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The Pacific Ocean: The Facts by Anna Mracek
The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on the planet, covering one third of the entire surface of the Earth, or 165.384 million square kilometers. It is about 18 times the size of the United States of America. The accepted boundaries are the Bering Sea in the North, the Ross Sea in the South, the Strait of Magellan in the East and the Strait of Malacca in the West. The Pacific is often divided along the equator into the North and South Pacific, but the waters of these two halves circulate freely, as does the water in all of the world's oceans. The only real difference between these two halves is that the water circulates clockwise at the surface of the North Pacific and counter-clockwise in the South Pacific. The waters of the Pacific cover more area than all of the land mass of the world. Both the salinity (salt concentration) and the temperature of the water varies latitudinally. The waters around the equator are the warmest, reaching up to 29 degrees C (84 degrees F), and the least salty due to heavy precipitation. Near the polar regions the water can drop to temperatures near or even below freezing as the dissolved salt lowers the freezing point of the water. The Pacific creates five main climactic regions: the mid-latitude westerlies, the trades, the monsoon region, the typhoon region, and the doldrums. The mid-latitude westerlies occur in both hemispheres and bring marked changes in temperature with the seasons. The trade winds blow nearer the equator and account for the warm, constant temperatures year-round. The monsoon region is located in the far western region of the Pacific, between Australia and Japan, and is characterized by winds that change direction with the seasons. During the wet season the winds blow in large amounts of precipitation that cause flooding; during the dry, droughts are common. The typhoon region frequently exists in the shape of a large triangle from southern Japan to the central Philippines to eastern Micronesia. The typhoons generated here can have detrimental effect on a much larger area. The Ocean floor is fairly uniform, averaging about 4,270 meters (14,000 ft) below the surface. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the lowest point on Earth, reaching to 11,033 meters below sea level. The Ring of Fire, a circle of geologic and volcanic activity around the Pacific Ocean is perhaps the most prominent and impressive example of tectonic activity on the planet. The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean ridge system the runs from the Gulf of California to open ocean west of the southern tip of South America. Active, sub-surface volcanoes are almost constantly adding molten rock to the tectonic plates on each side. These plates are then forced to collide with their neighbors, causing more volcanism and earthquakes. The islands of the Pacific have a rich cultural history of their own, with the most famous group being the Polynesians who settled many of the tropical islands including the Hawaiian Islands that make up the fiftieth U.S. state. Other islands in the Pacific include the independent countries of Kiribati, Narur, Papau New Guinea, Taiwan, Tuvalu, Western Samoa, Australia, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Australia, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States all have territories in the Pacific. Sources:
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