Ocean
The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth.
At a glance
Key signals
0% cross fields · reaches 2 more
- Earth & Space Sciences
- Oceanography
- Explanation
- Examples
- Misconception
- Sourced relations 7
- Attribution
Dependencies
What this concept builds on and what it makes possible — derived from the atlas’s dependency, causal and structural relations, not from every related edge.
Enables · leads to
Tropical cyclonedepends onOceanEstablished
tropical cyclone depends on ocean.
Mechanism: Tropical cyclones draw their energy from warm ocean water, which is why they weaken over land.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
System context
El Niño southern oscillationis part ofOceanEstablished
Open El Niño southern oscillation →
El Niño southern oscillation is part of ocean.
Mechanism: El Niño is a recurring swing in the tropical Pacific Ocean: warm surface water shifts eastward, disrupting weather patterns worldwide.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
Ocean acidificationis part ofOceanEstablished
ocean acidification is part of ocean.
Mechanism: Ocean acidification is a chemical change in the ocean: as it absorbs excess carbon dioxide, seawater grows more acidic, harming shell-forming life.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
Ocean currentis part ofOceanEstablished
ocean current is part of ocean.
Mechanism: An ocean current is a river within the ocean — a steady flow of water driven by wind, temperature and salinity that redistributes heat around the globe.
- Wikidata verifiedmoderate evidence
Salinityis part ofOceanEstablished
salinity is part of ocean.
Mechanism: Salinity is the ocean's saltiness — the dissolved minerals that set water density and drive deep currents.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
Tideis part ofOceanEstablished
tide is part of ocean.
Mechanism: Tides are the ocean's regular rise and fall, raised by the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun on the water.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
Structural role & consequence
Interpreted from the current atlas graph — what the connections mean, not just how many there are.
Currently dark in the atlas: no key date stored · 7 of 7 of its relations lack claim-level evidence.
atlas representation · Describes the current Thinking OS representation, not the state of the world.
Structural neighbourhood: 7 → 14 → 53 concepts reachable within 3 hops.
structural · Structural reach — being reachable is not the same as being understood.
All 7 of its relationships stay within its own discipline — a field-specific concept in the current atlas.
structural · Structural graph analysis — not a claim of importance, causation or history.
cross-field
7 within-field, 0 cross-field
Strengths & constraints
Constraints
- Evidence coverage currently thin in the atlas — few of its relationships carry claim-level evidence. atlas representation
- No dated history stored — the atlas records no key date for this concept. atlas representation
Conditions
- Read structurally — most of its relationships carry no external evidence yet, so claims here are graph-derived. structural
Dependency radial
What this concept builds on (left) and what it makes possible (right) — derived from dependency and causal relations.
What builds on this
1 concept build on this directly, 1 in total, across 2 disciplines.
Structural downstream reach along dependency edges — not a claim of historical necessity.
Seen through each discipline
How this concept sits in each of its fields — derived from its real connections in the graph, not asserted.
Through this lens it connects to Salinity, Ocean current, Tropical cyclone and Tide.
Through this lens it connects to Salinity, Ocean current, Tide and El Niño southern oscillation.
Related ideas to explore
Concepts that look related but are not yet connected here — candidates for a connection to reason about, not established links.
This idea also appears in…
The same structure shows up in other disciplines. These are real recurrences drawn from the graph — a starting point for asking “what carries over, and what changes?”
Scale31 disciplines · 46 concepts
Concepts
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
Mental models at work here
- Connects 7 other ideas across 2 disciplines.
- A cross-disciplinary bridge — its connections reach into 2 other fields.
- Most of its connections are of the “Kind & structure” kind.
- It exercises 1 reusable thinking pattern.
Derived from the graph’s real structure — observations, not a score.
Sources
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
- Wikidata verifiedmoderate evidence
- Ocean Science (1980) verified
- Ocean acidification as a planetary signal linking Earth system memory to deep-time lithosphere–ocean geochemical interactions (2026) verified
- Elsevier Oceanography Series (1968) verified