The Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is Earth’s largest ocean, covering an area larger than all the continents combined — that’s like having about 16 United States of America placed side by side!

The Pacific Ocean got its name from Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who called it “Mar Pacifico” (peaceful sea) because the waters were unusually calm during his voyage in 1520.

The Pacific Ocean holds nearly half of all the water on Earth — imagine filling up 268 trillion Olympic-sized swimming pools!

The Pacific Ocean’s deepest point, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, is so deep that you could stack 24 Empire State Buildings on top of each other and still not reach the surface!

The Ring of Fire stretches around the Pacific Ocean like a giant horseshoe packed with over 450 volcanoes — about 75% of all the active and sleeping volcanoes on Earth!

The Pacific Ocean stretches over 60 million square miles (155 million square kilometers) — bigger than all the land on Earth mashed together — and could fit nearly 29 billion football fields!

Some parts of the Pacific Ocean are so deep that sunlight can’t reach the bottom — these areas are called the “midnight zone” because it’s always dark there!

The Pacific Ocean links up with four other oceans: it touches the Arctic Ocean up north, flows into the Southern Ocean down south, meets the Indian Ocean to the west, and sends waves to the Atlantic through the Southern Ocean!

The Pacific Ocean’s average depth is 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) — that’s like stacking about 43 Statue of Liberty monuments on top of each other!

The ocean floor of the Pacific contains more than 25,000 islands — that’s more than all the other oceans combined!

The Great Barrier Reef in the Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest living structure and can be seen from space — it’s home to more than 1,500 species of fish!

The Pacific Ocean is home to the tiny vaquita porpoise, the world’s smallest whale-like creature, stretching just 5 feet (1.52 meters) long — about the size of a big dog!

Blue whales, the biggest animals ever on Earth, cruise the Pacific Ocean and can stretch almost as long as three school buses lined up end to end!

The Pacific Ocean has hydrothermal vents where special bacteria can survive in super-hot water — up to 122°C (252°F)! That’s hotter than boiling water and nearly as hot as a pizza oven!

Giant kelp forests in the Pacific can grow up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) per day — that’s faster than any land plant and about the height of a medium-sized dog.

The Pacific Ocean is home to the box jellyfish, one of the most venomous creatures on Earth! It has 24 eyes and can see in color — that’s more eyes than a spider!

The giant Pacific octopus can solve puzzles, open jars, and change color in less than a second to match its surroundings!

The lion’s mane jellyfish, the world’s longest animal, can stretch its tentacles longer than a blue whale and sometimes floats into the chilly northern parts of the Pacific!

Some Pacific Ocean fish, like the lanternfish, can create their own light through a process called bioluminescence — it’s like having a built-in flashlight!

The Pacific Ocean creates El Niño, a weather pattern so powerful it can change temperatures and rainfall patterns around the entire world!

Typhoons in the Pacific Ocean can create waves as tall as a 10-story building — that’s about 100 feet (30 meters) high!

The Pacific Ocean keeps Earth’s climate in check by soaking up tons of heat every year — enough to make weather all around the world feel its power!

The coldest parts of the Pacific Ocean near Antarctica can reach temperatures of -1.8°C (28.8°F) — any colder and the seawater would freeze!

The warmest parts of the Pacific Ocean near the equator can reach 30°C (86°F) — that’s warmer than most swimming pools!

The Pacific Ocean rumbles with thousands of thunderstorms every year — lighting up the sky with way more than 27 storms a day!

Ocean currents in the Pacific move in a giant circle called a gyre, which can carry floating objects all the way from Japan to California!

The Pacific Ocean creates its own “rivers” in the sea — the Kuroshio Current moves water faster than the Amazon River!

Some spots in the Pacific Ocean get over 400 inches (10 meters) of rain a year — enough to fill a swimming pool in just a couple of months!

The Pacific Ocean contains underwater volcanoes that erupt and create new islands — sometimes growing as much as 3 feet (0.91 m) per day!

The first explorers of the Pacific Ocean followed stars and ocean currents like a map — spotting tiny islands thousands of miles away with no gadgets at all!

Scientists have peeked at just 5% of the Pacific Ocean floor — leaving 95% as a giant mystery ready for adventure!

The Pacific Ocean hides over 50,000 shipwrecks — everything from old trading boats to sneaky modern submarines!

People have been fishing in the Pacific Ocean for over 42,000 years — imagine 420 stacks of 100-year adventures!

The Pacific Ocean dishes out nearly half of all the fish people eat worldwide — over 80 million tons of fish every year!

Underwater cables in the Pacific Ocean zoom internet signals between continents — and they’re so long they could wrap around Earth nearly 10 times!

Scientists use special submarines called submersibles to explore the deepest parts of the Pacific — they can withstand pressure equal a jumbo jet stacked on top of a single penny!

Hundreds of cargo ships zip across the Pacific Ocean every day, loaded with toys, clothes, and yummy food for countries far and wide!

The first person to reach the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean was Jacques Piccard in 1960 — it took him nearly 5 hours to reach the bottom!

The Pacific Ocean floor contains more active underwater volcanoes than all the volcanoes on land combined!

The Pacific Ocean helps predict weather patterns months in advance by showing changes in water temperature!

Scientists have found creatures living in the Pacific Ocean that can survive without sunlight or oxygen!

The Pacific Ocean’s salt could pile up over all the world’s land in a layer nearly 250 feet (76 meters) high — taller than a giant skyscraper!

The Pacific Ocean floor is always on the move — in some spots, it grows up to 6 inches (15 cm) of new seafloor every year!

The Pacific Ocean contains underwater mountains taller than Mount Everest — they’re just hidden under the water!

The Pacific Ocean sucks up over 10% of the carbon dioxide we put in the air — acting like a super-big air filter!

The Pacific Ocean is packed with over a million underwater mountains called seamounts — and most are still secret hideouts waiting to be checked out!

The Pacific Ocean hides part of Earth’s longest mountain chain — the Mid-Ocean Ridge — stretching farther than any mountains on land!

The Pacific Ocean contains hot springs underwater that release water heated to 750°F (400°C) — that’s hot enough to melt lead!

The Pacific Ocean’s Great Barrier Reef is the biggest coral wonder on Earth — big enough to fit up to 64 million football fields!

The Pacific Ocean has places where fresh water fountains bubble up from the seafloor — they’re called submarine springs!