The Pacific Ocean
By far the largest of the four oceans, the Pacific covers nearly one-third of the globe, an area approximately 64 million square miles. The land area of the United States, Alaska and Hawaii covers less than 4 million square miles. The Pacific Ocean is immense. All the continents could be placed into it, and there would still be room left over. Even with the many topographic features found on the sea floor, such as plateaus, ridges, trenches, and seamounts, it has an average depth of 13,000 feet. The Pacific is approximately 11,000 miles wide at the equator.
Not only is it the largest and deepest, it is probably the most violent of all oceans. The Pacific Ocean has typhoons in the equatorial regions, nearly 300 active volcanoes which vent steam and smoke on her borders, and tidal waves are periodically unleashed.
Unlike the basin floors of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Pacific is characterized by the Central Pacific Trough. This feature extends from the Aleutian Islands southward to Antarctica and from Japan to the west coast of North America. The basin floors are not completely flat and ridges and seamounts abound. Along with a number of deep ocean trenches, the Pacific has many flat-topped seamounts: Guyots. These are rarely found in other oceans.
 Photo :: Pacific Ocean © 2004 Diane Buccheri, OCEAN Magazine. See below
Terrain: surface currents in the northern Pacific are dominated by a clockwise, warm-water gyre (broad circular system of currents) and in the southern Pacific by a counterclockwise, cool-water gyre; in the northern Pacific, sea ice forms in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk in winter; in the southern Pacific, sea ice from Antarctica reaches its northernmost extent in October; the ocean floor in the eastern Pacific is dominated by the East Pacific Rise, while the western Pacific is dissected by deep trenches, including the Mariana Trench, which is the world's deepest
Natural resources: oil and gas fields, polymetallic nodules, sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, fish
Natural hazards: surrounded by a zone of violent volcanic and earthquake activity sometimes referred to as the "Pacific Ring of Fire"; subject to tropical cyclones (typhoons) in southeast and east Asia from May to December (most frequent from July to October); tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south of Mexico and strike Central America and Mexico from June to October (most common in August and September); cyclical El Nino phenomenon occurs off the coast of Peru, when the trade winds slacken and the warm Equatorial countercurrent moves south, killing the plankton that is the primary food source for anchovies; consequently, the anchovies move to better feeding grounds, causing resident marine birds to starve by the thousands because of the loss of their food source; ships subject to superstructure icing in extreme north from October to May; persistent fog in the northern Pacific can be a maritime hazard from June to December
Environment - current issues: endangered marine species include the dugong, sea lion, sea otter, seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in Philippine Sea and South China Sea
|
¤ Geography |
| |
Area:
total: 155.557 million sq km
note: includes Bali Sea, Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Flores Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of Tonkin, Java Sea, Philippine Sea, Savu Sea, Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, South China Sea, Tasman Sea, Timor Sea, and other tributary water bodies
Area - comparative: about 15 times the size of the US; covers about 28% of the global surface; larger than the total land area of the world
Coastline: 135,663 km
Climate: planetary air pressure systems and resultant wind patterns exhibit remarkable uniformity in the south and east; trade winds and westerly winds are well-developed patterns, modified by seasonal fluctuations; tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south of Mexico from June to October and affect Mexico and Central America; continental influences cause climatic uniformity to be much less pronounced in the eastern and western regions at the same latitude in the North Pacific Ocean; the western Pacific is monsoonal - a rainy season occurs during the summer months, when moisture-laden winds blow from the ocean over the land, and a dry season during the winter months, when dry winds blow from the Asian landmass back to the ocean; tropical cyclones (typhoons) may strike southeast and east Asia from May to December
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench -10,924 m
highest point: sea level 0 m
|
|
 |
|
