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What’s
in a Name?
The
Pacific Ocean was named by legendary navigator Ferdinand
Magellan. A native of Portugal, Magellan renounced his
loyalty to that nation after King Emanuel rejected Magellan’s
petition for a post within the royal navy. Magellan then
left for Spain, which agreed to support Magellan’s
claim of a western route to the Spice Islands through
a seaway near the southern tip of South America.
On
September 20, 1519, Magellan and a crew of 270 men set
sail from Spain on their around-the-world voyage in five
small vessels including his flagship Trinidad, Concepcion, San
Antonio, Victoria, and Santiago. It took
the fleet, or at least the three remaining ships in the
fleet, 38 days to navigate the strait around South America
that was to bear Magellan’s name. During the last
week of November, the fleet emerged into what Magellan
described as a “beautiful, peaceful ocean.” Thus,
it was named the Pacific Ocean (“pacific” meaning “peaceful.”)
Upon
entering the Pacific Ocean, Magellan mistakenly thought
the Spice Islands were only a short voyage away. Nearly
four months later, in March 1521, he and his crew finally
reached what is known today as the Philippines. A few
weeks later, he was fatally wounded after becoming involved
in a dispute between warring Philippine tribes. Only
one ship, Victoria, and 18 of Magellan’s
original crew members returned to Spain, thereby completing
the first circumnavigation of the globe. Although Magellan’s
route proved impractical for the spice trade, his voyage
has been called the greatest single human achievement
on the seas.
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Total
Area :
The
Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world’s five
oceans, followed by the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean,
Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. It covers an
area of about 155 million square kilometers (about
60 million square miles). It is larger than the total
land area of the world and about 15 times the size
of the United States.
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Depth:
Its
average depth is 4,637 meters (2.8 miles). It is home
to the deepest known point in the ocean — the
Mariana Trench off Guam — which plunges to a depth
of about 10,924 meters
(nearly 7 miles). Because of the depth of the Pacific
Ocean, tsunamis (huge waves created by earthquakes)
can reach speeds of 750 kilometers an hour, the same
velocity as a jet airplane.
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Nations & Islands:
Seventeen
independent nations are located in the Pacific: Australia,
Fiji, Japan, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia,
Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines,
Samoa, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The U.S. state of Hawaii is also located here and several
island territories and possessions of Australia, Chile,
France, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United
States.
The
largest land mass in this ocean is the continent of Australia,
which is about equal in size to the 48 contiguous states
of the United States. There are some 25,000 islands in
the Pacific Ocean — which is more than the rest
of the world's oceans combined. Almost all the smaller
islands lie between 30°N and 30°S latitude, extending
from Southeast Asia to Easter Island. The rest of the
Pacific Basin is almost devoid of land.
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Climate:
The
ocean and the atmosphere are closely linked — a
fact that is clearly demonstrated by the global weather
phenomena we know as "El Niño" and "La
Niña," which arise in the Pacific Ocean.
Ages
ago, Peruvian fishermen named the seasonal warming of
the waters off their coast, which occurs in December, "El
Nino," which is Spanish for "the Christ child." During
a normal year, the waters off South America are typically
cold and highly productive for fishing. Then in December
(which is summer in the Southern Hemisphere), the water
normally warms and fishing becomes less productive. Cold
water usually returns again in June, when the fishing
season begins again there. In some years, however, the
water stays warm throughout the year and can
cause dramatic weather around the world. The term "El
Niño" is now used to refer to this climatic
process.
Steady,
westward-blowing trade winds cause warm water to pile
up in the western Pacific. During El Niño, the trade
winds weaken and cannot "contain" this huge pool
of warm water. Consequently, warm water extends far eastward.
In the United States, the effects of an El Niño
winter include warmer than normal temperatures from
the Great Lakes to Alaska, wetter than normal conditions
across the southern tier of states, some dryness in
the Midwest, and cooler than normal temperatures in
the Southeast. It can also include a decrease in hurricanes
that reach land.
In
some ways, La Niña is the opposite of El Niño
and is characterized by cooler than normal ocean water
surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific. In
the United States, a La Niña winter includes temperatures
that are cooler than normal over the Northwest, warmer
than normal over the Southeast, drier than normal from
Florida to Arizona, and wetter than normal over the Pacific
Northwest and parts of the Midwest. La Niña may
also bring an increase in hurricanes that reach land in
the United States.
According
to the NOAA
National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center, it's
likely that El Niño conditions will persist through early
2005. Among the expected impacts around the globe are drier-than-average
conditions in Indonesia (through early 2005), northern
and northeastern Australia (Nov. 2004 – Feb. 2005),
and southeastern Africa (Nov. 2004–March 2005). If the
warming in the tropic Pacific strengthens and spreads eastward
to the South American coast, then wetter-than-average conditions
would be expected in coastal sections of Ecuador and northern
Peru during the first few months of 2005, and drier-than-average
conditions would be expected to develop in the eastern
Amazon late this year and spread to northeast Brazil during
Feb.–April 2005.
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Bottom
Terrain:
 The
ocean floor in the eastern Pacific is dominated by the
East Pacific Rise, which is a part of the worldwide Mid-Ocean
Ridge system. About 3,000 km (1,800 mi) across, the rise
stands about 3 km (2 mi) above the adjacent ocean floor.
The western part of the Pacific Ocean floor consists
of mountain arcs that rise above the sea as island groups,
such as the Solomon Islands and New Zealand, and deep
trenches, such as the Mariana Trench, the Philippine
Trench, and the Tonga Trench. Most of the deep trenches
lie adjacent to the outer margins of the wide western
Pacific continental shelf.
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Natural
Resources:
One
of the Pacific Ocean’s greatest assets is fish,
including herring, salmon, sardines, snapper, swordfish,
tuna, and shellfish. In 1996, over half (60%) of the
world’s total fish catch came from the Pacific Ocean.
Pearls are harvested along Australia, Japan, Papua
New Guinea, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Philippines. Exploitation
of offshore oil and gas reserves is playing an ever-increasing
role in the energy supplies of Australia, New Zealand,
China, the United States, and Peru.
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Environment:
The
Pacific Ocean’s
endangered marine species include the dugong, sea lion,
sea otter, seals, turtles, and whales. Current major
environmental issues include oil pollution in the Philippine
Sea and South China Sea. In terms of natural hazards,
the
Pacific Ocean is
surrounded by a zone of violent volcanic and earthquake
activity (“The Ring of Fire”).
Hurricanes may form south of Mexico and strike Central
America and Mexico from June to October. The
greatest typhoon frequency exists within the triangle
from southern Japan to the central Philippines to eastern
Micronesia.
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Ports:
Bangkok
(Thailand), Hong Kong, Kao-hsiung (Taiwan), Los Angeles
(U.S.), Manila (Philippines), Pusan (South Korea), San
Francisco (U.S.), Seattle (U.S.), Shanghai (China), Singapore,
Sydney (Australia), Vladivostok (Russia), Wellington
(New Zealand), Yokohama (Japan).
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