The largest and most ancient of all oceans. Its area is 178.6 million km2. It can easily accommodate all the continents combined, which is why it is sometimes called the Great. The name “Pacific” is associated with the name of F., who traveled around the world and sailed through the Pacific Ocean under favorable conditions.

This ocean is truly great: it occupies 1/3 of the surface of the entire planet and almost 1/2 of the area. The ocean has an oval shape, it is especially wide at the equator.

The peoples inhabiting the Pacific coasts and islands have been sailing the ocean for a long time and exploring its riches. Information about the ocean was accumulated as a result of the voyages of F. Magellan, J. . The beginning of its wide study was laid in the 19th century by the first round-the-world Russian expedition of I.F. . Currently, a special one has been created for the study of the Pacific Ocean. In recent years, new data have been obtained about its nature, its depth has been determined, currents and the topography of the bottom and ocean have been studied.

The southern part of the ocean from the shores of the Tuamotu Islands to the shores is an area of ​​​​calm and stable. It was for this calm and silence that Magellan and his companions called the Pacific Ocean. But west of the Tuamotu Islands the picture changes dramatically. Calm weather is rare here; stormy winds usually blow, often turning into... These are the so-called southern squalls, especially fierce in December. Tropical cyclones are less frequent but more intense. They arrive at the beginning of autumn from, at the northern tip they turn into warm westerly winds.

The tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean are clean, transparent and have medium salinity. Their deep dark blue color amazed observers. But sometimes the waters here turn green. This is due to the development of marine life. The equatorial part of the ocean has favorable weather conditions. The temperature over the sea is about 25°C and remains almost unchanged throughout the year. Winds of moderate strength blow here. At times there is complete calm. The sky is clear, the nights are very dark. The balance is especially stable in the area of ​​the Polynesian islands. In the calm belt there are frequent heavy but short-term showers, mainly in the afternoon. Hurricanes are extremely rare here.

The warm waters of the ocean contribute to the work of corals, of which there are many. The Great Reef stretches along the eastern coast of Australia. This is the largest “ridge” created by organisms.

The western part of the ocean is under the influence of the monsoons with their sudden vagaries. Terrible hurricanes arise here and... They are especially ferocious in the northern hemisphere between 5 and 30°. Typhoons are frequent from July to October, with up to four per month in August. They originate in the area of ​​the Caroline and Mariana Islands and then “make raids” on the shores, and. Since in the west of the tropical part of the ocean it is hot and rainy, the islands of Fiji, the New Hebrides, New Hebrides are not without reason considered one of the most unhealthy places on the globe.

The northern regions of the ocean are similar to the southern ones, only as if in a mirror image: circular rotation of the waters, but if in the southern part it is counterclockwise, then in the northern part it is clockwise; unstable weather in the west, where typhoons enter further north; cross currents: North Passat and South Passat; in the north of the ocean there is little floating ice, since the Bering Strait is very narrow and protects the Pacific Ocean from the influence of the Arctic Ocean. This distinguishes the north of the ocean from its south.

The Pacific Ocean is the deepest. Its average depth is 3980 meters, and its maximum reaches 11022 m. The ocean coast is in a seismic zone, as it is the boundary and place of interaction with other lithospheric plates. This interaction is accompanied by terrestrial and underwater and.

A characteristic feature is that the greatest depths are confined to its outskirts. Deep-sea depressions stretch in the form of narrow long trenches in the western and eastern parts of the ocean. Large uplifts divide the ocean floor into basins. In the east of the ocean is the East Pacific Rise, which is part of the system of mid-ocean ridges.

Currently, the Pacific Ocean plays an important role in the life of many countries. Half of the world's fish catch comes from this water area, a significant part of it being various shellfish, crabs, shrimp, and krill. In some countries, shellfish and various algae are grown on the seabed and used for food. Placer metals are being mined on the shelf, and oil is being extracted off the coast of the California Peninsula. Some countries desalinate seawater and use it. Important sea routes pass through the Pacific Ocean; the length of these routes is very large. Shipping is well developed, mainly along the continental coasts.

Human economic activity has led to the pollution of ocean waters and the extermination of some animal species. Thus, in the 18th century, sea cows were exterminated, discovered by one of the participants in V.'s expedition. Seals and whales are on the verge of extinction. Currently, their fishing is limited. Water pollution from industrial waste poses a great danger to the ocean.

Location: limited by the east coast, west coast of North and South America, north, south.
Square: 178.7 million km2
Average depth: 4,282 m.

