NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 2 Oceans — LET'S EXPLORE

Book page 32 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Locate the five oceans and, in the table below, mark the hemisphere or hemispheres they belong to.
Answer

Find the Equator on Fig. 2.3 — it is the dashed line running across the middle of the map. Everything above it is the Northern Hemisphere, everything below it the Southern Hemisphere. Now read off each ocean:

OceanNorthern HemisphereSouthern HemisphereWhy
Pacific OceanIt stretches from the Bering Strait in the far north right down to the Southern Ocean, so the Equator cuts straight through it.
Atlantic OceanThe same — it runs from Greenland in the north to Antarctica in the south.
Indian OceanMost of it lies south of the Equator, but its northern arms — the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, on either side of India — are in the Northern Hemisphere.
Southern OceanIt is the ring of water around Antarctica, entirely in the far south.
Arctic OceanIt surrounds the North Pole, entirely in the far north.
In both hemispheres: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian
Northern Hemisphere only: Arctic
Southern Hemisphere only: Southern (Antarctic)
Size order, from the same map: Pacific (largest) → Atlantic → Indian → Southern → Arctic (smallest). An easy way to remember it: P–A–I–S–A.
Why three oceans lie in both halves: the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans all run north–south, so the Equator has to cross them. The Arctic and Southern Oceans run around a pole, east–west, so they never come near the Equator at all.
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