The Pacific Ocean (a map of the world makes it possible to visually understand where it is) is an integral part of the global water area. It is the largest on planet Earth. In terms of water volume and area, the described object occupies half the volume of the entire body of water. In addition, it is in the Pacific Ocean that the deepest depressions of the Earth are located. By the number of islands located in the water area, it also takes first place. Washes the shores of all the continents of the Earth, except Africa.
Characteristic
As mentioned earlier, the geographical position of the Pacific Ocean is determined in such a way that it occupies most of the planet. Its area is 178 million km 2 . By the volume of water - 710 million km 2 . From north to south, the ocean stretches for 16 thousand km, and from east to west - 18 thousand km. All the land of planet Earth will have an area less than the Pacific Ocean by 30 million km 2 .
Borders
The geographical position of the Pacific Ocean allows it to occupy an impressive area in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. However, due to the large amount of land in the latter, the water area significantly narrows to the north.
The borders of the Pacific Ocean are as follows:
- In the east: washes the shores of two American continents.
- In the north: it borders with the southeastern part of Eurasia, the islands of Malaysia and Indonesia, the eastern edge of Australia.
- In the south: the ocean rests on the ice of Antarctica.
- In the north: through the Bering Strait, which separates American Alaska and Russian Chukotka, merges with the waters of the Arctic Ocean.
- In the southeast: along the Drake Strait it connects to the Atlantic Ocean (the conditional border is from Cape Drake to Cape Sternek).
- In the south-west: it meets the Indian Ocean (conditional border from Tasmania to the shortest, meridionally located point off the coast of Antarctica).
Challenger Abyss
The peculiarities of the geographical position of the Pacific Ocean make it possible to speak of its unique mark, which characterizes the distance from the bottom to the surface of the waters. The maximum depth of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the entire World Ocean as a whole, is almost 11 km. This trench is located in the Mariana Trench, which, in turn, is located in the western part of the water area, not far from the islands of the same name.
For the first time they tried to measure the depth of the depression in 1875 with the help of the English Challenger corvette. For this, a deep-water lot was used (a special device for measuring the distance to the bottom). The first recorded indicator during the study of the gutter was a mark of slightly more than 8,000 m. In 1957, the Soviet expedition took up the measurement of depth. Based on its results, the data of previous studies were changed. It is worth noting that our scientists got closer to the real value. The depth of the gutter, according to the measurement results, was 11,023 m. This figure was considered correct for a long time, and in reference books and textbooks it was indicated as the deepest point on the planet. However, already in the 2000s, thanks to the advent of new, more accurate instruments that help to determine various values, the real, most correct depth of the trench was established - 10,994 m (according to 2011 studies). This point of the Mariana Trench was called the Challenger Abyss. So unique and especially the geographical position of the Pacific Ocean.
The gutter itself stretches along the islands for almost 1,500 km. It has sharp slopes and a flat bottom stretching for 1.5 km. The pressure at the depth of the Mariana Trench is several tens of times higher than at shallow oceanic depths. There is a hollow at the junction of two tectonic plates - the Philippine and the Pacific.
Other areas
Near the Mariana Trench there is a number of transitional areas from the mainland to the ocean: Aleutian, Japanese, Kuril-Kamchatka, Tonga-Kermadek and others. All of them are located along the fault of tectonic plates. This area is most seismically active. Together with the eastern transition regions (within the mountainous regions of the western margins of the American continents), they form the so-called Pacific volcanic ring of fire. Most of the existing and extinct geological formations are located within it.
Seas
The description of the geographical position of the Pacific Ocean must necessarily relate to the seas. At the outskirts of the ocean coast there are quite a large number of them. They concentrated to a greater extent in the Northern Hemisphere, off the coast of Eurasia. There are more than 20 of them, with a total area (including straits and bays) of 31 million km 2 . The largest seas of the Pacific Ocean: Okhotsk, Barents, Yellow, South and East China, Philippine and others. Off the coast of Antarctica there are 5 Pacific reservoirs (Ross, Duerville, Somov, etc.). The eastern coast of the ocean is uniform, the coast is poorly cut, inaccessible and has no seas. However, there are 3 bays - Panama, California and Alaska.
The islands
Of course, a detailed description of the geographical location of the Pacific Ocean includes such a feature as a huge amount of land located directly on the territory of the water area. There are more than 10 thousand islands and island archipelagos of various sizes and origin. Most of them are volcanic. They are located within subtropical and tropical climatic zones. Formed due to a volcanic eruption, many of the islands are overgrown with corals. Subsequently, some of them again went under water, and only a coral layer remained on the surface. It usually takes the form of a circle or a semicircle. Such an island is called an atoll. The largest is located on the border of the Marshall Islands - Kwajlein.
In this water area, in addition to small islands of volcanic and coral origin, there are also the largest land areas of the planet. This is quite natural, given the geographical position of the Pacific Ocean. New Guinea and Kalimantan are islands in the western part of the water area. They respectively occupy the 2nd and 3rd place in area all over the world. Also in the Pacific Ocean is the largest archipelago of the planet - the Great Sunda Islands, consisting of 4 large land areas and more than 1,000 small ones.