The term marginal sea commonly has two differing meanings.
As an oceanographic term, marginal sea indicates a partially enclosed sea adjacent to or widely open to the open ocean at the surface, but bounded by submarine ridges on the sea floor.
As a geopolitical term, marginal sea is equivalent to territorial waters. Defining what naval territory falls under a state's jurisdiction as "marginal sea" is important in determining what maritime resources that state can exploit.
Read more about Marginal Sea: Marginal Seas of The World
Famous quotes containing the words marginal and/or sea:
“Of course I’m a black writer.... I’m not just a black writer, but categories like black writer, woman writer and Latin American writer aren’t marginal anymore. We have to acknowledge that the thing we call “literature” is more pluralistic now, just as society ought to be. The melting pot never worked. We ought to be able to accept on equal terms everybody from the Hassidim to Walter Lippmann, from the Rastafarians to Ralph Bunche.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“Our sympathies in Massachusetts are not confined to New England; though we may be estranged from the South, we sympathize with the West. There is the home of the younger sons, as among the Scandinavians they took to the sea for their inheritance.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)