World Ocean that covers and encircles most of Earth. If viewed from the southern pole of Earth, the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans can be seen as lobes extending northward from the Southern Ocean. Farther north, the Atlantic opens into the Arctic Ocean, which is connected to the Pacific by the Bering Strait, forming a continuous expanse of water. Plate tectonics, post-glacial rebound, and sea level rise continually change the coastline and structure of the world ocean. World Ocean The World Ocean or Global Ocean (colloquially the sea or the ocean) is the interconnected system of Earth's oceanic waters, and comprises the
Ocean planet simple biological activity over geological timescales. In August 2018, researchers reported that water worlds could support life. An ocean world's habitation by Earth-like life is limited if the planet is completely covered by liquid water at the surface, even more restricted if a pressurized, solid ice layer is located between the global ocean and the lower rocky mantle. Simulations of a hypothetical ocean world covered by 5 Earth oceans' worth of water indicate the water would not contain enough phosphorus and other nutrients for Earth like oxygen-producing ocean organisms such as plankton to evolve. On Earth, phosphorus is washed into