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@opencage@en.osm.townMost of the questions we get about geocoding are related to land, but of course most of the world is covered by water 
This week in #geoweirdness let's consider the world's oceans
1/n
2/ There are some fun water based locations.
For example "Point Nemo" (-48.876667, -123.393333) The point on Earth farthest from land
3/ Then there is the (in)famous "Null Island" located at 0,0.
Null Island doesn't physically exist at all, but often geographic software mistakes end up there.
4/ But of course the ocean's aren't empty, there are thousands of boats and ships sailing about 
.
A fun site to track shipping is marinetraffic.com
5/ The oceans are also a common point of territorial disputes, most famously in the South China Sea where many conflicting claims overlap: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_South_China_Sea
6/ Such claims are generally arbitrated via the 
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which defines "Internal Waters", "Territorial Sea", "Contiguous zones" and "Exclusive economic zone".
Today 167 countries and the EU 
are parties to the convention.
But many countries want specific exceptions that benefit them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea
7/ There are many more examples of disputes involving water, even between supposed allies.
As we covered in our Croatia thread - 
Croatia and 
Slovenia disagree over the course of the border in the Adriatic:
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/109652965633848715
or 
Germany and 
The Netherlands disagreeing over the border at the mouth of the Ems
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsch-Niederl%C3%A4ndische_Grenzfrage
8/ In the North Atlantic we have the case of the tiny and remote island Rockall, formally annexed by the UK 
in 1972. Ireland 
does not recognise the UK's claim.
A survival expert lived on the island from 26 May 1985 to 4 July 1985 to affirm the UK's claim
9/ Some geocoders just ignore international bodies of water. We don't. Here's a reverse geocode of a spot in the North Sea.
Nevertheless, it's not always clear where one body of water stops and another starts. Where exactly is the dividing line? We do the best we can. Let us know if your favourite body of water is missing.
10/ you may be asking “What about the ocean floor? Can we map that? How?”
Yes, but there is still a lot of work to be done, we have better maps of Mars than we do of the Earth's ocean floors.
Project "SEABED 2030" aims to get it all mapped by 2030 https://seabed2030.org
Here is a fantastic episode of the @MapScaping podcast about exactly how it is done: https://mapscaping.com/podcast/mapping-the-ocean-floor/
11/ Do you like staring at the sea?
Some people do it professionally.
Here’s a great talk by Hayley Evers-King about “Earth Observation for the Oceans” 
from our Nov 2020 @geomob online event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euMVNE8tWjQ&list=PL0O40c1c5Xt0SXzuRoDloW0MgA8Zxm65M&index=3
12/ At @geomob events over the years we've had fascinating presentations from sea focused start-ups.
For example DockTech who are crowdsourcing bathymetry data
https://www.docktech.net
or Savvy Navvy a "Google Maps for boats"
https://www.savvy-navvy.com
13/ The key point is there's much more to the world than just land, and we're working hard to understand (and geocode) it. Until we do, we wish you fair winds and following seas. 
Thanks for reading (and sharing). We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some still on twitter, but over time we are moving them to mastodon. Enjoy.
Bonus toot - can you name the countries that border "the Seven Seas"? That was our #fridaygeotrivia question (our monthly geo trivia contest) back in July 2021.
Test yourself: https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/geotrivia-july-2021
