The average depth is 3988 m. The deepest point of the ocean (it is also the deepest point in the world) is located in the Mariana Trench and is called the Challenger Abyss (11.022 m).
... Average temperature: 19-37 ° C. Widest part The Pacific is located in equatorial-tropical latitudes, so the temperature of surface waters is much higher than in other oceans.
... Dimensions: area - 179.7 million sq. Km, volume - 710.36 million sq. Km.
To imagine how big the Pacific Ocean is, enough numbers: it occupies a third of our planet and makes up almost half of the World Ocean.
Salinity - 35-36 ‰.
Pacific Ocean currents
Alaskan- it washes the western coast of North America and reaches the Bering Sea. It spreads to great depths, down to the bottom. Current speed: 0.2-0.5 m / s. Water temperature: 7-15 ° С.
East Australian- the largest off the Australian coast. It starts at the equator (Coral Sea) and runs along the east coast of Australia. Average speed - 2-3 knots (up to 7). Temperature - 25 ° С.
Kuroshio(or Japanese) - washes the southern and eastern shores of Japan, transferring warm waters South China Sea to northern latitudes. It has three branches: East Korean, Tsushima and Soya. Speed: 6 km / h, temperature 18-28 ° С.
North Pacific- continuation of the Kuroshio flow. It crosses the ocean from west to east, branches off the coast of North America into Alaskan (goes to the north) and California (to the south). Near the coast of Mexico, it folds and crosses the ocean in the opposite direction (North-Trade Current) - up to the Kuroshio.
South Passatnoye- flows in southern tropical latitudes, stretches from east to west: from the coast South America(Galapogos Islands) to the shores of Australia and New Guinea. Temperature - 32 ° C. It gives rise to the Australian current.
Equatorial countercurrent (or inter-trade)- stretches from west to east between the North-Trade and South-Trade currents.
Cromwell flow- subsurface countercurrent, which passes under the South Passatny. Speed 70-150 cm / sec.
Cold:
California- the western branch of the North Pacific Current, flows along the western shores of the United States and Mexico. Speed - 1-2 km / h, temperature 15-26 ° С.
Antarctic circumpolar (or current of the West Winds)- goes around the entire globe between 40 ° and 50 ° S latitude. Speed 0.4-0.9 km / h, temperature 12-15 ° C. This current is often referred to as the "Roaring Forties" as powerful storms rage here. The Peruvian Current branches off from it in the Pacific Ocean.
Peruvian current (or Humboldt current)- flows from south to north from the shores of Antarctica along the western coasts of Chile and Peru. Speed 0.9 km / h, temperature 15-20 ° C.
The underwater world of the Pacific
The flora and fauna of the underwater world in the Pacific Ocean is the richest and most diverse. Almost 50% of all living organisms of the World Ocean live here. The most densely populated area is considered to be the water area near the Great Balier Reef.
All the living nature of the ocean is located according to climatic zones - in the north and south it is more scarce than in the tropics, but the total number of each species of animals or plants is greater here.
The Pacific Ocean provides more than half of the world's seafood catch. The most popular commercial species are salmon (95% of the world catch), mackerel, anchovies, sardines, horse mackerel, halibuts. There is a limited whale fishery: baleen and sperm whales.
The numbers testify to the wealth of the underwater world:
- more than 850 types of algae;
- more than 100 thousand species of animals (of which more than 3800 species of fish);
- about 200 species of animals living at a depth of more than 7 thousand km;
- more than 6 thousand species of molluscs.
The Pacific Ocean is home to the largest number of endemics (animals that are found only here): dugongs, fur seals, sea otters, sea lions, sea cucumbers, polychaetes, leopard sharks.
The nature of the Pacific Ocean has been studied only by 10 percent. Every year scientists discover new species of animals and plants. For example, in 2005 alone, more than 2,500 new species of molluscs and more than 100 species of crustaceans were found.
Pacific Ocean Exploration
According to research by scientists, the Pacific Ocean is the oldest on the planet. Its formation began in the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic, that is, more than 140 million years ago. The development of the ocean began long before the advent of writing. People who lived on the shores of the greatest water area used the gifts of the ocean thousands of years ago. So, the expedition of Thor Heyerdahl on the Kon-Tiki balsa raft confirmed the scientist's theory that the islands of Polynesia could be populated by immigrants from South America who were able to cross the Pacific Ocean on the same rafts.
For Europeans, the history of the development of the ocean is officially calculated from September 15, 1513. On this day, the traveler Vasco Nunez de Balboa first saw the surface of the water, stretching to the horizon, and christened it South Sea.
According to legend, the ocean got its name from F. Magellan himself. During his trip around the world, the great Portuguese circled South America for the first time and found himself in the ocean. Having sailed on it for more than 17 thousand kilometers and not having experienced a single storm during all this time, Magellan christened the ocean the Pacific. And only later studies proved that he was wrong. The Pacific Ocean is actually one of the most turbulent. It is here that the largest tsunamis occur, and typhoons, hurricanes and storms are more frequent here than in other oceans.
Since then, an active exploration of the largest ocean on the planet began. We list only the most significant discoveries:
1589 - A. Ortelius publishes the world's first detailed map of the ocean.
1642-1644 - A. Tasman conquers the ocean and discovers a new continent - Australia.
1769-1779 - D. Cook's three voyages around the world and exploration of the southern part of the ocean.
1785 - voyage by J. La Perouse, exploration of the southern and northern parts of the ocean. The mysterious disappearance of the expedition in 1788 still haunts the minds of researchers.
1787-1794 - the journey of A. Malaspin, who made a detailed map of the western coast of America.
1725-1741 - two Kamchatka expeditions under the leadership of V.I. Bering and A. Chirikov, exploration of the northern and northwestern parts of the ocean.
1819-1821 - F. Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev's circumnavigation of the world, the discovery of Antarctica and islands in the southern part of the ocean.
1872-1876 - the world's first scientific expedition to study the Pacific Ocean on the Challenger corvette (England) was organized. Maps of depths, bottom topography were compiled, a collection of flora and fauna of the ocean was collected.
1949-1979 - 65 scientific voyages of the Vityaz vessel under the flag of the USSR Academy of Sciences (measuring the depth of the Mariana Trench and detailed maps underwater relief).
1960 - first dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
1973 - establishment of the Pacific Oceanological Institute (Vladivostok)
Since the 90s of the twentieth century, a comprehensive study of the Pacific Ocean began, which combines and systematizes all the data obtained. Currently, the priority areas are geophysics, geochemistry, geology and commercial use of the ocean floor.
Since the discovery of the Challenger Abyss in 1875, only three people have descended to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench. The last dive took place on March 12, 2012. And the brave diver was none other than the famous filmmaker James Cameron.
For many representatives of the fauna of the Pacific Ocean, gigantism is characteristic: giant mussels and oysters, tridacna clam (300 kg).
There are over 25 thousand islands in the Pacific Ocean, more than in all other oceans combined. Here is also the most ancient island on the planet - Kauai, whose age is estimated at 6 million years.
More than 80% of tsunamis are "born" in the Pacific Ocean. The reason for this is the large number of underwater volcanoes.
The Pacific Ocean is full of secrets. There are many mystical places here: the Devil's Sea (near Japan), where ships and planes disappear; the bloodthirsty island of Palmyra, where everyone who remains there perishes; Easter Island with its mysterious idols; Laguna Truk, where the largest military equipment cemetery is located. And in 2011, not far from Australia, a feature island was discovered - Sandy Island. It appears and disappears, as evidenced by numerous expeditions and Google satellite photos.
In the north of the ocean, the so-called Garbage Continent was discovered. It is a large garbage heap containing over 100 million tons of plastic waste.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in terms of area and depth on Earth. Located between the continents of Eurasia and Australia in the west, North and South America in the east, Antarctica in the south.
