User:EMsmile/Ocean and sea articles discussion

This is a dedicated page in user space to progress the discussion that was started here. It is modelled on the Climate Change renaming discussion that was first developed here.

Problem statement
The two articles on Ocean and Sea overlap a lot with regards to content. Taken on their own, they are both missing some sections, although "Ocean" is missing more content than "Sea" which is fairly complete. The pageviews for Ocean have been going up over the years; those for Sea have been declining slightly. So if more people are now looking up the "Ocean" page compared to before then we need to make what they find at "Ocean" is comprehensive and good quality.

The Sea article currently has FA status although it is likely due for a review soon, as the FA status was achieved 8 years ago in 2013. Due to the FA status there is an understandable reluctance by some editors to see it changed.

Links to previous discussions

 * Talk page of oceans
 * Talk page of sea

Analysis of current content of both articles
The table below compares the tables of content for the two Wikipedia articles Edit this table



Work involved
Moving content that is better at Ocean to Sea and merging it into existing content there.

Advantages
There is only one article in the end. It might retain FA status more easily.

Disadvantages
The fact that the word Ocean seems to be growing in importance (evidenced also by many books on the topic) would be ignored.

Work involved
Move most or all of the content of Sea to Ocean, and reducing any overlapping content.

Advantages
The Ocean article would become better, and be the only article on this topic.

Disadvantages
The Sea article would be "destroyed", loosing its FA status.

Work involved
Take some content out of "Sea" (move it to "Ocean"), refocus the Sea article on geographic/culture/history aspects (perhaps rename to "Sea and humans" or alike). Update on 2 August 2021: The Ocean article was improved and expanded considerably in July 2021.

Advantages
Comments by Arno: I see ocean as the larger all encompassing term. Sea is a sub topic and for some users it deserves a separate article. This is  justified since there are so many seas around the globe and sea refers to geography and history. Seas are close to people like the terms sea-level, seaworthy, seamanship, high seas, the seven seas, etc. If we propose at this stage to move much of the science and technical details to oceans and keep sea as a sub article narrowing its focus to how the word sea is used (ie not merging articles yet) this might be agreeable to all. Then proposing revised ToCs based on the science/tech vs geographic/culture/history division will seem more logical. Merging may not be necessary if the new sea article can live its own life as a sub article.

Disadvantages
The Sea article would be "shrunk down", loosing (at least temporarily) its FA status.

Work involved
Increase the content that is available at "Ocean", possibly by copying (not moving) some content from Sea. Update on 2 August 2021: The Ocean article was improved and expanded considerably in July 2021.

Advantages
The Sea article could stay as it is. The Ocean article would become better.

Disadvantages
The same or similar content (section headings) would be shown at two articles. Future editors might start to build up and update content in the "Sea" article which is actually already covered and updated in the "Ocean" article, thereby creating extra work and more overlap.

Conclusion (to be put forward on talk page)
My (EMsmile) recommendation is Option 3: Build up the article "Ocean", making it the main article and making "Sea" a sub-article to "Ocean" - for the reasons described above. At this stage (2 August 2021) Option 4 has been implemented.

Tables of contents of other books
Comparisons with tables of contents of books are shown below. Note, there are plenty of books on oceans, ocean science and oceanography. I did not find a single textbook with the broad topic "Sea" but only more specific textbooks, such as a book on "Law of the sea".

The New Ocean Book


 * 1. Introduction to the Oceans
 * 2. Research and the Deep Oceans
 * 3. Physical Characteristics of the Ocean
 * 4. Composition of the Oceans' Waters
 * 5. Tides, Waves, and Currents
 * 6. Weather
 * 7. Harvesting the Ocean
 * 8. Marine Life
 * 9. Exploring the Coral Reef
 * 10. Ocean Vessels & Exploration
 * 11. The Genesis Flood

Introduction to Ocean Sciences Earth science (a segment of this book)

·        The Ocean

o   Introduction to the Oceans

o   Composition of Ocean Water

o   The Seafloor

o   Ocean Currents

o   Oceans and Coastal Environments

o   Tides

o   Currents

·        Coastal Processes

o   Waves and Coastal Features

·        Ocean Water and Life

o   Thermohaline circulation

o   Thermocline

o   Tsunamis

o   Ocean Organisms

An introduction to the world's oceans


 * Chapter 1 The History of Oceanography 1
 * Chapter 2 The Water Planet 26
 * Chapter 3 Plate Tectonics 51
 * Chapter 4 The Sea Floor and Its Sediments 94
 * Chapter 5 The Physical Properties of Water 129
 * Chapter 6 The Chemistry of Seawater 153
 * Chapter 7 The Structure and Motion of the Atmosphere 172
 * Chapter 8 Circulation and Ocean Structure 207
 * Chapter 9 The Surface Currents 226
 * Chapter 10 The Waves 247
 * Chapter 11 The Tides 279
 * Chapter 12 Coasts, Beaches, and Estuaries 299
 * Chapter 13 Environmental Issues and Concerns 331
 * Chapter 14 The Living Ocean 355
 * Chapter 15 Production and Life 371
 * Chapter 16 The Plankton: Drifters of the Open Ocean 389
 * Chapter 17 The Nekton: Free Swimmers of the Sea 414
 * Chapter 18 The Benthos: Dwellers of the Sea Floor 446

Introduction to oceanography


 * Chapter 1: Introduction to the Oceans
 * Chapter 2: Getting our Bearings
 * Chapter 3: The Origin and Structure of Earth
 * Chapter 4: Plate Tectonics and Marine Geology
 * Chapter 5: Chemical Oceanography
 * Chapter 6: Physical Oceanography
 * Chapter 7: Primary Production
 * Chapter 8: Oceans and Climate
 * Chapter 9: Ocean Circulation
 * Chapter 10: Waves
 * Chapter 11: Tides
 * Chapter 12: Ocean Sediments
 * Chapter 13: Coastal Oceanography
 * Chapter 14: Ice