Greatest depth: 11022 m (Mariana Trench).

Bottom relief: East Pacific Rise, Northeast, Northwestern, Central, Eastern, Southern and other basins, deep-sea trenches: Aleutian, Kurile, Mariana, Philippine, Peruvian and others.

Inhabitants: a large number of unicellular and multicellular microorganisms; fish (pollock, herring, salmon, cod, sea bass, beluga, chum salmon, pink salmon, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon and many others); seals, seals; crabs, shrimp, oysters, squid, octopus.

: 30-36.5 ‰.

Currents: warm - , North Pacific, Alaskan, South Trade Wind, East Australian; cold - Californian, Kuril, Peruvian, Western winds.

Additional Information: The Pacific Ocean is the largest in the world; Ferdinand Magellan crossed it for the first time in 1519, the ocean was called “Pacific” because during the entire three months of the journey, Magellan’s ships did not encounter a single storm; The Pacific Ocean is usually divided into northern and southern regions, the border of which runs along the equator.

Date of publication or update 08/12/2017

Thor Heyerdahl repeatedly emphasizes in his writings that one of the main goals of his many years of research is to identify and reconstruct the ancient sea routes of mankind, especially in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Heyerdahl outlined and carefully studied three main sea routes from the Old World to the New - two in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific - as well as two routes from the New World to the Old, both in the Pacific.

Several years ago, the Spaniards, having built a copy of one of Columbus's caravels, made an experimental voyage on it.

They tried to completely reproduce the situation and conditions of five hundred years ago, including provisions and seafaring tools of that time. It turned out that discovering America was not at all easy. The newly minted Columbuses spent several weeks more on the crossing than the great navigator, and at the end of the journey, seeing land, they could not approach it on their own, and had to ask for the help of a tugboat.

Twenty years ago, the Liberian doctor Hannes Lindemann made a solo passage from the coast of Africa across the Atlantic Ocean on a West African pirogue (a dugout from a single trunk), suggesting that he was reproducing voyages of a thousand years ago.

And finally, Thor Heyerdahl, with his voyages on the papyrus boats “Ra-1” and “Ra-2”, proves the possibility of transatlantic crossings in even more distant centuries. The path “Ra-1” and “Ra-2” was laid taking into account fair winds (northeast trade winds) and currents (Canary and Northern trade winds).

Consequently, the route to America in the northern tropical latitudes of the Atlantic Ocean was accessible to both ships with a waterproof bottom and a bottom that freely allows water to pass through.

It has also been proven that any primitive vessel can return to Europe if it is picked up in temperate latitudes by the westerly wind and the powerful Gulf Stream. Depending on the hydrometeorological situation, the boat may end up in either northern or southern Europe.

The Inca Route is a sea route in the tropical latitudes of the southern hemisphere. Eleven rafts have already traveled this route in modern times, starting with the well-known Kon-Tiki voyage in 1947. Seven years later, the balsa raft "Seven Sisters" carried the American solo navigator William Willis from the shores of Peru to Samoa. In 1958, the Tahiti Nui raft, led by the Frenchman Eric de Bishop, sailed from the Peruvian coast to Central Polynesia. Czech Eduard Ingris also sailed to Central Polynesia with his team on the balsa raft “Kantuta II”. His previous attempt on the balsa raft “Kantuta I” in 1955 ended in failure. Ingris started from northern Peru and ended up in the Galapagos Islands, where winds and currents twisted the raft, moving it neither east nor west.

On the metal raft “Age is no barrier,” nearly seventy-five-year-old William Willis made a two-stage crossing across the entire Pacific Ocean in 1963–1964, from Peru to Australia.

In 1973, the international crews of three balsa rafts “La Aztlan”, “La Guayaquil” and “La Muuluulaba”, under the leadership of Vital Alsar, completed the passage from Ecuador to the Australian continent in 179 days.

Transpacific voyages of all these and other models of Peruvian rafts were possible thanks to favorable southeast trade winds and the South Trade Wind Current. In popular literature, ocean currents are sometimes called "rivers without banks" or "rivers with liquid banks." Therefore, many people have the idea of ​​currents as stable “self-propelled ribbons” crossing the ocean. Actually this is not true. Six-month observations carried out by Soviet oceanologists in 1970 in the Atlantic Ocean at 17 points of the Northern Trade Wind Current showed that the current abruptly changes its direction after 10-40 days. And this is the trade wind current, which has a reputation for being stable and constant.