- Area: 179.7 million km²
- Volume: 710.4 million km³
- Maximum depth: 10,994 m
- Average depth: 3984 m
The Pacific Ocean stretches approximately 15.8 thousand km from north to south and 19.5 thousand km from east to west. Square with seas
179.7 million km², average depth - 3984 m, water volume - 723.7 million km³ (excluding seas, respectively: 165.2 million km², 4282 m and 707.6 million km³). The greatest depth of the Pacific Ocean (and the entire World Ocean) is 10,994 m (in the Mariana Trench). The date line passes through the Pacific Ocean along the 180th meridian.
Etymology
The first European to see the ocean was the Spanish conquistador Balboa. In 1513, he and his companions crossed the Isthmus of Panama and came to the shore of an unknown ocean. Since they reached the ocean in a bay open to the south, Balboa called it the South Sea (Spanish Mar del Sur). On November 28, 1520, Fernand Magellan entered the open ocean. He crossed the ocean from Tierra del Fuego to the Philippine Islands in 3 months and 20 days. All this time, the weather was calm, and Magellan called it the Pacific Ocean. In 1753, the French geographer Jean-Nicolas Buache proposed calling it the Great Ocean as the largest of the oceans. But this name did not receive universal recognition, and the name Pacific Ocean remains dominant in world geography. In English-speaking countries, the ocean is called English. Pacific Ocean.
Until 1917, the name Eastern Ocean was used on Russian maps, traditionally preserved from the time the Russian explorers reached the ocean.
Asteroid (224) Oceans is named after the Pacific Ocean.
Physical and geographical characteristics
General information
Occupying 49.5% of the World Ocean's surface and containing 53% of its water volume, the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on the planet. From east to west, the ocean stretches for more than 19 thousand km and 16 thousand - from north to south. Its waters are located for the most part at southern latitudes, less at northern latitudes. 
In 1951, an English expedition aboard the Challenger research vessel recorded a maximum depth of 10,863 meters using an echo sounder. According to the results of measurements carried out in 1957 during the 25th voyage of the Soviet research vessel "Vityaz" (headed by Aleksey Dmitrievich Dobrovolsky), the maximum depth of the trough is 11,023 m (updated data, the depth was originally reported as 11,034 m). The difficulty in measuring is that the speed of sound in water depends on its properties, which are different at different depths, therefore, these properties must also be determined at several horizons with special instruments (such as a barometer and a thermometer), and in the depth value shown by the echo sounder , amended. Research in 1995 showed that it is about 10,920 m, and research in 2009 - that 10,971 m. The latest research in 2011 gives a value of 10,994 m with an accuracy of ± 40 m. Thus, the deepest point of the depression, called the Challenger Abyss "(Eng. Challenger Deep) is located farther from sea level than Mount Chomolungma - above it.
With its eastern edge, the ocean washes the western coasts of North and South America, with its western edge it washes the eastern coasts of Australia and Eurasia, and from the south it washes Antarctica. Border with the North Arctic Ocean is a line in the Bering Strait from Cape Dezhnev to Cape Prince of Wales. The border with the Atlantic Ocean is drawn from Cape Horn along the meridian 68 ° 04'W. or along the shortest distance from South America to the Antarctic Peninsula through the Drake Passage, from Oste Island to Cape Sternek. Border with Indian Ocean passes: south of Australia - along the eastern border of the Bass Strait to the island of Tasmania, then along the meridian 146 ° 55'E. d. to Antarctica; north of Australia - between the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca, further along the southwestern coast of Sumatra, the Sunda Strait, the southern coast of Java, the southern borders of the Bali and Sava Seas, the northern border of the Arafura Sea, the southwestern coast of New Guinea and the western border of the Torres Strait ... Sometimes the southern part of the ocean, with a northern boundary from 35 ° S. sh. (based on the circulation of water and atmosphere) up to 60 ° S. sh. (by the nature of the bottom topography), refer to the Southern Ocean, which is not officially distinguished.
Seas
The area of the seas, bays and straits of the Pacific Ocean is 31.64 million km² (18% of the total ocean area), the volume is 73.15 million km³ (10%). Most of the seas are located in the western part of the ocean along Eurasia: Bering, Okhotsk, Japanese, Inner Japanese, Yellow, East China, Philippine; seas between the islands of Southeast Asia: South China, Javan, Sulu, Sulawesi, Bali, Flores, Sava, Banda, Seram, Halmakhera, Moluccas; along the coast of Australia: New Guinea, Solomonovo, Koralovoe, Fiji, Tasmanovo; Antarctica has seas (sometimes referred to as the Southern Ocean): D'Urville, Somov, Ross, Amundsen, Bellingshausen. There are no seas along North and South America, but there are large bays: Alaska, California, Panama. 
Islands
Several thousand islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean were formed by volcanic eruptions. Some of these islands were overgrown with coral, and eventually the islands plunged into the sea again, leaving behind coral rings - atolls.
In terms of the number (about 10 thousand) and the total area of the islands, the Pacific Ocean ranks first among the oceans. In the ocean are the second and third largest islands of the Earth: New Guinea (829.3 thousand km²) and Kalimantan (735.7 thousand km²); the largest group of islands: the Great Sunda Islands (1485 thousand km², including the largest islands: Kalimantan, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, Banka). Other largest islands and archipelagos: New Guinea (New Guinea, Kolepom), Japanese islands (Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku), Philippine islands (Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, Negros, Palawan, Panay, Mindoro), New Zealand (South and North Islands), Lesser Sunda Islands (Timor, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba), Sakhalin, Moluccas (Seram, Halmahera), Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland), Solomon Islands (Bougainville), Aleutian Islands, Taiwan, Hainan , Vancouver, Fiji Islands (Viti Levu), Hawaii (Hawaii), New Caledonia, Kodiak Archipelago, Kuril Islands, New Hebrides, Queen Charlotte Islands, Galapagos Islands, Wellington, St. Lawrence, Ryukyu Islands, Riesco, Nunivak, Santa -Ines, D'Antrcasto Islands, Samoa, Revilla-Hihedo, Palmer Archipelago, Shantar Islands, Magdalena, Louisiada Archipelago, Linga Archipelago, Loyote Islands, Karaginsky, Clarence, Nelson, Princess Royal, Hanover, Commander Islands.
History of the formation of the ocean
With the disintegration of the Pangea continent in the Mesozoic era into Gondwana and Laurasia, the surrounding Panthalassa ocean began to decrease in area. By the end of the Mesozoic, Gondwana and Laurasia separated, and as their parts diverged, the modern Pacific Ocean began to form. Within the Pacific Basin, four fully oceanic tectonic plates developed during the Jurassic: Pacific, Kula, Farallon, and Phoenix. The northwestern Kula plate moved under the eastern and southeastern margins of the Asian continent. The northeastern oceanic plate Farallon moved under Alaska, Chukotka and under the western edge of North America. The southeastern Phoenix oceanic plate sank beneath the western edge of South America. In the Cretaceous, the southeastern Pacific Ocean Plate advanced under the eastern edge of the then united Australian-Antarctic continent, as a result of which blocks broke off from the mainland, which now form the New Zealand Plateau and the Lord Howe and Norfolk Seamounts. In the Late Cretaceous, the split of the Austral-Antarctic continent began. The Australian plate broke off and began to move towards the equator. At the same time, in the Oligocene, the Pacific Plate changed its direction to the northwest. In the late Miocene, the Farallon plate split into two: Coconut and Nazca. The Kula Plate, moving to the northwest, completely sank (together with the northern edge of the Pacific Plate) under Eurasia and under the Proto-Aleutian trench. 
Today movement tectonic plates continues. The axis of this movement is the mid-oceanic rift zones in the South Pacific and East Pacific uplifts. To the west of this zone is the largest Pacific plate of the ocean, which continues to move to the northwest at a speed of 6-10 cm per year, crawling under the Eurasian and Australian plates. In the west, the Pacific Plate is pushing the Philippine Plate northwestward under the Eurasian Plate at a rate of 6-8 cm per year. To the east of the mid-ocean rift zone are located: in the northeast, the Juan de Fuca plate, creeping at a speed of 2-3 cm per year under the North American plate; in the central part, the Cocos Plate is moving in a northeastern direction under the Caribbean lithospheric plate at a rate of 6-7 cm per year; to the south is the Nazca plate, moving eastward, sinking under the South American plate at a speed of 4-6 cm per year.
