The characteristic of the Pacific Ocean indicates that it is the largest and deepest on the planet. It washes such continents as Eurasia, America, Australia and Antarctica. In the Mariana Trench, the depth of the ocean reaches 11 km.
Etymology
The first person living in Europe to visit the eastern side of the ocean was Balboa, the Spanish conquistador. When he overcame the Isthmus of Panama and, without knowing it, fell into the ocean, called it the South Sea. After a few years, Fernand Magellan decided to try his luck . He traveled for almost four months, crossing the ocean from the Philippines to Tierra del Fuego. After that he was called Quiet. But the French scientist Buasch, who swam with his team and the seas of the Pacific Ocean, and his entire basin, evaluating the gigantic size, called him Great. However, this hydronym did not take root.
Salinity and water properties in winter
Basically, the highest salt index reaches 35.6%. A similar option is found only in the tropics due to the fact that the climate in these areas is not characterized by a large amount of rainfall, but here one can observe intense evaporation. The characteristics of the Pacific Ocean, which are found in many reference books, indicate that closer to the eastern part of the waters, salinity is much lower due to cold currents. I must say that in the temperate as well as subpolar zones this indicator is approaching the minimum mark due to constant rains and snows.
The occurrence of ice, that is, freezing of water, directly depends on the salt content. Often they cover only the Antarctic regions, as well as the waters of the Bering, Japan, and Okhotsk seas. Icebergs often appear on the shores of Alaska, which mostly “travel” across the Pacific Ocean.
Ecology
Due to the effects of human destructive activity, the Pacific Ocean map allows you to mark several zones of water that are completely polluted and cause great harm to people, as well as threaten the life of such animal species as fur seals, whales. The main pollution is oil and all types of waste. Because of them, the ocean is overloaded with metals, radioactive substances, which simply should not be in the water. A full description of the Pacific Ocean showed that all substances entering it are spread throughout its entire water area. The most interesting thing is that even in the body in animals living near Antarctica, similar compounds were found.
A place that attracts tourists, for a long time does not look like picturesque landscapes. Most people come to look at a garbage stain formed several years ago due to waste brought by currents. The terrible thing is that it almost reaches the shores of California, Hawaii and Japan. If in 2001 the spot area was 1 billion square meters. km, and weight - 4 million tons, then at the moment this figure has increased several thousand times! Every 10 years, this landfill grows to a decent size.
Due to the fact that some birds take small plastic clusters for food, they eat them or feed them to their chicks. As a result, these substances are not digested by the body, and the creature dies due to the impossibility of their conclusion.
Animal and plant world
More than half of the inhabitants of the oceans live in the waters of the Pacific. Many species of fish and plants are represented here. Only phytoplankton is located here more than 1300 representatives. The vegetation of the water totals 4 thousand aquatic and 29 land plants. In cold zones kelp is widespread, the length of which sometimes reaches 200 m. And in tropical ones - red and fucus algae.
At the depths, holothurians live, which feed only on soil. The tropical waters of the ocean are richer in fish several thousand times, unlike other waters. Here you can see sea urchins, horseshoe crabs, as well as several other animal species that have not survived in other oceans. Most salmon live here.
Pacific Rivers
All water flows that flow into the ocean do not differ in enormous size, but they have a sufficiently high flow velocity. There is currently no exact number of how many streams merge with these mighty waters. Some have more than 100 watercourses, and others - more than a thousand.
Map of the Pacific Ocean allows you to see 40 rivers that are directly related to its basin. The largest of them is a watercourse, the mouth of which is the Sea of Okhotsk - Amur.
Minerals
The fact that the bottom of the Pacific Ocean contains many minerals cannot be missed. There you can find deposits of various minerals. In the shelves of many countries, especially such as Japan, the United States of America, Australia and others, they produce gas and oil. Tin is produced in large quantities in Malaysia, zircon in Australia. Ores and manganese deposits are located in the northern part of the waters. Thanks to the estimates that contain the characteristics of the Pacific Ocean, we can say for sure that these waters hide about 40% of gas and oil reserves. Hydrates are also located here, due to which in 2013 in Japan it was decided to drill wells for natural gas production in the direction from the capital of the country to the north-east of the ocean.
The seas of the Pacific Ocean infrequently show their character in a turbulent course. At the same time, it is interesting that while traveling through the waters, Magellan and his team did not get into any storm for all three months of their stay here. That is why the ocean got its name. It is divided into several sides: northern and southern, the border between which passes along the equator line.