It is more correct to imagine ocean currents not as rivers, but as systems of vortices of different scales, moving relative to each other and moving together in a certain direction. Thus, sailing (more precisely, drifting) in the trade wind zone, the navigator is by no means guaranteed that a changing wind or current will push him out of the trade wind air and water “highway”.

In the Pacific Ocean, in its northern part, Thor Heyerdahl notes two possible routes. One of them is from the coast of Mexico to the Malay Archipelago. Here you can use the northeast trade winds and the North Trade Wind Current. Not a single model of a primitive vessel has yet set sail to reconstruct this sea route. Another sea route is the route of the Spaniard Urdaneta, who in 1565 passed from the Philippine Islands along the Japanese islands and then crossed the Pacific Ocean with the westerly winds.

In 1974, an attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean along this route was made by the Austrian explorer Kuno Knebl. He built a real Asian junk, using as a model a ceramic model from the first century AD discovered during archaeological excavations.

The international crew sailed on this junk, Tai Ki (Great Space), for 115 days until it sank two thousand miles off the American coast. The main cause of the disaster is believed to be that a sea woodworm eroded the hull of the junk.

More fortunate was the English sailor Brian Plett, who in 1959 managed to cross the North Pacific Ocean alone on a junk built according to classical designs. True, Plett did not set himself any scientific goals, only sports ones.

More recently, Thor Heyerdahl has begun modeling ancient voyages (probably the most ancient) in the Indian Ocean.

By sailing on the reed boat Tigris, which simulates ancient Sumerian ships, Heyerdahl confirmed the possibility of long-distance voyages of Sumerian sailors in the northern part of the Indian Ocean. In general, the Indian Ocean, on the shores of which more than one ancient civilization existed, is now intensely attracting the attention of maritime historians.

There is an emerging point of view that it was the Indian Ocean that was the cradle of world navigation.

Which seas are colored?
And the salinity of the seas

The largest water areas of the Pacific basin include the Bering Sea in the north; Gulf of Alaska in the northeast; the Gulf of California and Tehuantepec in the east, off the coast of Mexico; the Gulf of Fonseca off the coast of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua and somewhat to the south - the Gulf of Panama. There are only a few small bays off the west coast of South America, such as Guayaquil off the coast of Ecuador. In the western and southwestern Pacific Ocean, numerous large islands separate the main waters from many interisland seas, such as the Tasman Sea southeast of Australia and the Coral Sea off its northeastern coast; Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria north of Australia; Banda Sea north of the island. Timor; the Flores Sea north of the island of the same name; Java Sea north of the island. Java; Gulf of Thailand between the Malacca and Indochina peninsulas; Bac Bo Bay (Tonkin) off the coast of Vietnam and China; Makassar Strait between the islands of Kalimantan and Sulawesi; the Moluccas and Sulawesi seas, respectively, to the east and north of the island. Sulawesi; finally, the Philippine Sea east of the Philippine Islands. A special area in the southwest of the northern half of the Pacific Ocean is the Sulu Sea within the southwestern part of the Philippine archipelago, where there are also many small bays, bays and semi-enclosed seas (for example, the Sibuyan, Mindanao, Visayan Seas, Manila Bay, Lamon and Leite). The East China and Yellow Seas are located off the eastern coast of China; the latter forms two bays in the north: Bohaiwan and West Korean. The Japanese islands are separated from the Korean Peninsula by the Korea Strait. In the same northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, several more seas stand out: the Inland Sea of ​​Japan among the southern Japanese islands; the Sea of ​​Japan to their west; to the north is the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, which is connected to the Sea of ​​Japan by the Tatar Strait.

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What is the Pacific Ocean like? General characteristics and description of the Pacific Ocean.

What is the Pacific Ocean like? General characteristics of the Pacific Ocean. Table.

Ocean name	Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean area:
With the seas	178.684 million km²
Without seas	165.2 million km²
Average depth of the Pacific Ocean:
With the seas
Without seas
Greatest depth	10,994 m (Mariana Trench)
Volume of water in the Pacific Ocean:
With the seas	710.36 million km 3
Without seas	707.6 million km 3
average temperature
Salinity
Width from west to east - from Panama to the east coast of Mindanao
Length from north to south, from the Bering Strait to Antarctica
Number of islands
Animals (number of species)	more than 100,000
Incl. fish species
Incl. species of mollusks
Types of algae

What is the Pacific Ocean like? Description of the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on our planet, occupying almost a third of it. It accounts for 49.5% of the surface area of ​​the World Ocean and 53% of the volume of its waters. The width of the ocean from west to east is 17,200 km, the length from north to south is 15,450 km. The area of ​​the Pacific Ocean is 30 million square kilometers larger than the area of ​​the entire landmass of the Earth.