Geological structure and bottom topography
Submarine outskirts of continents
The underwater margins of the continents occupy 10% of the Pacific Ocean. The shelf relief shows the features of transgressive plains with subaerial relic relief. Such forms are typical for underwater river valleys on the Java shelf and for the shelf of the Bering Sea. On the Korean shelf and the shelf of the East China Sea, ridge relief forms formed by tidal currents are widespread. Various coral structures are widespread on the shelf of the equatorial-tropical waters. Most of the Antarctic shelf lies at depths of more than 200 m, the surface is very dissected, tectonic seamounts alternate with deep depressions - grabens. The continental slope of North America is heavily dissected by submarine canyons. Large underwater canyons are known on the continental slope of the Bering Sea. The continental slope of Antarctica is distinguished by the great width, diversity and dissection of the relief. Along North America, the continental foot is distinguished by very large cones of turbidity flows, merging into a single inclined plain, bordering a wide strip of the continental slope. 
The underwater outskirts of New Zealand has a peculiar continental structure. Its area is 10 times the area of the islands themselves. This submarine New Zealand plateau consists of the Campbell and Chatham flat-topped uplifts and the Baunka depression between them. On all sides it is limited by the continental slope, bordered by the continental foot. This includes the Late Mesozoic underwater ridge Lord Howe.
Transition zone
By western outskirts In the Pacific Ocean there are transition regions from the outskirts of the continents to the ocean floor: Aleutian, Kuril-Kamchatka, Japanese, East China, Indonesian-Philippine, Boninsko-Mariana (with the deepest point of the ocean - the Mariana Trench, depth 11,022 m), Melanesian, Vityazevskaya , Tonga-Kermadec, Macquarie. These transitional areas include deep trenches, marginal seas bounded by island arcs. On the eastern edge there are transitional areas: Central American and Peruvian-Chilean. They are expressed only by deep-sea trenches, and instead of island arcs, young rocky years of Central and South America stretch along the troughs.
All transitional areas are characterized by volcanism and high seismicity; they form the marginal Pacific belt of earthquakes and modern volcanism. The transitional regions on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean are located in the form of two echelons, the youngest in the stage of development are located on the border with the ocean floor, and the more mature ones are separated from the ocean floor by island arcs and island land masses with a continental crust.
Mid-ocean ridges and ocean floor
11% of the Pacific Ocean floor area is occupied by mid-ocean ridges, represented by the South Pacific and East Pacific uplifts. They represent wide, slightly dissected hills. From the main system there are lateral branches in the form of the Chilean uplift and the Galapagos rift zone. The Pacific Ridge System also includes the Gorda, Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ranges in the northeast of the ocean. The mid-ocean ridges of the ocean are seismic belts with frequent surface earthquakes and intense volcanic activity. In the rift zone, fresh lavas and metalliferous sediments were found, usually associated with hydrothermal fluids. 
The system of Pacific uplifts divides the Pacific Ocean bed into two unequal parts. The eastern part is less complex and shallower. The Chilean uplift (rift zone) and the Nazca, Sala-i-Gomez, Carnegie and Cocos ridges are distinguished here. These ridges divide eastern part lodge on the Guatemalan, Panama, Peruvian and Chilean basins. All of them are characterized by intricately dissected hilly and mountainous bottom relief. In the area of the Galapagos Islands, a rift zone is distinguished.
The other part of the bed, lying to the west of the Pacific uplifts, occupies about 3/4 of the entire bed of the Pacific Ocean and has a very complex structure relief. Dozens of hills and underwater ridges divide the ocean floor into a large number of basins. The most significant ridges form a system of arcuate uplifts starting in the west and ending in the southeast. The first such arc is formed by the Hawaiian Ridge, parallel to it, the next arc is formed by the Cartographers Mountains, Markus Necker, the underwater ridge of the Line Islands, the arc ends with the underwater base of the Tuamotu Islands. The next arc consists of the underwater bases of the Marshalov Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Samoa. The fourth arc includes the Caroline Islands and the Kapingamarangi seamount. The fifth arc consists of the southern group of the Caroline Islands and the Eauripik Rampart. Some ridges and hills differ in their strike from those listed above, these are the Imperial (North-Western) ridge, the Shatsky, Magellan, Hessa, Manihiki uplands. These uplands are distinguished by leveled summit surfaces and from above are covered with carbonate deposits of increased thickness.
The Hawaiian Islands and the Samoa archipelago have active volcanoes... About 10 thousand separate seamounts, mostly of volcanic origin, are scattered across the Pacific Ocean floor. Many of them are guyots. The tops of some guyots are at a depth of 2-2.5 thousand meters, the average depth above them is about 1.3 thousand meters. The vast majority of the islands in the central and western parts of the Pacific Ocean are of coral origin. Almost all volcanic islands are bordered by coral structures.
The bed and the mid-oceanic ridges of the Pacific Ocean are characterized by fault zones, usually expressed in the relief in the form of complexes of consistently and linearly oriented grabens and horsts. All fault zones have their own names: Surveyor, Mendocino, Murray, Clarion, Clipperton and others. The depressions and uplifts of the Pacific Ocean bed are characterized by an oceanic crust, with a sedimentary layer thickness from 1 km in the northeast to 3 km on the Shatsky Upland and with a basalt layer thickness from 5 km to 13 km. Mid-oceanic ridges have a riftogenic crust, which is characterized by increased density. Ultrabasic rocks are found here, and crystalline schists have been raised in the Eltanin fault zone. Subcontinental (Kuril Islands) and continental crust (Japanese Islands) were found under the island arcs.
Bottom sediments
Major rivers of Asia, such as the Amur, Yellow He, Yangtze, Mekong and others, carry more than 1,767 million tons of sediment into the Pacific Ocean per year. This alluvium almost completely remains in the water area of the marginal seas and bays. The largest rivers in America - Yukon, Colorado, Columbia, Fraser, Guayas and others - give about 380 million tons of sediment per year, and 70-80% of suspended material is carried out into the open ocean, which is facilitated by the small width of the shelf. 
Red clays are widespread in the Pacific Ocean, especially in the northern hemisphere. This is due to the great depth of the ocean basins. In the Pacific Ocean, there are two belts (southern and northern) of siliceous diatomaceous oozes, as well as a well-defined equatorial belt of siliceous radiolarian deposits. Vast areas of the bottom of the southwest of the ocean are occupied by coral-algal biogenic deposits. Foraminiferal silts are widespread to the south of the equator. There are several fields of pteropod deposits in the Coral Sea. In the northern deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, as well as in the South and Peruvian basins, extensive fields of ferromanganese nodules are observed.
Climate
The climate of the Pacific Ocean is formed due to the zonal distribution solar radiation and atmospheric circulation, as well as the strong seasonal influence of the Asian mainland. Almost all climatic zones can be distinguished in the ocean. In the northern temperate zone in winter, the Aleutian pressure minimum is the baric center, which is weakly expressed in summer. To the south is the North Pacific Anticyclone. Along the equator, the Equatorial Depression (an area of low pressure) is noted, which is replaced to the south by the South Pacific Anticyclone. Further south, the pressure decreases again and then again gives way to a high pressure area over Antarctica. The wind direction is formed in accordance with the location of the pressure centers. In the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere, strong westerly winds prevail in winter, and weak south winds in summer. In the northwest of the ocean, in winter, northerly and northeastern monsoon winds are established, which in summer are replaced by southern monsoons. Cyclones occurring at polar fronts determine the high frequency of storm winds in the temperate and circumpolar zones (especially in the southern hemisphere). In the subtropics and tropics of the northern hemisphere, the northeastern trade winds dominate. In the equatorial zone, mostly calm weather is observed throughout the year. In the tropical and subtropical zones of the southern hemisphere, a stable southeastern trade wind dominates, strong in winter and weak in summer. In the tropics, violent tropical hurricanes, here called typhoons, arise (mainly in summer). They usually arise east of the Philippines, from where they move to the northwest and north through Taiwan, Japan and fade out on the approaches to the Bering Sea. Another area of origin of typhoons is the coastal regions of the Pacific Ocean adjacent to Central America. In the forties latitudes of the southern hemisphere strong and constant westerly winds are observed. In the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere, the winds are subject to the general cyclonic circulation characteristic of the low-pressure Antarctic region. 
