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List of countries bordering on two or more oceans

This list of countries which border two or more oceans includes both sovereign states and dependencies, provided the same contiguous territory borders on more than one of the five named oceans, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic.[1] Countries which border on multiple oceans because of discontiguous regions are excluded here but included in the list of transcontinental countries.[2] Countries bordering on just one of the five oceans are not included, no matter how many of its marginal seas they touch.[3]

World map of the five-ocean model with approximate boundaries

List

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Continent Country Oceans Trans-oceanic connection
Pacific Atlantic Indian Polar Count
Africa   South Africa South Atlantic Indian Ocean Southern Ocean 2 or 3[a] Cape of Good Hope
Africa & Asia   Egypt Mediterranean Sea Red Sea 2 Suez Canal
Asia   Israel Mediterranean Sea Red Sea 2 High-speed railway to Eilat (proposed)
Asia   Thailand Gulf of Thailand Andaman Sea 2 Kra Canal (proposed)
Asia   Malaysia South China Sea Andaman Sea 2 Strait of Malacca
Asia & Australia/Oceania   Indonesia Pacific Ocean Indian Ocean 2
Asia & Australia/Oceania   East Timor Savu Sea, Flores Sea Timor Sea 2
Asia & Europe   Russia North Pacific Black Sea
Baltic Sea 		Arctic Ocean 3 Trans-Siberian Railway
Europe   Norway Norwegian Sea Barents Sea 2
Europe   Iceland North Atlantic Greenland Sea 1 or 2[b]
North America   Greenland[c] North Atlantic Arctic Ocean 2
North America   Canada North Pacific North Atlantic Arctic Ocean 3 Canadian Pacific Railway
North America   US (Alaska) North Pacific Arctic Ocean 2[d] Trans-Alaska Pipeline
North America   US (Lower 48) North Pacific North Atlantic 2[d] First transcontinental railroad
North America   Mexico Pacific Ocean Gulf of Mexico
Caribbean Sea 		2 Tehuantepec route
North America   Guatemala Pacific Ocean Gulf of Honduras 2
North America   Honduras Gulf of Fonseca Caribbean Sea 2
North America   Nicaragua Pacific Ocean Caribbean Sea 2 Nicaragua Canal (proposed)
North America   Costa Rica Pacific Ocean Caribbean Sea 2
North America &
South America[e] 		  Panama Gulf of Panama Caribbean Sea 2 Panama Canal
South America   Colombia Pacific Ocean Caribbean Sea 2
South America   Chile South Pacific Strait of Magellan
Beagle Channel
Drake Passage 		Southern Ocean 2 or 3[f]
South America   Argentina Beagle Channel South Atlantic Drake Passage 1, 2 or 3[g]
Australia/Oceania   Australia South Pacific Indian Ocean Southern Ocean 2 or 3[h] Indian Pacific
Antarctica South Pacific South Atlantic Indian Ocean Southern Ocean 1 or 3[i] Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Notes

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  1. ^ South Africa borders on three oceans if the Southern Ocean is considered to extend to its shores, but only on two otherwise.
  2. ^ Iceland bordrers on two oceans if the Greenland Sea is considered part of the Arctic Ocean, but only one if it is considered part of the North Atlantic.
  3. ^ Greenland is part of the Danish Realm.
  4. ^ a b Although Alaska and the Lower 48 each borders on two oceans, no single contiguous US territory borders on three oceans. The two together would make the United States a country bordering on three oceans.
  5. ^ The boundary between North and South America is somewhat arbitrary. Although atlases today generally show Panama entirely within North America, some atlases show the continental boundary along the Panama Canal. Furthermore, some 19th century atlases even showed the continental boundary along the border between Costa Rica and Panama, which was then part of Gran Colombia.[4]
  6. ^ Chile borders on three oceans if the Southern and Atlantic Oceans are considered to meet in its territory, but only on two otherwise.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Australia borders on three oceans if the Southern Ocean is considered to extend that far north, but only on two otherwise.
  9. ^ Antarctica is included on this list although not a country. If the Southern ocean is considered a separate ocean, it borders on only that one ocean. If, however, the Southern Ocean is considered to be merely part of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, Antarctica borders on all three.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "How many oceans are there?". National Ocean Service. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  2. ^ For example, France is not included because its overseas departments are not contiguous with Metropolitan France. In total France would have bordered on three or four oceans.
  3. ^ For example, India is not included. It borders on the Indian Ocean including the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian and Andaman Seas, which would all be in the Indian Ocean column of the table.
  4. ^ 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.
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