Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, with the largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean, taking up more than one-third of the planet’s surface.
All of the oceans on Earth are estimated to have a volume of 0.3 billion cubic miles (1.332 billion cubic kilometers) and an average depth of 12,080.7 feet (3,682.2 meters). But the various bodies of water that make up this total ocean area have their own unique characteristics and range in size from the sprawling Pacific to the self-contained Mediterranean.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest body of water on Earth. Located between the Southern Ocean, Asia, Australia, and the landmasses of the Western Hemisphere, the Pacific Ocean contains almost twice as much water as the world’s second largest body of water, the Atlantic Ocean.
Besides being the biggest water body, the Pacific is also the oldest of the existing ocean basins. Its oldest rocks have been dated to about 200 million years ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Ocean Service (NOS).
Holding more than half of the Earth’s open water supply, the Pacific Ocean was named by explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520, with “pacific” translating to “peaceful” in Portuguese. But some areas of the Pacific are anything but: The region referred to as the “Ring of Fire” near the Pacific basin is where about 81 percent of the world’s largest earthquakes occur, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Credit : Live Science
Picture Credit : Google