The Pacific Ocean is the deepest ocean on our planet. Its average depth is 3984 meters, and its greatest depth is 10,994 km (Mariana Trench or Challenger Deep).

The Pacific Ocean is the warmest ocean on our planet. Most of the ocean lies in warm latitudes, so the average temperature of its waters (19.37 ° C) is two degrees higher than the temperature of other oceans (with the exception of the Arctic).

Pacific Coast– the most densely populated territory of the Earth, about half of the population of our planet lives here in 50 states.

The Pacific Ocean has the greatest commercial importance Of all the reservoirs on the planet, about 60% of the world's fish catch is caught here.

The Pacific Ocean has the largest hydrocarbon reserves throughout the World Ocean - about 40% of all potential oil and gas reserves are located here.

The Pacific Ocean has the richest flora and fauna– Almost 50% of all living organisms in the World Ocean live here.

The Pacific Ocean is the wildest ocean on the planet– more than 80% of tsunamis are “born” here. The reason for this is the large number of underwater volcanoes.

The Pacific Ocean is of great transport importance- The most important transport routes pass here.

Discovery of the Pacific Ocean. Why is the ocean "Pacific"?

Why is the Pacific Ocean called "quiet"? After all, this is the most formidable of all the oceans on Earth: 80% of tsunamis originate here, the ocean is replete with underwater volcanoes, and is famous for catastrophic hurricanes and storms. It’s just ironic that the first European explorer and discoverer of the Pacific Ocean, Ferdinand Magellan, never encountered a storm during his three-month voyage. The ocean was quiet and gentle, for which it received its current name - “Quiet”.

By the way, Magellan was not the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. The first was the Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who explored the New World. He crossed the American continent and reached the coast of what he thought was the sea. He did not yet know that in front of him was the greatest ocean on Earth and gave it the name South Sea.

Boundaries and climate of the Pacific Ocean. What is the Pacific Ocean like?

With land:

Western border of the Pacific Ocean: off the eastern coasts of Australia and Eurasia.

Eastern limit of the Pacific Ocean: off the western coasts of South and North America.

Northern limit of the Pacific Ocean: almost completely closed by land - Russian Chukotka and American Alaska.

Southern Pacific Rim: off the northern coast of Antarctica.

Borders of the Pacific Ocean. Map.

With other oceans:

Boundary of the Pacific Ocean with the Arctic Ocean: The border is drawn in the Bering Strait from Cape Dezhnev to Cape Prince of Wales.

Boundary of the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean: the border is drawn from Cape Horn along the meridian 68°04’ (67?) W. or along the shortest distance from South America to the Antarctic Peninsula through the Drake Passage, from Oste Island to Cape Sterneck.

Boundary of the Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean:

- south of Australia- along the eastern border of the Bass Strait to the island of Tasmania, then along the meridian 146°55’E. to Antarctica;

- north of Australia- between the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca, further along the southwestern coast of the island of Sumatra, the Sunda Strait, the southern coast of the island of Java, the southern borders of the Bali and Savu seas, the northern border of the Arafura Sea, the southwestern coast of New Guinea and the western border of the Torres Strait.

Pacific climate. General characteristics and description of the Pacific Ocean.

Climate of the Pacific Ocean in parts.

The South Pacific is the coldest, as the water comes close to the shores of Antarctica. Here in winter the water is covered with ice.

The climate of the North Pacific is much milder. This is influenced by the fact that the Pacific Ocean from the north has virtually no contact with the cold Arctic Ocean, but is limited by land.

The western part of the Pacific Ocean is warmer than the eastern part.

In the tropical latitudes of the ocean, powerful hurricanes - typhoons - arise.

There are two zones where typhoons originate:

• east of the Philippines - the typhoon moves northwest and north through Taiwan, Japan and reaches almost the Bering Strait.
• off the coast of Central America.

The amount of precipitation is uneven over the surface of the largest ocean on the planet.

• The greatest amount of precipitation (more than 2000 mm per year) is typical for the equatorial belt,
• The least amount of precipitation (less than 50 mm per year) is in the northern hemisphere off the coast of California, in the southern hemisphere off the coast of Chile and Peru.

Precipitation in the ocean generally prevails over evaporation, so the salinity of the water is somewhat lower than in other oceans.

