The
Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions.
It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern
Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south
and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas
in the east.
At 165.25
million square kilometers (63.8 million square miles) in area,
this largest division of the World Ocean – and, in turn, the hydrosphere
– covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third
of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's
land area combined. The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific
Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos
and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed
wholly within the South Pacific. The Mariana Trench in the western
North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth
of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).
The eastern
Pacific Ocean was first sighted by Europeans in the early 16th
century when Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the
Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and discovered the great "southern
sea" which he named Mar del Sur. The ocean's current name
was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the
Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered
favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He therefore called it
Mar Pacifico in Portuguese, meaning "peaceful sea". |
