Why the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean don’t mix ?

Answer 1

Favourite answer

Nobody knows.  You can actually see the line between because of the color.  The Pacific in blue.  The Atlantic is green.  Also, the Pacific is 14" higher than the Atlantic.

Answer 2

unfortunately the best answer was chosen despite it being 100% 'not the best answer' lol

there are a NUMBER of reasons/factors to why the the waters of these two great oceans don't mix.

when the two 'meet' they don't mix and here's why:

1. Different densities and chemical makeup

The waters in both oceans differ in terms of salinity, and the thing that separates the two from mixing are these 'invisible borders' known as 'haloclines'.  They appear when the water one one side is at least 5 times more salty than the other. You can test this out yourself at home. If you pour some mildly colored salty water about half way to the top in a glass and then pour some fresh clear water in the remaining half you will see a similar occurrence.  Basically the two waters don't quite mix. 

I'll let you google up the rest for yourself, in fact heres a good video that gives you the answer informatively ^_^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U93QRMcQU5Y

Answer 3

Well if you call the water between the southern most tip of South America and the Northern most tip of Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, then I suppose they don’t directly meet.

Incidentally , best answer??? The Pacific is 14” higher? Ever heard of sea level?

Answer 4

The salinity in each ocean is different. However the two waters do mix very slowly. 

Answer 5

Your question is based on a false premise. Where these two oceans meet they do mix. Water is not contrained by our naming conventions and artificial boundaries.

Answer 6

They do, but there are restrictions to rapid open mixing (or they would be one ocean and they aren't).  the mixing is relatively slow compared to the size of the separate basins.

Answer 7

They do.  It's a myth that they don't.

Answer 8

They do. Where they mix is at the Straits of Magellan. Also, technically, oceanographers say the world has one ocean and the various areas of it called the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, etc. are just for regional identification within Earth's singular ocean.

Answer 9

they do . have you never looked at a globe ?