The distribution of air temperature over the ocean is subordinated to the general latitudinal zoning, but Western part has a warmer climate than the eastern one. In tropical and equatorial zones, average air temperatures prevail from 27.5 ° C to 25.5 ° C. In summer, the 25 ° C isotherm expands northward in the western part of the ocean and only slightly in the eastern, and shifts strongly northward in the southern hemisphere. Passing over the vast expanses of the ocean, the air masses are intensely saturated with moisture. On both sides of the equator, in the equatorial zone, there are two narrow bands of maximum precipitation, outlined by an isohyet of 2000 mm, and a relatively dry zone is expressed along the equator. In the Pacific Ocean there is no zone of convergence of the northern trade winds with the southern ones. There are two independent zones with excessive moisture and a relatively dry zone separating them. To the east, in the equatorial and tropical zones, the amount of precipitation decreases. The driest areas in the northern hemisphere are adjacent to California, in the southern - to the Peruvian and Chilean basins (coastal areas receive less than 50 mm of rainfall per year).
Hydrological regime
Surface water circulation
The general scheme of the currents of the Pacific Ocean is determined by the regularities of the general circulation of the atmosphere. The northeastern trade wind of the northern hemisphere contributes to the emergence of the NW trade wind, which crosses the ocean from the Central American coast to the Philippine Islands. Further, the current is divided into two branches: one deviates to the south and partly feeds the Equatorial countercurrent, and partly spreads over the basins of the Indonesian seas. The northern arm enters the East China Sea and, leaving it south of Kyushu Island, gives rise to the powerful warm Kuroshio Current. This current follows northward to the Japanese coast, having a noticeable effect on the climate of the Japanese coast. At 40 ° N. sh. Kuroshio passes into the North Pacific Current, following eastward to the Oregon coast. Colliding with North America, it divides into the northern branch of the warm Alaskan Current (passing along the mainland to the Alaska Peninsula) and the southern branch of the cold California Current (along the California Peninsula, flowing into the North Trade Winding Current, closing the circle). In the southern hemisphere, the Southeast Trade Wind forms the South Trade Wind Current, which traverses the Pacific Ocean from the shores of Columbia to the Moluccas. It forms an offshoot between the Line Islands and Tuamotu, following into the Coral Sea and further south along the coast of Australia, forming the East Australian Current. The main masses of the South Tradewind Current east of the Moluccas merge with the southern branch of the North Tradewind Current and together form the Equatorial Countercurrent. The East Australian Current south of New Zealand joins the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current from the Indian Ocean, crossing the Pacific Ocean from west to east. At the southern end of South America, this current branches off to the north in the form of the Peruvian Current, which in the tropics flows into the South Tradewind Current, closing the southern circle of currents. Another branch of the current of the Western Winds bends around South America, called the Cape Horn Current, and goes into the Atlantic Ocean. An important role in the circulation of the waters of the Pacific Ocean belongs to the cold subsurface Cromwell Current, flowing under the South Passat Current from 154 ° W. to the area of the Galapagos Islands. El Niño is observed in the summer in the eastern equatorial part of the ocean, when a warm, slightly saline current pushes the cold Peruvian current off the coast of South America. This stops the supply of oxygen to the subsurface layers, which leads to the death of plankton, fish and birds that feed on them, and heavy rains fall on the usually arid coast, causing catastrophic floods. 
Salinity, ice formation
The tropical zones have the maximum salinity (maximum up to 35.5-35.6 ‰), where the intensity of evaporation is combined with a relatively small amount of precipitation. To the east, under the influence of cold currents, salinity decreases. Large amounts of precipitation also reduce salinity, especially at the equator and in the western circulation zones of temperate and subpolar latitudes.
Ice in the south of the Pacific Ocean is formed in the Antarctic regions, and in the north - only in the Bering, Okhotsk and partly in the Sea of Japan. A certain amount of ice is dumped from the shores of southern Alaska in the form of icebergs, which reach 48-42 ° N in March-April. sh. The northern seas, especially the Bering Sea, supply almost the entire mass of floating ice to northern regions ocean. In Antarctic waters, the boundary of pack ice reaches 60-63 ° S. sh., icebergs spread far to the north, up to 45 ° N. sh.
Water masses
In the Pacific Ocean, surface, subsurface, intermediate, deep and bottom water masses are distinguished. The surface water mass has a thickness of 35-100 m and is distinguished by the relative evenness of temperatures, salinity and density, which is especially characteristic of tropical waters, variability of characteristics due to the seasonality of climatic phenomena. This water mass is determined by heat exchange at the ocean surface, the ratio of precipitation and evaporation, and intense mixing. The same, but to a lesser extent, applies to subsurface water masses. In the subtropics and cold latitudes, these water masses are surface for half a year, and for half a year they turn out to be subsurface. In different climatic zones their boundary with intermediate waters varies between 220 and 600 m. Subsurface waters are characterized by increased salinity and density, at temperatures ranging from 13-18 ° C (in the tropics and subtropics) to 6-13 ° C (in the temperate zone). Subsurface waters in warmer climates are formed by lowering saltier surface waters. 
Intermediate water masses of temperate and high latitudes have a temperature of 3-5 ° C and a salinity of 33.8-34.7 ‰. The lower boundary of the intermediate masses is located at a depth of 900 to 1700 m. Deep water masses are formed as a result of the immersion of cooled waters in Antarctic waters and the waters of the Bering Sea and their subsequent spreading over the basins. Bottom water masses are located at depths of more than 2500-3000 m. They are characterized by low temperatures (1-2 ° C) and uniformity of salinity (34.6-34.7 ‰). These waters form on the Antarctic shelf under strong cooling conditions. Gradually, they spread along the bottom, fill all the depressions and penetrate through the transverse passages in the mid-oceanic ridges into the South and Peruvian, and then into the northern basins. Compared to the bottom waters of other oceans and the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, the bottom water masses of the northern basins of the Pacific Ocean are characterized by a reduced content of dissolved oxygen. Bottom waters, together with deep waters, make up 75% of the total volume of the Pacific Ocean.
Flora and fauna
The Pacific Ocean accounts for more than 50% of the total biomass of the World Ocean. Life in the ocean is abundant and varied, especially in the tropical and subtropical zones between the coasts of Asia and Australia, where vast areas are occupied by coral reefs and mangroves. The phytoplankton of the Pacific Ocean is mainly composed of microscopic unicellular algae, numbering about 1300 species. About half of the species belong to peridineas and slightly less to diatoms. In shallow water areas and in upwelling zones, most of vegetation. The bottom vegetation of the Pacific Ocean numbers about 4 thousand species of algae and up to 29 species of flowering plants. In the temperate and cold regions of the Pacific Ocean, brown algae are massively widespread, especially from the kelp group, and in the southern hemisphere there are giants from this family up to 200 m long.In the tropics, fucus, large green and famous red algae are especially common, which, along with coral polyps, are reef-forming organisms. 
