average depth of pacific ocean

More facts about oceans: The shallowest ocean is the Arctic Ocean, with an average depth of about 0.65 miles (about 1 km). [65], In the tropical and subtropical Pacific, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather conditions. An (almost certainly incomplete) census of broken arrows over water", "U.S. discloses accidents involving nuclear weapons", EPIC Pacific Ocean Data Collection Viewable, NOAA PMEL Argo profiling floats Realtime Pacific Ocean data, List of countries where Arabic is an official language, Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests, Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine–oak forests, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pacific_Ocean&oldid=1011451252, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles using infobox body of water without pushpin map, Articles using infobox body of water without image bathymetry, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Articles to be expanded from December 2020, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers, Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎, Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [51] The Ring of Fire is named after the several hundred active volcanoes that sit above the various subduction zones. Among these, the largest is Polynesia, which extends from Hawaii to New Zealand. [28] One of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. The average depth of the Pacific is about 3700 metres. [36] Since the end of World War II, many former colonies in the Pacific have become independent states. At its greatest width, the ocean extends some 12,000 miles (19,300 kilometers). As it approaches the Chilean coast, the South Equatorial Current divides; one branch flows around Cape Horn and the other turns north to form the Peru or Humboldt Current. Figure 1. The floor of the Pacific Ocean, which has an average depth of around 14,000 feet (4,300 m), is largely a deep-sea plain. About 3000 BC, the Austronesian peoples on the island of Taiwan mastered the art of long-distance canoe travel and spread themselves and their languages south to the Philippines, Indonesia, and maritime Southeast Asia; west towards Madagascar; southeast towards New Guinea and Melanesia (intermarrying with native Papuans); and east to the islands of Micronesia, Oceania and Polynesia.[11]. The Pacific is the oldest of the existing ocean basins, its oldest rocks having been dated at 200 million years. It separates Oceania and Asia with the Americas. The Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific.[2]. The North Equatorial Current, driven westward along latitude 15°N by the trade winds, turns north near the Philippines to become the warm Japan or Kuroshio Current. It may be further subdivided by the equator into northern (North Pacific) and southern (South Pacific) portions. The Pacific separates Asia and Australia from the Americas. The mean depth of the Pacific (excluding adjacent seas) is 14,040 feet (4,280 metres), and its greatest known depth is 36,201 feet (11,034 metres)—in the Mariana Trench—also the greatest depth found in any ocean. The Pacific Ocean is not only the deepest ocean, with an average depth of 13,740 feet (4,188 meters), but it also contains the deepest point on the planet, at 36,070 feet (10,994 meters). The Japanese-ruled Northern Mariana Islands came under the control of the United States. It may be further subdivided by the equator into northern (North Pacific) and southern (South Pacific) portions. [80], The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean increased a hundredfold between 1972 and 2012. The surface area and average depth of the Pacific Ocean are 1.8 x 108 km2 and 3.9 x 103 m, respectively. Besides being the largest ocean, Pacific Ocean also become the deepest ocean with the mean depth until 4,280 m. Besides, the Pacific Ocean is also the deepest ocean on earth, with the average depth of about 3,800 meters or 12,500 feet. “The Asia-Pacific Idea: Reality and Representation in the Invention of a Regional Structure,”, Dixon, Chris, and David Drakakis-Smith. Problem 37 Hard Difficulty. [32], In Oceania, France obtained a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853, respectively. The water near the equator, which can have a salinity as low as 34 parts per thousand, is less salty than that found in the mid-latitudes because of abundant equatorial precipitation throughout the year. Subdivided by the Equator into the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean, it covers around one-third of the total surface area of the earth, and approximately 46 percent of the water surface. The other main Melanesian groups from north to south are the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means "peaceful sea".