Nordic Seas intermediate water leaves through the Denmark Straight and the Iceland Ridge. The densest overflow waters leave through the Faroe Bank Channel. The water masses that encompass the Nordic Seas are always changing in response to the local variations that occur between atmosphere-ocean fluxes and convection of intermediate to deep water. The Nordic Seas are found between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, both having variable surface water conditions. The Nordic Seas are complex in the variety of water masses it contains: two surface waters, three intermediate waters, and three deep waters. Figure 3 shows the water mass circulations that
South Seas South Seas The term South Seas commonly refers to the South Pacific. Geographically, all areas to the south of Panama's degree of latitude belong to the South Sea. Central archipelagos are the Society Islands (French Polynesia/Tahiti), the Samoa-archipelago and the Fiji islands. The term South Sea is often used synonymously for Oceania and in a narrow sense for Polynesia (Polynesian Triangle). The Hawaii islands, New Zealand (Aotearoa) and the Easter Island ("Rapa Nui") build the vertices. The Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term "South Sea" when he traveled through the isthmus of Panama and named the ocean