The fauna of the Pacific Ocean is 3-4 times richer in species composition than in other oceans, especially in tropical waters. In the Indonesian seas, more than 2 thousand species of fish are known, in the northern seas there are only about 300. In the tropical zone of the ocean there are more than 6 thousand species of mollusks, and in the Bering Sea there are about 200. For the fauna of the Pacific Ocean, characteristic features are the antiquity of many taxonomic groups and endemism. A large number of ancient species of sea urchins, primitive genera of horseshoe crabs, some very ancient fish that have not survived in other oceans (for example, Jordan, Gilbertidia) live here; 95% of all salmon species live in the Pacific Ocean. Endemic species of mammals: dugong, fur seal, sea lion, sea otter. For many species of the Pacific Ocean fauna, gigantism is characteristic. In the northern part of the ocean, giant mussels and oysters are known; in the equatorial zone, the largest bivalve mollusk, tridacna, lives, whose weight reaches 300 kg. The ultraabyssal fauna is most clearly represented in the Pacific Ocean. Under conditions of tremendous pressure, low water temperature at a depth of more than 8.5 km, about 45 species live, of which more than 70% are endemic. Holothurians predominate among these species, leading a very sedentary lifestyle and capable of passing a huge amount of soil through the gastrointestinal tract, the only source of food at these depths. 
Ecological problems
Human economic activity in the Pacific Ocean has led to the pollution of its waters, to the depletion of biological resources. So, by the end of the 18th century, sea cows in the Bering Sea were completely exterminated. At the beginning of the 20th century, northern fur seals and some species of whales were on the verge of extinction; now their fishing is limited. A great danger in the ocean is the pollution of waters with oil and oil products (the main pollutants), some heavy metals and wastes from the nuclear industry. Harmful substances carried by currents throughout the ocean. Even off the coast of Antarctica, these substances were found in the composition of marine organisms. Ten US states routinely dump their waste into the sea. In 1980, more than 160,000 tons of waste was destroyed in this way, since then this figure has decreased. 
In the North Pacific Ocean, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch of plastic and other waste was formed, formed by ocean currents, gradually concentrating debris thrown into the ocean in one area thanks to the North Pacific Currents System. This patch stretches across the North Pacific Ocean from a point about 500 nautical miles off the California coast, past Hawaii, and nearly reaches Japan. In 2001, the mass of the garbage island was more than 3.5 million tons, and the area was more than 1 million km², which was six times the mass of zooplankton. Every 10 years, the landfill area increases by an order of magnitude.
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the US Armed Forces carried out the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the only two examples of the military use of nuclear weapons in the history of mankind. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki. From 1946 to 1958, the United States of America carried out nuclear tests on the Bikini and Enewetok Atolls (Marshall Islands). A total of 67 explosions of atomic and hydrogen bombs were made. On March 1, 1954, during a surface test of a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb, the explosion produced a crater 2 km in diameter and 75 m deep, a mushroom cloud 15 km high and 20 km in diameter. As a result, Bikini Atoll was destroyed, and the territory was exposed to the largest radioactive contamination and exposure of local residents in the history of the United States. In 1957-1958, Great Britain conducted 9 atmospheric nuclear tests at the Christmas and Malden Atolls (Line Islands) in Polynesia. In 1966-1996, France carried out 193 nuclear tests (including 46 in the atmosphere, 147 underground) on the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa (Tuamotu archipelago) in French Polynesia. 
On March 23, 1989, off the coast of Alaska, the Exxon Valdez tanker, owned by ExxonMobil (USA), crashed. As a result of the disaster, about 260 thousand barrels of oil spilled into the sea, forming a slick of 28 thousand km². About two thousand kilometers of the coastline was polluted with oil. This accident was considered the largest environmental disaster that ever happened at sea (up to the accident of the DH rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010).
Pacific Coast States
States along the borders of the Pacific Ocean (clockwise):
- United States of America,
- Canada,
- United Mexican States,
- Guatemala,
- El Salvador,
- Honduras,
- Nicaragua,
- Costa Rica,
- Panama,
- Colombia,
- Ecuador,
- Peru,
- Chile,
- Australian Union,
- Indonesia,
- Malaysia,
- Singapore,
- Brunei Darussalam,
- Philippines,
- Thailand,
- Cambodia,
- Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
- People's Republic of China,
- The Republic of Korea,
- Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
- Japan,
- The Russian Federation.
Directly in the oceanic expanses, there are island states and possessions of states that are not part of the region, which form Oceania:
Melanesia:
- Vanuatu,
- New Caledonia (France),
- Papua New Guinea,
- Solomon islands,
- Fiji;
Micronesia:
- Guam (USA),
- Kiribati,
- Marshall Islands,
- Nauru,
- Palau,
- Northern Mariana Islands (USA),
- Wake Atoll (USA),
- Federated States of Micronesia;
Polynesia:
- Eastern Samoa (USA),
- New Zealand,
- Samoa,
- Tonga,
- Tuvalu,
- Pitcairn (UK),
- Wallis and Futuna (France),
- French Polynesia (France).
History of Pacific exploration
The study and development of the Pacific Ocean began long before the appearance of the written history of mankind. For sailing on the ocean, junks, catamarans and simple rafts were used. The 1947 expedition on the Kon-Tiki balsa log raft led by the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl proved the possibility of crossing the Pacific Ocean westward from central South America to the Polynesian islands. Chinese junks made treks along the shores of the ocean to the Indian Ocean (for example, the seven voyages of Zheng He in 1405-1433). 
The first European to see the Pacific Ocean was the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who in 1513, from one of the peaks of a mountain range on the Isthmus of Panama, "in silence" saw the boundless water surface of the Pacific Ocean spreading to the south and christened it the South Sea. In the fall of 1520, the Portuguese navigator Fernand Magellan circled South America, breaking the strait, and then saw new expanses of water. During the further transition from Tierra del Fuego to the Philippine Islands, which took more than three months, the expedition did not encounter a single storm, which is why Magellan called the ocean Pacific. The first detailed map of the Pacific Ocean was published by Ortelius in 1589. As a result of the expedition of 1642-1644 under the command of Tasman, it was proved that Australia is a separate continent.
Active exploration of the ocean began in the 18th century. The leading states of Europe began to send scientific research expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, led by navigators: the Englishman James Cook (exploration of Australia and New Zealand, the discovery of many islands, including Hawaii), the French Louis Antoine Bougainville (exploration of the islands of Oceania) and Jean-Francois La Perouse , Italian Alessandro Malaspina (mapped the entire western coast of South and North America from Cape Horn to the Gulf of Alaska). The northern part of the ocean was explored by Russian explorers S.I.Dezhnev (discovery of the strait between Eurasia and North America), V. Bering (exploration of the northern shores of the ocean) and A.I. north-east coast of Asia). During the period from 1803 to 1864, Russian sailors made 45 round-the-world and semicircular voyages, as a result of which the Russian military and commercial fleet mastered sea route from Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean and along the way discovered several islands in the ocean. During a round-the-world expedition of 1819-1821 under the leadership of F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev, Antarctica and, incidentally, 29 islands of the Southern Ocean were discovered.
From 1872 to 1876, the first scientific oceanic expedition took place on the English sailing-steam corvette Challenger, new data were obtained on the composition of ocean waters, flora and fauna, the bottom topography and soils, the first map of the ocean depths was compiled and the first collection was collected deep-sea animals. Around the world expedition on the Russian sail-screw corvette "Vityaz" in 1886-1889, under the guidance of the oceanographer S.O. Makarov, she explored the northern part of the Pacific Ocean in detail. The results of this expedition and all previous Russian and foreign expeditions, many travel around the world Makarov carefully studied and for the first time made a conclusion about the circular rotation and counterclockwise direction of the surface currents in the Pacific Ocean. The result of the American expedition of 1883-1905 on the ship "Albatross" was the discovery of new species of living organisms and the patterns of their development. A great contribution to the exploration of the Pacific Ocean was made by the German expedition on board the Planet (1906-1907) and the American oceanographic expedition on the non-magnetic schooner Carnegie (1928-1929) under the leadership of the Norwegian H. W. Sverdrup. In 1949, a new Soviet research vessel "Vityaz" was launched under the flag of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Until 1979, the ship made 65 scientific voyages, as a result of which many "white spots" on the maps of the underwater relief of the Pacific Ocean were closed (in particular, the maximum depth in the Mariana Trench was measured). At the same time, research was carried out by expeditions of Great Britain - "Challenger II" (1950-1952), Sweden - "Albatross III" (1947-1948), Denmark - "Galatea" (1950-1952) and many others, which brought a lot of new information about topography of the ocean floor, bottom sediments, life in the ocean, physical characteristics of its waters. In the framework of the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), international forces (especially the USA and the USSR) carried out studies, as a result of which new bathymetric and marine navigational charts of the Pacific Ocean were compiled. Since 1968, the American ship "Glomar Challenger" has carried out regular deep-water drilling, work to move water masses to great depths, biological research. On January 23, 1960, the first man plunged into the bottom of the deepest depression in the World Ocean - the Mariana. US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and researcher Jacques Piccard landed there in the Trieste research submersible. On March 26, 2012, American director James Cameron, aboard the Deepsea Challenger, made the first solo and second ever dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The device stayed at the bottom of the depression for about six hours, during which samples of underwater soil, plants and living organisms were collected. The footage shot by Cameron will form the basis of the National Geographic TV documentary.
