The Sea

 The Sea

If you looked down at earth from Space, you would see that most of our planet is covered by water. This huge amount of water is separated into five areas, called oceans, by land. The oceans are the Artic, Antarctic, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. Smaller areas of the oceans are called seas. Two of the largest seas are the Caribbean and Mediterranean. If you have ever swum in the seawater and tasted seawater , you will know that it is salty. Most of the salt comes from rocks on the land. When rocks are worn down by the wind and rain, the salt they contain is washed into the sea by rivers. It builds up and makes the water salty. All seawater is not the same temperature. Sunlight warms the water near the surface of the sea. Where the sun shines longest the water is warmest. The sea helps to control our weather. It does this by soaking up heat from the sun and slowly releasing it. Unlike the land, the seawater warms up and cools down slowly. This means places near the sea have milder winters and cooler summers than those inland. The sea is never still. Currents, like huge rivers, carry water from one part of the world to another. Some flow near the surface. Others flow deep down, along the seafloor.