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The
Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water, encompasses
an area of total: 165.384 million sq km
Note: includes
Bali
Sea, Bellingshausen Sea, Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Coral Sea,
East China
Sea, Flores Sea, Gulf of Alaska,
Gulf of Tonkin,
Java Sea, Philippine
Sea, Ross Sea, Savu Sea, Sea of Japan,
Sea of Okhotsk, South China
Sea, Tasman Sea, East
Timor Sea, and other tributary water bodies |
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The
Pacific Ocean covers about 28% of the global surface; larger
than the total land area of the world. |
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The
average depth of the Pacific Ocean is 4637.53 Meters (4.637
km, 15,215ft, or 2.881miles). |
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The
largest depth in the Pacific Ocean is located at the Mariana
Trench, and is 11033.76 Meters (11.034 km, or 36,200 ft, 6.856
miles) deep, close to the Philipines. |
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At
the deepest point in the ocean the pressure is more than 8 tons
per square inch, or the equivalent of one person trying to support
50 jumbo jets. |
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The
Pacific Ocean has many thousands of islands. In the west, there
are large islands such as Japan,
Taiwan,
and Papua
New Guinea, then there are the smaller islands of Polynesia
(whose name means many islands) and Tahiti.
Further away to the east are isolated islands such as Pitcairn,
Easter Island and the Galapagos.
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Resources
include: oil and gas fields, polymetallic nodules, sand and
gravel aggregates, placer deposits, and fish. |
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Some
ports and harbors include: Bangkok
(Thailand),
Hong
Kong, Kao-hsiung
(Taiwan),
Los
Angeles (US),
Manila
(Philippines),
Pusan
(South
Korea), San
Francisco (US),
Seattle
(US),
Shanghai
(China),
Singapore,
Sydney
(Australia),
Vladivostok
(Russia),
Wellington
(NZ),
Yokohama
(Japan). |
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The
Pacific contains about 25,000 islands (more than the rest of
the world's oceans total combined), the majority of which are
found south of the equator. |
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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. |
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In comparison with the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, the Atlantic
is the saltiest. The Pacific Ocean is less salty because of
meteorological conditions. Salinity in the deeper waters of
the Pacific averages about 34.65 ppt. |
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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, Republic of China
(Taiwan),
Tonga,
Tuvalu,
and Vanuatu.
Also within the Pacific are the U.S. state of Hawaii
and several island territories and
possessions of Australia,
Chile,
France,
Japan,
New
Zealand, the United
Kingdom, and the United
States. |
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The
Pacific Ocean is a major contributor to the world economy and
particularly to those nations its waters directly touch. It
provides low-cost sea transportation between East and West,
extensive fishing grounds, offshore oil and gas fields, minerals,
and sand and gravel for the construction industry. In 1996,
over 60% of the world's fish catch came from the Pacific Ocean.
Exploitation of offshore oil and gas reserves is playing an
ever-increasing role in the energy supplies of Australia,
New Zealand, China,
US,
and Peru.
The high cost of recovering offshore oil and gas, combined with
the wide swings in world prices for oil since 1985, has slowed
but not stopped new drillings. |
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Cold,
saline water that forms off the coast of Iceland
can be found in the North Pacific Ocean, about 1000 years later
|
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Ninety
percent of all volcanic activity occurs in the oceans. In 1993,
scientists located the largest known concentration of active
volcanoes on the sea floor in the South Pacific. This area,
the size of New
York state, hosts 1,133 volcanic cones and sea mounts. Two
or three could erupt at any moment. |
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Because
of the depth of the Pacific Ocean, pacific tsunami (waves created
by earthquakes) can reach speeds of over 750 kilometres per
hour. The same velocity as a jet airplane. |
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The
longest mountain range on Earth is really the Mid-Ocean Ridge.
It extends from the Arctic Ocean, down the middle of the Atlantic,
winding into the Pacific Ocean. |
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Tallest
wave: In 1933 sailors on a United
States naval ship recorded a 112-foot-tall wave in the Pacific
Ocean. |
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The
Province of British
Columbia, Canada,
has a shoreline along the Pacific Ocean, including the coasts
of islands and land bordering estuaries, is 32,747 km long (20,348
miles). |
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The
City of Vancouver,
is the largest city on the west coast of Canada,
closest to the Pacific Ocean. |