In 1966-1974 the monograph "The Pacific Ocean" in 13 volumes was published, published by the Institute of Oceanography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1973, the Pacific Oceanological Institute named after V.I. VI Ilyichev, whose efforts were carried out extensive studies of the Far Eastern seas and the open space of the Pacific Ocean. In recent decades, numerous measurements of the ocean from space satellites have been carried out. The result was a bathymetric atlas of the oceans, released in 1994 by the American National Geophysical Data Center, with a map resolution of 3-4 km and a depth accuracy of ± 100 m.
Economic significance
Currently, the coast and islands of the Pacific Ocean are developed and populated extremely unevenly. The largest centers of industrial development are the US coast (from the Los Angeles area to the San Francisco area), the coast of Japan and South Korea. The ocean plays a significant role in the economic life of Australia and New Zealand. The South Pacific is a graveyard for spaceships. Here, far from shipping routes, decommissioned space objects are flooded. 
Fishing and marine industries
The temperate and tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean are of the greatest commercial value. The Pacific Ocean accounts for about 60% of the world's fish catch. Among them are salmon (pink salmon, chum salmon, coho salmon, sima), herring (anchovies, herring, sardines), cod (cod, pollock), perch (mackerel, tuna), flounder (flounder). Mammals are hunted: sperm whale, minke whales, fur seal, sea otter, walrus, sea lion; invertebrates: crabs, shrimps, oysters, scallops, cephalopods. A number of plants (kelp (seaweed), anfelcia (agaronos), seagrass and phyllospadix) are harvested and processed into Food Industry and for medicine. The most productive fishery is carried out in the West-Central and North-West Pacific Ocean. The largest fishing powers of the Pacific Ocean: Japan (Tokyo, Nagasaki, Shimonoseki), China (Zhoushan archipelago, Yantai, Qingdao, Dalian), Russian Federation (Primorye, Sakhalin, Kamchatka), Peru, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Chile, Vietnam, South Korea, DPRK, Australia, New Zealand, USA.
Transport routes
Important sea and air communications between the countries of the Pacific basin and transit routes between the countries of the Atlantic and Indian oceans run through the Pacific Ocean. Major ocean routes lead from Canada and the United States to Taiwan, China and the Philippines. The main shipping straits of the Pacific Ocean: Bering, Tatarsky, La Perouse, Korean, Taiwan, Singapore, Malacca, Sangarsky, Bassov, Torres, Cook, Magellan. The Pacific Ocean is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the artificial Panama Canal, dug between North and South America along the Isthmus of Panama. Major ports: Vladivostok (general cargo, oil products, fish and seafood, timber and lumber, scrap metal, ferrous and non-ferrous metals), Nakhodka (coal, oil products, containers, metal, scrap metal, refrigerated cargo), Vostochny, Vanino (coal, oil) ( Russia), Busan (Republic of Korea), Kobe-Osaka (oil and oil products, machinery and equipment, cars, metals and scrap metal), Tokyo-Yokohama (scrap metal, coal, cotton, grain, oil and oil products, rubber, chemicals, wool, machinery and equipment, textiles, automobiles, medicines), Nagoya (Japan), Tianjin, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai (all types of dry, liquid and general cargo), Xianggang (textiles, clothing, fiber, radio and electrical goods, plastic products, machinery, equipment), Kaohsiung, Shenzhen, Guangzhou (China), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Singapore (petroleum products, rubber, food, textiles, machinery and equipment) (Singapore), Klang (Malaysia), Jakarta (Indonesia), Manila (Philippines ), Sydney (general cargo, iron ore, coal, not ferry and oil products, grain), Newcastle, Melbourne (Australia), Auckland (New Zealand), Vancouver (timber cargo, coal, ores, oil and oil products, chemical and general cargo) (Canada), San Francisco, Los Angeles ( oil and oil products, copra, chemical cargo, timber, grain, flour, canned meat and fish, citrus fruits, bananas, coffee, machinery and equipment, jute, cellulose), Oakland, Long Beach (USA), Colon (Panama), Huasco (ores, fish, fuel, food) (Chile). The Pacific Basin has a significant number of relatively small multifunctional ports. 
Air transportation across the Pacific Ocean plays an important role. The first regular flight across the ocean was made in 1936 on the route San Francisco (USA) - Honolulu (Hawaii) - Manila (Philippines). Now the main transoceanic routes are laid through the North and Central Pacific Ocean. Airlines are of great importance in domestic traffic and between islands. In 1902, Great Britain laid the first underwater telegraph cable (length 12.55 thousand km) across the ocean floor, passing through the Fanning Islands and Fiji, connecting Canada, New Zealand, and the Australian Union. Radio communication has been widely and for a long time used. Today, artificial earth satellites are used for communication across the Pacific Ocean, which significantly expands the capacity of communication channels between countries.
Minerals
The Pacific Ocean floor hides rich deposits of various minerals. Oil and gas are produced on the shelves of China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the United States of America (Alaska), Ecuador (Guayaquil Gulf), Australia (Bass Strait) and New Zealand. According to existing estimates, the bowels of the Pacific Ocean contain up to 30-40% of all potential oil and gas reserves of the World Ocean. The largest producer of tin concentrates in the world is Malaysia, and Australia is the largest producer of zircon, ilmenite and others. The ocean is rich in ferromanganese nodules, with total reserves on the surface of up to 7 1012 tons. The most extensive reserves are observed in the northern deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, as well as in the South and Peruvian basins. In terms of the main ore elements, ocean nodules contain 7.1 1010 tons of manganese, 2.3 109 tons of nickel, 1.5 109 tons of copper, 1 109 tons of cobalt. Kuril ridge and Sakhalin shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Nankai trench in the Sea of Japan and around the coast of Japan, in the Peruvian depression. Japan intends to start pilot production drilling in 2013 natural gas from methane hydrate deposits at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean northeast of Tokyo.
Recreational resources
The recreational resources of the Pacific are highly diverse. According to the World Tourism Organization, at the end of the 20th century at East Asia and the Pacific region accounted for 16% of international tourist visits (the share is projected to increase to 25% by 2020). The main countries of formation of outbound tourism in this region are Japan, China, Australia, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Russia, USA and Canada. The main recreational areas: Hawaii, Polynesia and Micronesia, the east coast of Australia, Bohai Bay and Hainan Island in China, the coast of the Sea of Japan, areas of cities and urban agglomerations of the coast of North and South America. 
Among the countries with the largest flow of tourists (as of 2010 by the World Tourism Organization) in the Asia-Pacific region stand out: China (55 million visits per year), Malaysia (24 million), Hong Kong (20 million), Thailand (16 million), Macau (12 million), Singapore (9 million), Republic of Korea (9 million), Japan (9 million), Indonesia (7 million), Australia (6 million), Taiwan (6 million), Vietnam (5 million), Philippines (4 million), New Zealand (3 million), Cambodia (2 million), Guam (1 million); in coastal countries of the Americas: USA (60 million), Mexico (22 million), Canada (16 million), Chile (3 million), Colombia (2 million), Costa Rica (2 million), Peru (2 million ), Panama (1 million), Guatemala (1 million), El Salvador (1 million), Ecuador (1 million).
