Why is the Ocean Cold? i'm not dumb...just curious.?
596282
Because theres so much water thats constantly moving that the sun can't warm it all up. The ocean is so deep, and that water is about 30 degrees (yes farenheit, which doesnt freeze because of the salt in it) that it continusoly gets mixed up and remains a constant tempertature that seems cold to us. =)
825292
i guess I'm wrong   but I thought that water would  freeze at 0  degrees celsius.  also it would boil at 100 degrees C. Even in a vacuum.  my guess!  btw at absolute 0  kelvin,  does that only exist in a vacuum?  If we could reach  - 450 degrees F.  would our cpu's operate at an infinite speed.....got me on this one.  I'm not sure on how atmospheric pressure relates to these conditions.  But I know someone knows!
1005012
Maybe it has something to do with grounding. If a ship is in the ocean and not touch anything then there is no reason for the current to go up right?
238805
yes it snowed once and its been years i dont know the exact year.\nafter that it has never snowed and i dont know about the future either.\nit does not snow. we do get cold fonts, all the time the weather is hot and thats why we are known for the beaches here.
230184
Sounds cold but have a good time:\nhttp://www.surfline.com/travel/surfmaps/surfmap.cfm?id=37
656289
ice floats in water because its 10% less dense than water, \n\nbut not all ice has to be ontop of water, so no not all the world's ice floating
510586
The Pacific Ocean...if you know the answer, then why are you asking?
19132
It's quite simple... it's either too hot or too cold.  Some planets and moons do have signs of ice, or ice which was there at some point in time.  Certainly somewhere outside of our solar system exists a planet with abundant water, but we've yet to discover such a place.
115970
Yes.  It'll still get cold in winter.  We're talking about a change so far of 1-2 degrees.  It will still get cold for a long time to come, it's just that it will be a little less cold a little less often.  You're not going to notice it effecting day to day weather.  What's of more immediate concern is the rising sea level resulting from the melting of the polar ice caps.  This process will result in the gradual submersion of costal regions, and changes in ocean currents that will result in increased severe tropical storms.  This is what you're going to see first.  There's a long way to go (as in probably not in our lifetimes) before you'll start to see noticably higher day-to-day temperatures.\n\nAnd for anyone who says global warming isn't happening, I'd like to see an actual source supporting that claim (as in a web link or a scientific journal citation).  In all the studies I have seen indicating that global warming is not occuring have had serious methodological flaws, but it is impossible to argue with a mere assertion of knowledge.
298429
That isn't always the case. On the Pacific Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) there are cold currents so the beach is colder than the land. On the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Coast (Texas, Luisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Deleware) The Gulf of Mexico (which has many warm currents) or the Gulf Stream (the warm water coming from the Gulf of Mexico that passes by the mainland U.S. turning twards Europe after Deleware) Causes the Beach to be warmer than about 20 miles inland. I live in Charleston, SC and can relate to this.
836878
Yes\n\nThe freezing point of seawater depends upon it's salinity,which is the amount of salt that it contains.  Open ocean seawater has a salinity of about 35. Fresh water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and 35 water freezes at about -2 degrees C. The decrease is linear so that water with a salinity of 17 freezes at about -1 degree C.\n\n[salinity is no longer given units such as parts per thousand]\n\nIn the winter large tracts of polar seawater freeze to a considerable thickness and even around the UK I remember as a boy that the sea froze along some stretches of beach in the hard winter of (I think) 1963.\n\n[incidentally jane_c, Nikke and others below are wrong - the Titanic sank because it struck an iceberg - an iceberg is NOT frozen seawater but a chunk of a glacier - which is frozen snow (i.e. frozen fresh water)]
1082968
I read in new scientist that there there is a certain current in the Atlantic that transports hotter ocean water from the south to the north.\n\nWhat happens here is the arctic ice will cool the temperature of the water down and it will thus flow south again.\n\nWith global warming there will be a constant flow of hot water to the north thus raising the water level there. So all places on the northern hemisphere would get affected first. \n\nI'm not too sure I got all the facts right but it has something to do with a current though.
