List of countries bordering on two or more oceans


Some non-landlocked countries touch more than one of the five named oceans: the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern.[1] Countries bordering only one ocean are not listed here, no matter how many of its marginal seas they touch.[2] The main list includes only contiguous areas touching multiple oceans; a second list includes countries whose total number of oceans is increased due to discontiguous areas.
Contiguous area
This list includes only contiguous parts of a country with coastlines on multiple oceans. Countries touching multiple oceans due to discontiguous reasions are listed below in § Discontiguous countries. Under each ocean is listed the smallest named region or marginal sea that includes the coastline where that country and ocean meet.
Discontiguous countries
This section lists countries whose overall count of oceans is increased by considering discontiguous areas.
Only the largest contiguous area is listed under a given ocean, and then only if it contributes to the total number of oceans, so Great Britain and Metropolitan France are listed but not Bermuda or French Guiana, and Alaska and the Lower 48 are listed separately, but not Hawaii.
See also
- Bioceanic principle
- Borders of the oceans
- Boundaries between the continents
- Sea to Sea (disambiguation)
- Transcontinental railroad
- World Ocean
Notes
- ^ South Africa borders on three oceans if the Southern Ocean is considered to extend to its shores, but only on two otherwise.
- ^ Iceland bordrers on two oceans if the Greenland Sea is considered a part of the Arctic Ocean, but only one if it is considered a part of the North Atlantic.
- ^ Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
- ^ a b Although Alaska and the Lower 48 each borders on two oceans, no single contiguous U.S. territory borders on three oceans. The two together would make the United States a country bordering on three oceans.
- ^ The boundary between North America and South America is somewhat arbitrary. Although atlases in the Western countries today generally show Panama entirely within North America, some atlases show the continental boundary along the Panama Canal instead. Furthermore, some 19th century atlases even showed the continental boundary along the border between Costa Rica and Panama, which was then a part of Gran Colombia.[3]
- ^ Chile borders on three oceans if the Southern and Atlantic Oceans are considered to meet in its territory, but only on two otherwise.
- ^ Argentina's oceans include the Southern Ocean if the Drake Passage is considered part of it and the Pacific Ocean if its waters are considered to extend to the Argentine portion of the Beagle Channel.
- ^ Australia borders on three oceans if the Southern Ocean is considered to extend that far north, but only on two otherwise.
References
- ^ "How many oceans are there?". National Ocean Service. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ^ For example, India is not included. It borders on the Indian Ocean including the Andaman Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal, which would all be in the Indian Ocean column of the table.
- ^ Dollar Atlas of the World. Chicago and New York: Prepared and published especially for the Kansas City Journal, Kansas City, Missouri by Rand McNally & Company. 1900. pp. 118–120.