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It is the largest body of water in the world. Its area is 178.62 million km². Its area exceeds the earth's land area by millions of square kilometers and is almost twice more area Atlantic.
The width of the Pacific Ocean is 17,200 kilometers, from Panama to the east coast of the island of Mindanao. The ocean from north to south has a length equal to 15,450 kilometers, as well as from the Bering Strait and ending with Antarctica.
The ocean stretches from the western shores of South America and even North and to the eastern coasts of Australia and Asia. In the north, the Pacific Ocean is completely enclosed by land and in the same place connects there with the Arctic Ocean, which passes through the Bering Strait.
The Pacific Ocean is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the south, where it runs along the median of Cape Horn at 67 ° W. It is connected with the Indian Ocean by borders at 147 E. along Cape Yugo-Vostochny, located in the south of Tasmania.
Regions of the Pacific Ocean.
It is customary to divide the ocean into two regions - North and South. They border each other along the equator. Previously, Oceania was divided into three parts: central and northern and southern, because they bordered on the Southern tropics and the North.
Numerous large islands separate it from the inter-island seas in the southwestern and western parts of the great Pacific Ocean, among them the Tasman Sea, the Coral Sea and the Arafura Sea. The Malay archipelago struggles to draw the boundaries between the Indian and the Pacific Ocean, causing much controversy among scientists, also controversy also arises about the border, which passes through the so-called Wallace Line of the Makassar Strait. Some scholars argue that the border runs through the Java Sea, the southern China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.
Bottom relief.
The Pacific Ocean floor has a fairly constant depth along its entire length, which is about 3900-4300 meters. Deep-sea trenches and depressions have the most remarkable relief features. On ridges and uplifts, they are less pronounced. Noteworthy are two uplifts that stretch from the coast of Chile and stretch to Antarctica - the Galapagos and Chilean.
They connect with each other and stretch further towards Antarctica itself in the south of the Pacific Ocean. A vast underwater plateau over which the Solomon Islands and Fiji are located.
Deep sea trenches run along the coast because the soil of their origin is associated with the volcanic mountains that stretch along the coastline, flanked by the Pacific Ocean. The most famous deep-sea trenches are called Challenger, Galatea, Emdem and Cape Johnson.
Numerous seamounts can be attributed to the features of the Pacific seabed, they are called guyots. The flat tops of the mountains are located one and a half kilometers from the surface. Scientists believe these are volcanoes. It is believed that they used to rise above sea level and were washed away by water. It is believed that this part has a deflection shape.
The bottom surface of the Pacific Ocean bed is covered with red clay, crushed coral fragments, and blue silt. Some areas are covered by globigerin, diatom, pteropod, and radiolarian ooze. Manganese nodules and shark teeth are found in the bottom sediments of the Pacific Ocean. Great amount coral reefs grow in shallow waters.
The water in the Pacific Ocean has a not very high salinity percentage, and fluctuates around thirty, thirty-five percent. Temperature fluctuations depend on depth and latitudinal position; temperature fluctuations in the equatorial belt of the near-surface layer are of the order of twenty-seven degrees Celsius. In the Pacific Ocean, in its extreme north and south, at great depths of the ocean, the temperature is slightly above the freezing point of water.
High tides, tsunamis and currents.
The main currents of the Pacific Ocean are the warm Japanese or Kuroshio Current, which smoothly crosses the North Pacific and the cold current is the California Current and the North Passat Current, as well as the cold Kamchatka Current. Warm currents can also be distinguished in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean space - this is the East Australian and also the South Passat (Equatorial). Cold currents include the current of the West Winds and also the Peruvian current.
In the southern hemisphere, all of these major known current systems tend to move counterclockwise, and in the northern hemisphere, clockwise. The Pacific Ocean is not characterized by high tides only Cook Bay is an exception. It is located in Alaska and is famous for its huge rise in water and is second only to the Gulf of Fundy, located in the Atlantic Ocean in its north-west.
If large landslides or earthquakes occur on the seabed, huge waves are generated called Tsunamis. They are capable of covering distances of more than sixteen thousand kilometers. And in the open Pacific Ocean, they reach enormous heights and have a great length, although when they approach land, their height decreases, especially in shallow bays and narrow places and is about fifty meters in height.
Ocean area - 178.7 million square kilometers;
Maximum depth - Mariana Trench, 11022 m;
The number of seas - 25;
The largest seas are the Philippine Sea, Coral Sea, Tasman Sea, Bering Sea;
The largest bay is Alaska;
The largest islands are New Zealand, New Guinea;
The strongest currents:
- warm - North Passatnoye, South Passatnoye, Kuroshio, East Australian;
- cold - Western Winds, Peruvian, California.
The Pacific Ocean occupies a third of the entire earth's surface and half of the area of the World Ocean. The equator crosses it almost in the middle. The Pacific Ocean washes the shores of five continents:
- Eurasia from the northwest;
- Australia from the southwest;
- Antarctica from the south;
- South and North America from the west.
In the north, through the Bering Strait, it connects with the Arctic Ocean. In the southern part, the conditional boundaries between the three oceans - the Pacific and Indian, the Pacific and the Atlantic - are drawn along the meridians, from the southernmost continental or island point to the Antarctic coast.
The Pacific Ocean is the only one that is almost entirely located within the boundaries of one lithospheric plate - the Pacific Ocean. In places of its interaction with other plates, seismically active zones arise, which create the Pacific seismic belt, known as the Ring of Fire. Along the edges of the ocean, at the boundaries of the lithospheric plates, there are its deepest parts - oceanic trenches. One of the main features of the Pacific Ocean is tsunami waves, which occur as a result of underwater eruptions and earthquakes.
The climate of the Pacific Ocean is determined by its location in all climatic zones, except for the polar one. Most precipitation occurs in the equator zone - up to 2000 mm. Due to the fact that the Pacific Ocean is protected by land from the influence of the Arctic Ocean, its northern part is warmer than the southern one.
The trade winds reign in the central part of the ocean. Destructive tropical hurricanes - typhoons, which are characteristic of monsoon air circulation, are characteristic of the western part of the Pacific Ocean. Storms are frequent in the north and south.
There is almost no floating ice in the North Pacific, as the narrow Bering Channel restricts communication with the Arctic Ocean. And only the Okhotsk and Bering seas are covered with ice in winter.
The flora and fauna of the Pacific Ocean is rich and diverse. One of the richest organisms in terms of species composition is the Sea of Japan. Coral reefs of tropical and equatorial latitudes are especially rich in life forms. The largest coral structure is the Great Barrier Reef (Great Coral Reef) off the east coast of Australia, home to tropical fish species. sea urchins, stars, squids, octopuses ... Many fish species are of commercial importance: salmon, chum salmon, pink salmon, tuna, herring, anchovies ...
Ssavtsy are also found in the Pacific Ocean: whales, dolphins, seals, sea beavers (found only in the Pacific Ocean). One of the features of the Pacific Ocean is the presence of giant animals: blue whale, whale shark, king crab, tridacna clam ...
The territories of more than 50 countries go to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, in which almost half of the world's population lives.
Fernand Magellan (1519 - 1521), James Cook, A. Tasman, W. Bering laid the foundation for the exploration of the Pacific Ocean by the Europeans. In the 18th-19th centuries, the expeditions of the English vessel Challenger and the Russian Vityaz had especially important results. In the second half of the twentieth century, the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl and the Frenchman Jacques-Yves Cousteau carried out interesting and versatile studies of the Pacific Ocean. At the present stage, specially created international organizations are engaged in the study of the nature of the Pacific Ocean.
They pass through the Bering Strait between the Chukotka and Seward peninsulas, with the Indian Ocean - along the northern edge of the Malacca Strait, the western coast of Sumatra, the southern coast of Java, Timor and New Guinea through the Torres and Bass Strait, along the eastern coast of Tasmania and further along the ridge of underwater uplifts to Antarctica, with the Atlantic Ocean - from the Antarctic Peninsula (Antarctica) along the rapids between the South Shetland Islands to Tierra del Fuego.