Read more about the climate of the Pacific Ocean in the articles:

• Pacific climate. Cyclones and anticyclones. Baric centers.

Flora, fauna and economic importance of the Pacific Ocean. What is the Pacific Ocean like?

The flora and fauna of the Pacific Ocean is incredibly diverse. About half of the living organisms of the entire World Ocean live here. This is due to the enormous size of the largest ocean on the planet and the diversity of natural conditions.

The largest number of species live in tropical and equatorial latitudes; in northern and temperate latitudes, species diversity is poorer, but here the number of individuals of each species is greater. For example, about 50 species of seaweed are found in the cold waters of the Bering Sea, and about 800 species are found in the warm waters of the Malay Archipelago. But the mass of algae in the Bering Sea is much greater than the total mass of aquatic plants in the Malay Archipelago.

The depths of the Pacific Ocean are also not lifeless. The animals that live here have an unusual body structure, many of them fluoresce, emitting light as a result of chemical reactions. This device serves to scare away predators and attract prey.

In the Pacific Ocean lives:

• more than 850 species of algae;
• more than 100 thousand species of animals (of which over 3800 species of fish);
• more than 6 thousand species of mollusks;
• about 200 species of animals living at a depth of more than 7 thousand km;
• 20 species of animals living at a depth of more than 10 thousand km.

Economic importance of the Pacific Ocean - general characteristics and description of the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific coast, its islands and seas are developed extremely unevenly. The most developed industrial centers are coast of the USA, Japan and South Korea. The economies of Australia and New Zealand are also largely related to the development of the largest ocean on the planet.

The Pacific Ocean is of great importance in the life of mankind. as a source of food. It accounts for up to 60% of the world's fish catch. Commercial fishing is especially developed in tropical and temperate latitudes.

Across the Pacific important sea and air communications lie between the countries of the Pacific basin and transit routes between the countries of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The Pacific Ocean is of great economic importance in terms of mining. Up to 40% of the potential oil and gas reserves of the World Ocean are located here. Currently, hydrocarbons are produced on the shelf of China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the United States of America (Alaska), Ecuador (Gulf of Guayaquil), Australia (Bass Strait) and New Zealand.

The Pacific Ocean also plays a very specific role in the modern world: here in the southern part of the ocean there is a “cemetery” of failed spaceships.

Relief of the bottom, sea and islands of the Pacific Ocean. What is the Pacific Ocean like?

The relief of the bottom of the Pacific Ocean - description and general characteristics of the Pacific Ocean.

The bottom of the largest ocean on the planet also has the most complex terrain. At the base of the ocean is the Pacific Plate. The following plates are adjacent to it: Nazca, Cocos, Juan de Fuca, Philippine, in the south - the Antarctic plate, and in the north - the North American plate. Such a large number of lithospheric plates leads to strong tectonic activity in the region.

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, along the edges of the Pacific Plate, there is the so-called planet's "ring of fire". Earthquakes constantly occur here, volcanoes erupt, and tsunamis are born.

"Ring of Fire" of the planet.

The bottom of the Pacific Ocean is literally strewn single mountains of volcanic origin. At the moment there are about 10,000 of them.

In addition, there is a difficult underwater mountain ridge system, the longest of which is located in the south and east of the ocean - this is the East Pacific Rise, which passes in the south into the South Pacific Ridge. This underwater ridge divides the Pacific Ocean into two asymmetrical parts - the vast western part, where warm currents predominate, and the small eastern part, where the cold Peruvian Current dominates.

Countless islands and archipelagos, formed as a result of volcanic activity, are combined into a separate part of the world - Oceania.

The largest basins of the Pacific Ocean are: Chilean, Peruvian, Northwestern, Southern, Eastern, Central.

Pacific seas and coastline. What is the Pacific Ocean like?

Almost all the seas of the Pacific Ocean are located on its northern and western outskirts - off the coast of Asia, Australia, and the Malay Archipelago. In the east of the ocean there are no large islands or bays protruding deep into the land - the coastline is smooth. The exception is the Gulf of California, a semi-enclosed sea of ​​the Pacific Ocean. Off the coast of Antarctica there is the only southern marginal sea of ​​this ocean - the Ross Sea.

Pacific Islands.

In this article we looked at the description and general characteristics of the Pacific Ocean and answered the question: What is the Pacific Ocean? Read further: Pacific Ocean waters: ocean water masses, ocean temperature, ocean salinity, ice formation and color of Pacific Ocean water.