of the surface of the earth and some people call this great area of salt water one ocean.

On a map or globe, however, you will find the great world ocean divided into a number of smaller oceans and seas. We map count the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Arctic and the Indian as four great oceans.

Some people add the Antarctic Ocean as the fifth. We may also subdivide

each of the two biggest of these five into two. The North and South Atlantic, and the North and South Pacific bring the number of oceans up t o seven.