933014
All decent explanations so far; I hope I can add to what has already been posted.\n\nLiquid and Ice most definitely can exist at the same temperature and Ice can be and often does get colder than 0C.\n \nFirst of all the Triple Point of water is the pressure and temperature at which Ice, Liquid Water and Water Vapor exist at the same time in equilibrium.  Vapor is the right word, not steam although you can argue that the only time that Water Vapor and Steam are the same thing is at a very low pressure.  The Triple point of water only happens at a near perfect vacuum, 0.0063 ATM to be precise.\n\nAdding Salt to water will lower the freezing point, but then it isn't water anymore, it's salt water.  Even so, Liquid Salt Water and Ice Salt Water can also exist at the same place and time at the same temperature, slightly below 0C.  But let's stick to water.\n\nIce can easily be lower than 0 degrees.  Consider a bucket of water, liquid water sitting outside and the air temperature is -10C.  Little by Little, as the liquid reaches 0.0098 C, liquid starts to become ice.  The ice crystals form in the bucket, around the walls of the bucket and on the surface first.  The air is still -10C so the bucket, the liquid and the ice will keep getting colder.  The ice on the surface will drop to slightly below 0C but very slowly since it is still absorbing the heat of the not-yet-frozen water.  Eventually, the entire bucket of water will be frozen and will be just below 0C.  First the walls of the bucket will reach -10C (same as the air tempertaure).  The ice near the walls of the bucket and on the surface will reach -10C first, continually absorbing the heat energy from the relatively warmer ice near the center of the bucket.  Until finally, the entire bucket of ice is steady at -10C.  That is until the sun comes out or the day gets warmer.\n\n\nAnd by the Way, dry ice is not water, it's frozen CO2 (Carbon Dioxide)\n\nOne more thing, at a near perfect vacuum, you can actually cool liquid water to less than 0C without it freezing.  Never tried that but I did accidently freeze a beer last night...
262178
this is all about global warming and if it actually is occurring. yes if it is happening Hawaii would indeed be covered(i think, not 100% sure) but does it exist? in my opinion is it doesn't exist. because think about it we are coming out of an ice age. it makes sense doesn't it? fact: there have been ice ages. fact: there is a lot of ice in ice ages. so if you know about water then you know the same amount of it is here that was here when the earth began so literally it is dinosaurs piss. well during an ice age lots of stuff is covered in water/ice ( i know i live in Minnesota and it is known that it was fully covered with ice.). so where is all the water? in ice bergs, glaciers, etc. so it would make sense that to leave an ice age most things would melt right? so they are still melting they will finish melting and cover parts of the world, then it will slowly freeze causing an ice age. why would humans make that big of a difference? we are insignificant to the world.(everyone in the world could fit in Texas and it would only be as densely populated as NY city). so our vehicles and combustible engines couldn't have that big of an effect. but you say "what about the ozone thinning?" well i am not saying it hasn't but it was because of the CF C's(chloral floral carbons) which broke up the ozone by attaching to ozone molecules. but the CF C's are no longer around. the ozone is healing itself as it is meant too. their was no real hole only a thinning which is also bad. but now it is closing up and returning to normal. if you think that the co2 we produced cant be good well think about it it isn't that much and while the earth was cooling after being created it released tons of co2. so what people will notice in the next 1-9000 years is it will warm up but in that time it will also cool down and eventually there will be an ice age. just because the great human race is here doesn't mean that the earth will stop having ice ages as it has done by its self for billions of years. think about it. am i a genius or what i mean i just looked at what has happened in history wow who would have thought history would repeat its self
1095674
