List of Major Seas on Earth

List of Major Seas on Earth

S. No.	Name of Sea	Approximate Area	Location / Category / Characteristics
1	Philippine Sea	About 5.7 million km²	Western Pacific Ocean; the largest sea commonly recognized by area.
2	Coral Sea	About 4.8 million km²	Southwest Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia; contains extensive coral reef systems.
3	Arabian Sea	About 3.9 million km²	Northwestern Indian Ocean, between the Arabian Peninsula and India; an important international shipping region.
4	Sargasso Sea	About 3.5 million km², variable	North Atlantic Ocean; distinguished by ocean currents rather than surrounding land boundaries.
5	South China Sea	About 3.5 million km²	Western Pacific Ocean, bordered by Southeast and East Asian countries; important for trade and marine biodiversity.
6	Weddell Sea	About 2.8 million km²	Southern Ocean near Antarctica; known for extensive sea ice and cold waters.
7	Caribbean Sea	About 2.75 million km²	Atlantic Ocean region between Central America, the Caribbean islands and northern South America.
8	Mediterranean Sea	About 2.5 million km²	Between Europe, Africa and Asia; connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar.
9	Tasman Sea	About 2.3 million km²	Southwest Pacific Ocean, between Australia and New Zealand.
10	Bering Sea	About 2.0 million km²	North Pacific Ocean, between Alaska and Russia; supports productive fisheries.
11	Sea of Okhotsk	About 1.6 million km²	Northwest Pacific Ocean, bordered by Russia and Japan; experiences seasonal sea ice.
12	Barents Sea	About 1.4 million km²	Arctic region north of Norway and Russia; important for fisheries and energy resources.
13	East China Sea	About 1.25 million km²	Western Pacific Ocean between China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
14	Greenland Sea	About 1.2 million km²	Between Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard; part of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceanic region.
15	Norwegian Sea	About 1.1 million km²	North Atlantic and Nordic seas region, west of Norway.
16	Red Sea	About 438,000 km²	Between northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula; connected to the Gulf of Aden through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
17	Black Sea	About 436,000 km²	Between southeastern Europe and western Asia; connected to the Mediterranean through the Turkish straits.
18	Baltic Sea	About 377,000 km²	Northern Europe; a relatively shallow, brackish sea with limited exchange with the North Sea.
19	North Sea	About 575,000 km²	Northeast Atlantic between Great Britain and mainland northwestern Europe; important for shipping, fisheries and offshore energy.
20	Andaman Sea	About 600,000 km²	Northeastern Indian Ocean, east of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; known for tropical marine ecosystems.
21	Laccadive Sea	About 786,000 km²	Part of the northern Indian Ocean near India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka; also called the Lakshadweep Sea in some contexts.
22	Java Sea	About 320,000 km²	Western Pacific region within the Indonesian archipelago; a major regional shipping area.
23	Yellow Sea	About 380,000 km²	Between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula; named for sediment that gives its water a yellowish appearance in some areas.
24	East Siberian Sea	About 950,000 km²	Arctic Ocean north of eastern Siberia; experiences extensive seasonal sea ice.
25	Laptev Sea	About 662,000 km²	Arctic Ocean north of Siberia; an important region for sea-ice formation.
26	Chukchi Sea	About 620,000 km²	Arctic Ocean between Alaska and northeastern Russia.
27	Beaufort Sea	About 476,000 km²	Arctic Ocean north of Alaska and northwestern Canada.
28	Lincoln Sea	About 64,000 km²	Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island; usually covered by sea ice.
29	Adriatic Sea	About 138,000 km²	Northern Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and the Balkan Peninsula.
30	Aegean Sea	About 214,000 km²	Between Greece and Türkiye; contains numerous islands.
31	Ionian Sea	About 170,000 km²	Mediterranean Sea between southern Italy, Greece and Albania.
32	Tyrrhenian Sea	About 275,000 km²	Part of the Mediterranean Sea west of mainland Italy.
33	Lig urian Sea	About 100,000 km²	Northwestern Mediterranean Sea, near northwestern Italy, Monaco and southeastern France.
34	Sea of Marmara	About 11,350 km²	In Türkiye; connects the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea through the Turkish straits.
35	Dead Sea	About 600–850 km², variable	A highly saline landlocked lake bordered by Jordan, Israel and the West Bank; commonly called a sea despite being a lake.
36	Caspian Sea	About 371,000 km², variable	The world's largest inland body of water, bordered by several countries; technically a landlocked saltwater lake.
37	Sea of Azov	About 39,000 km², variable	Shallow inland sea connected to the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait.
38	Irish Sea	About 100,000 km²	Between Ireland and Great Britain; connects with the Atlantic through surrounding channels.
39	Celtic Sea	About 300,000 km²	Northeast Atlantic south of Ireland and west of Great Britain; an important marine ecosystem and fishing region.
40	Scotia Sea	About 900,000 km²	Southern Ocean region between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica.
41	Ross Sea	About 960,000 km²	Southern Ocean off Antarctica; contains major ice shelves and productive marine ecosystems.
42	Amundsen Sea	About 950,000 km²	Southern Ocean off West Antarctica; important for studies of ice-sheet loss and sea-level rise.
43	Bellingshausen Sea	About 500,000 km²	Southern Ocean west of the Antarctic Peninsula; contains extensive floating ice shelves.
44	Labrador Sea	About 840,000 km²	North Atlantic between Labrador, Canada and Greenland; important for deep-water formation and ocean circulation.
45	Norwegian-Greenland Sea Region	Area depends on boundary definition	Cold northern oceanic waters important for global circulation; regional sea boundaries vary between classifications.
46	Timor Sea	About 610,000 km²	Between Timor, Australia and nearby Indonesian islands; contains offshore oil and gas fields.
47	Arafura Sea	About 650,000 km²	Between northern Australia and New Guinea; part of the shallow seas of the Australasian region.
48	Banda Sea	About 470,000 km²	Eastern Indonesian archipelago; known for deep basins, island arcs and complex tectonic activity.
49	Sulu Sea	About 260,000 km²	Southwestern Philippines and nearby parts of Malaysia; supports tropical marine biodiversity.
50	Flores Sea	About 240,000 km²	Indonesian waters north of Flores; contains deep basins and tropical marine habitats.

Notes:

Earth's seas are parts of the global ocean, generally distinguished by their geographic boundaries, surrounding land or oceanographic characteristics.
Area figures are approximate and vary by source because sea boundaries are not always defined consistently.
The Philippine Sea is generally considered the largest named sea by area, while the Mediterranean is the largest sea commonly classified as almost entirely enclosed by land.
The Sargasso Sea is unusual because ocean currents define its boundaries rather than coastlines.
The Caspian Sea and Dead Sea are called seas by tradition, but both are landlocked; the Caspian is a lake, and the Dead Sea is a hypersaline lake.
The Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean contain several named seas, including the Weddell Sea, Ross Sea, Barents Sea and Beaufort Sea.
This list contains 50 major named seas and sea-like inland water bodies; it is not a complete list of every named sea on Earth.

Educational references:

List of Major Seas on Earth

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