Pacific Ocean
Atolls are coral islands
Atolls are coral islands in the ocean which are surrounded by a lagoon. Most of the world's atolls are situated in the Pacific ocean.
What does pacific mean?
Pacific means "peaceful", coming from the Latin "pace" for peace and the Pacific Ocean got its name from the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 who called its waters "mar pacifico" which means peaceful sea.
Temperature
How warm are the waters of the Pacific Ocean? The temperatures of the Pacific Ocean depend on the location. The nearer to the Equator the warm the water tends to be. So some regions the water is up to 30degC/86F, while near to the poles the water temperature decreases to freezing point. The lowest temperature measured was -2degC.
Archipelagos
Many beautiful groups of islands are found in the Pacific Oceans. These islands form an archipelago, like the Fiji Archepelago or the Hawaiian Archipelago.
Islands in the Pacific
Most of the Islands of the world are found in the Pacific Ocean. There are actually more than 25,000 islands in the Pacific and most of them are found south of the Equator in the Southern Pacific.
What is the ring of fire?
Most of the volcanoes (actually 75%) on earth are located in the Pacific Ocean basin, the volcanoes actually form a ring around the basin and therefore it is called the ring of fire.
The Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the largest reef in the world stretching over more than 2,300km/1,429miles and including more than 1,000 islands.
Where is the Pacific Ocean?
The Pacific Ocean is located between Americas to the East of the Pacific Ocean basin and the Asian and Australian continents to the West as you can see on the map of the Pacific Ocean below
How deep is the Pacific Ocean?
The Pacific is not only the biggest but also the deepest ocean with the deepest trenches. The average depth is about 3,800 m.
How big is the Pacific Ocean?
The Pacific is the biggest ocean on earth and covers more than 30% of the earth's surface.