Why is the Ocean Salty?\n\nAll water, even rain water, contains dissolved chemicals which scientists call "salts." But not all water tastes salty. Water is fresh or salty according to individual judgment, and in making this decision man is more convinced by his sense of taste than by a laboratory test. It is one's taste buds that accept one water and reject another.\nA simple experiment illustrates this. Fill three glasses with water from the kitchen faucet. Drink from one and it tastes fresh even though some dissolved salts are naturally present. Add a pinch of table salt to the second, and the water may taste fresh or slightly salty depending on a personal taste threshold and on the amount of salt held in a "pinch." But add a teaspoon of salt to the third and your taste buds vehemently protest that this water is too salty to drink; this glass of water has about the same salt content as a glass of sea water.\nObviously, the ocean, in contrast to the water we use daily, contains unacceptable amounts of dissolved chemicals; it is too salty for human consumption. \n\nHOW SALTY IS THE OCEAN?...\nHow salty the ocean is, however, defies ordinary comprehension. Some scientists estimate that the oceans contain as much as 50 quadrillion tons (50 million billion tons) of dissolved solids.\n\nIf the salt in the sea could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet thick, about the height of a 40-story office building. The saltiness of the ocean is more understandable when compared with the salt content of a fresh-water lake. For example, when 1 cubic foot of sea water evaporates it yields about 2.2 pounds of salt, but 1 cubic foot of fresh water from Lake Michigan contains only one one-hundredth (0.01) of a pound of salt, or about one sixth of an ounce. Thus, sea water is 220 times saltier than the fresh lake water. What arouses the scientist's curiosity is not so much why the ocean is salty, but why it isn't fresh like the rivers and streams that empty into it. Further, what is the origin of the sea and of its "salts"? And how does one explain ocean water's remarkably uniform chemical composition? To these and related questions, scientists seek answers with full awareness that little about the oceans is understood.\n\n\nIllustration: Sources of salts in the ocean.\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF THE SEA...\nIn popular language, "ocean" and "sea" are used interchangeably. Today's seas are the North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans and the Antarctic waters or seas.\nScientists believe that the seas are as much as 500 million years old because animals that lived then occur as fossils in rocks which once were under ancient seas. There are several theories about the origin of the seas, but no single theory explains all aspects of this puzzle. Many earth scientists agree with the hypothesis that both the atmosphere and the oceans have accumulated gradually through geologic time from some process of "degassing" of the Earth's interior. According to this theory, the ocean had its origin from the prolonged escape of water vapor and other gases from the molten igneous rocks of the Earth to the clouds surrounding the cooling Earth. After the Earth's surface had cooled to a temperature below the boiling point of water, rain began to fall and continued to fall for centuries. As the water drained into the great hollows in the Earth's surface, the primeval ocean came into existence. The forces of gravity prevented the water from leaving the planet.\n\nSOURCES OF THE SALTS...\nSea water has been defined as a weak solution of almost everything. Ocean water is indeed a complex solution of mineral salts and of decayed biologic matter that results from the teeming life in the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual processes such the breaking up of the cooled ign
338588
It's mainly due to the effects of ocean currents.  Water has a much higher heat capacity than dry air, so it takes longer to heat and cool.  So climates near major bodies of water tend to be more mild in both the summer and the winter than inland climates.
489569
Just a quick thought here that may help you.  Under "cold blooded" - or ectothermic - we understand an organism that does not produce a relatively constant body core temperature by means of metabolitic activity etc., but rather regulates its temperature by shutteling between warmer and coller areas.  It takes on the temperature of its environment.  That would be detrimental in case of an animal living in antarctic conditions.  A penguin's blood would freeze, there would be crystalization, and the cells would eventually burst.  In other words, the penguin would be a very cold toast.\n\nNow, there are however ectothermic organisms in arctic and antarctic oceans, which maintain blood flow by using a chemcial anti-freeze.  This has been found, for example in some fishes (the plural is allowed here, since we aretalking about more than one species).  But penguins don't have anything like that and do not need it.  As others have mentioned above, they are very well insulated endotherms (maintain a relatively stable core temperature).\n\nHope this helps in addition to the other answers.