General information... The area of the Pacific Ocean with seas is about 180 million km 2 (1/3 of the surface the globe and 1/2 of the World Ocean), the volume of water is 710 million km 3. The Pacific Ocean is the deepest basin of the World Ocean, the average depth is 3980 m, the maximum in the area of the troughs is 11 022 m (the Mariana Trench). Includes marginal seas in the north and west: Bering, Okhotsk, Japanese, Yellow, East and South China, Philippine, Sulu, Sulawesi, Moluccas, Seram, Banda, Flores, Bali, Yavanskoe, Savu, Novogvineiskoe, Koralovoe, Fiji, Tasmanovo ; in the south - Ross, Amundsen, Bellingshausen. The largest bays are Alaska, California, Panama. Salient feature Pacific Ocean - numerous islands (especially in the central and southwestern part of Oceania), in terms of the number (about 10,000) and area (3.6 million km 2) of which this ocean is ranked 1st among the basins of the World Ocean.
Historical sketch... The first scientific information about the Pacific Ocean was obtained at the beginning of the 16th century by the Spanish conquistador V. Nunez de Balboa. In 1520-21 F. Magellan first crossed the ocean from the strait named after him to the Philippine Islands. During the 16-18 centuries. the ocean has been studied in numerous voyages by naturalists. A significant contribution to the study of the Pacific Ocean was made by Russian sailors: S. I. Dezhnev, V. V. Atlasov, V. Bering, A. I. Chirikov, and others. Systematic research has been carried out since the beginning of the 19th century. (geographical expeditions of I.F.Kruzenshtern, Yu.F. Lisyansky on the ships "Nadezhda" and "Neva", O. E. Kotsebue on the "Rurik" and then "Enterprise", F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev on "Mirny"). A major event in the history of ocean exploration was Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle (1831-36). The first proper oceanographic expedition was a voyage around the world on the English ship Challenger (1872-76), in which extensive information was obtained on the physical, chemical, biological and geological features of the Pacific Ocean. The greatest contribution to the study of the Pacific Ocean at the end of the 19th century was made by scientific expeditions on ships: "Vityaz" (1886-89, 1894-96) -, "Albatross" (1888-1905) -; in the 20th century: on the ships "Carnegie" (1928-29) - the USA, "Snellius" (1929-30) - the Netherlands, "Discovery II" (1930) - Great Britain, "Galatea" (1950-52) - Denmark and "Vityaz" (since 1949 it has performed over 40 flights) -. New stage The exploration of the Pacific Ocean began in 1968, when deep-sea drilling began with the American vessel Glomar Challenger.
Hydrological regime... Zonal flows predominate in the circulation of the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean, meridional coastal currents are clearly manifested only at the eastern and northwestern coasts. The largest circulation systems are the Antarctic Circular Current, the Northern and Southern subtropical gyres. The average surface water temperature is 19.37 ° C. The average temperature in the north (without seas) does not drop below 4 ° C, in the Southern Hemisphere off the coast of Antarctica it is 1.85 ° C. The average salinity of surface waters is 34.61 ‰ (the maximum in the subtropical region in the Northern Hemisphere is 35.5 ‰). Freshened waters (up to 33 ‰ and below) are common in the subpolar and equatorial-tropical zones of the ocean. At intermediate depths, sub-Antarctic and subarctic waters of low salinity are distinguished, and waters of Antarctic origin are located deeper than 1500-1800 m. Ice forms in the northwestern seas (Bering, Okhotsk, Japanese, Yellow), in the north in the Gulf of Alaska and in the south off the coast of Antarctica. Floating ice in southern latitudes extends in winter to 61-64 °, in summer to 70 °, icebergs in late summer to 46-48 ° south latitude.
Relief and geological structure ... Within the Pacific Ocean, a wide (up to several hundred kilometers) shelf is developed in the marginal seas and along the coast of Antarctica.
Off the coast of North and South America, the shelf is very narrow - up to several kilometers. The depth of the shelf is mainly 100-200 m, off the coast of Antarctica up to 500 m. To the north-west of the island of Cedros there is a peculiar area of the submarine margin of North America (California borderland), represented by a system of underwater ridges and hollows formed as a result of attaching alien blocks to the mainland (zone of accretionary tectonics) and rearrangement of plate boundaries upon collision of North America with the spreading axis of the East Pacific Rise. The continental slope from the edge of the shelf drops steeply to pelagic depths, the average slope steepness is 3-7 °, maximum - 20-30 °. The active margins of the continents frame the ocean from the north, west and east, forming specific transition zones of the underthrust of the lithospheric plates. In the north and west, the transition zones are a combination of marginal seas, island arcs and deep-sea trenches. Most of the marginal seas were formed as a result of the spreading between island arcs and adjacent continental massifs (back-arc spreading). In some cases, the spreading zones passed along the edge of the continental massifs and their fragments were pushed aside and separated from the continents by the marginal seas (New Zealand, Japan). Island arcs framing the seas are ridges of volcanoes bounded from the ocean side by deep-water trenches - narrow (tens of kilometers) deep (from 5-6 to 11 km) and extended depressions. On the east side, the ocean is flanked by the active continental margin, where the oceanic plate is pushed directly under the continent. Volcanism associated with subduction develops directly on the outskirts of the continent.
Within the ocean floor, a system of active mid-ocean ridges (rift systems) is distinguished, located asymmetrically with respect to the surrounding continents (see map). The main ridge consists of several links: in the north - Explorer, Juan de Fuca, Gorda, south of 30 ° north latitude - the East Pacific Rise. The Galapagos and Chilean rift systems are also distinguished, which, approaching the main ridge, form specific regions of the triple junction. The rate of spreading of the ridges generally exceeds 5 cm / year, sometimes up to 16-18 cm / year. The width of the axial part of the ridge is several kilometers (extrusive zone), the depth is on average 2500-3000 m. At a distance of about 2 km from the axis of the ridge, the bottom is divided by a system of faults and grabens (tectonic zone). At a distance of 10-12 km, tectonic activity practically ceases, the slope of the ridge gradually turns into the adjacent deep-water basins of the bed. The depth of the basalt ocean floor increases with distance from the axis of the ridge to the subduction zones, simultaneously with an increase in the age of the oceanic crust. For areas of the ocean floor with a maximum age of the bed of about 150 million years, a depth of about 6000 m is characteristic. , Melanesian, Southern, Bellingshausen, Guatemalan, Peruvian and Chilean, etc.). The bottom relief of the basins is predominantly wavy. About 85% of the area is occupied by very gentle hills up to 500 m high.Most of the uplifts, ridges, island systems separating the basins are of volcanic origin (islands; Hawaiian, Cocos, Caroline, Marshalls, Gilbert, Tuvalu, Line, Phoenix, Tokelau, Cook, Tubuai, Marquesas, Tuamotu, Galapagos, etc.) - the volcanic rocks that make them up are younger than the rocks of the ocean floor.
The oceanic crust section is represented (from bottom to top) by a cumulative dunite complex and locally serpentinized pyroxenites, a homogeneous or layered gabbro stratum, a basalt layer (about 2 km thick) consisting of a dike complex (vertically standing parallel dikes) and submarine lavas, over the basalt layer is sedimentary case . With distance from the ridge, the age of the ocean floor and the thickness of sedimentary deposits increase. In the open ocean, the thickness of precipitation is 100-150 m and increases in the northern and western directions, in the equatorial zone of the thickness of precipitation up to 500-600 m. sedimentary material supplied from land.
Mainly terrigenous sediments are developed along the continents (glacial and coastal in high latitudes, fluviogenic in temperate latitudes, and aeolian in arid latitudes). In the ocean pelagic at a depth of less than 4000 m, carbonate foraminiferal and coccolithic ones are almost ubiquitous, and siliceous ones in temperate zones.