They were part of a Spanish expedition to the Spice Islands that would eventually result in the first world circumnavigation. [62] The Aleutian Current branches as it approaches North America and forms the base of a counter-clockwise circulation in the Bering Sea. ", Routledge, David. The region’s physiography is dominated by a group of large continental islands, however, including New Guinea. The islands of the western region—including the Aleutians, the Kurils, the Ryukyus, Taiwan, the Malay Archipelago (including New Guinea), and New Zealand—are continental in character. [83] An estimated 80,000 metric tons of plastic inhabit the patch, totaling 1.8 trillion pieces. The Hawaiian archipelago consists of about 2,000 islands, although the term Hawaiian Islands is usually applied to the small group that lies at the eastern end of the archipelago. Fringing coral reefs, New Georgia Islands, Solomon Islands. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean on Earth. Find ?=loc=pacific ocean (N 45° 0' 0", W 90° 0' 0") on a map. Some of these islands are structurally associated with nearby continents. The ocean is explorable, similar to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, though with much more detail. Ocean between Asia and Australia in the west, the Americas in the east and Antarctica or the Southern Ocean in the south. Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. 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. The Pacific Ocean is located west of North and South America and East of Asia and Australia, and it extends all the way from the Arctic Ocean to the... See full answer below. However, during the Eighteenth Century, it came to simply be known as the Sea of Magellan. [51][52], Melanesia, to the southwest, includes New Guinea, the world's second largest island after Greenland and by far the largest of the Pacific islands. [28] One of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. [71], The ocean was first mapped by Abraham Ortelius; he called it Maris Pacifici following Ferdinand Magellan's description of it as "a pacific sea" during his circumnavigation from 1519 to 1522. The Westerlies and associated jet stream within the Mid-Latitudes can be particularly strong, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, due to the temperature difference between the tropics and Antarctica,[70] which records the coldest temperature readings on the planet. On a worldwide scale, May is the least active month, while September is the most active month. [4] The Pacific also contains the deepest point in the Southern Hemisphere, the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench, at 10,823 meters (35,509 feet). Latitude: 0° 00' 0.00" N Longitude:-160° 00' 0.00" W Read about Pacific Ocean in the Wikipedia Satellite map of Pacific Ocean in Google Maps Read about Pacific Ocean in the Wikipedia Satellite map of Pacific Ocean in Google Maps [78], Fish are an important economic asset in the Pacific. The lowest counts of less than 32 parts per thousand are found in the far north as less evaporation of seawater takes place in these frigid areas. Search for "pacific ocean map" in these categories. from the Pacific Ocean, which is the only ocean where the fish catch has increased every year since 1978. [56][57], Ladrilleros Beach in Colombia on the coast of Chocó natural region, Point Reyes headlands, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, Los Molinos on the coast of Southern Chile, The volume of the Pacific Ocean, representing about 50.1 percent of the world's oceanic water, has been estimated at some 714 million cubic kilometers (171 million cubic miles). [36] Since the end of World War II, many former colonies in the Pacific have become independent states. Module:Location map/data/Pacific Ocean is a location map definition used to overlay markers and labels on an equirectangular projection map of Pacific Ocean. This image of the Pacific Ocean seafloor and land elevations was created by the World Data Center for Geophysics & Marine Geology (Boulder, CO), National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA. The exploitation of the Pacific's mineral wealth is hampered by the ocean's great depths. Although the mountain systems there lie roughly parallel to the coast, as they do on the eastern Pacific coastlands, the western Pacific is noted for its many marginal seas. [3] Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, located in the western north Pacific, is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,928 meters (35,853 feet). The first contact of European navigators with the western edge of the Pacific Ocean was made by the Portuguese expeditions of António de Abreu and Francisco Serrão, via the Lesser Sunda Islands, to the Maluku Islands, in 1512,[12][13] and with Jorge Álvares's expedition to southern China in 1513,[14] both ordered by Afonso de Albuquerque from Malacca. [64], The climate patterns of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres generally mirror each other. Micronesia, which lies north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, includes the Mariana Islands in the northwest, the Caroline Islands in the center, the Marshall Islands to the east and the islands of Kiribati in the southeast. A second island type formed of coral is the uplifted coral platform, which is usually slightly larger than the low coral islands. Examples include Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) and Makatea in the Tuamotu group of French Polynesia. The wind and pressure systems of the Pacific conform closely to the planetary system—the patterns of air pressure and the consequent wind patterns that develop in the atmosphere of the Earth as a result of its rotation (Coriolis force) and the inclination of its axis (ecliptic) toward the Sun. The high cost of recovering offshore oil and gas, combined with The Southern Pacific Ocean harbors the Southeast Indian Ridge crossing from south of Australia turning into the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge (north of the South Pole) and merges with another ridge (south of South America) to form the East Pacific Rise which also connects with another ridge (south of North America) which overlooks the Juan de Fuca Ridge. To determine the phase of ENSO, the most recent three-month sea surface temperature average for the area approximately 3,000 km (1,900 mi) to the southeast of Hawaii is computed, and if the region is more than 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) above or below normal for that period, then an El Niño or La Niña is considered in progress.[66]. The Pacific separates Asia and Australia from the Americas. [85] The rivers then empty into the ocean, often also bringing chemicals used as fertilizers in agriculture. From north to south they include the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. Additional examples can be found at: Template:Location map#Relief parameter; Template:Location map#AlternativeMap parameter; Seamounts are found in all oceans, but the volcanism of the northwestern Pacific Ocean produces them in such numbers that in so… In the tropical western Pacific, the monsoon and the related wet season during the summer months contrast with dry winds in the winter which blow over the ocean from the Asian landmass. [60] The motion of Pacific waters is generally clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (the North Pacific gyre) and counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. [46] Later, the Diogo Ribeiro map of 1529 was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size. The floor of the northeastern Pacific is remarkable for its several major fracture zones, which extend east and west and which, in some instances, are identifiable over distances of thousands of miles. Usage. The rigour of the winters off the east coast of Russia, for instance, contrasts sharply with the relative mildness of winters in the region of British Columbia. The eastern side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached a new ocean. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions.. Southern Ocean, the southern portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans and their tributary seas surrounding Antarctica. Nearly all are coralline; the principal groups are the Marianas, the Marshalls, the Carolines, Kiribati (Gilbert Islands), and Tuvalu (Ellice Islands). By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of this trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. Evidence drawn from various geophysical fields—seismology, volcanology, gravimetry, and paleomagnetism (remanent magnetism)—points to the general validity of the theory of plate tectonics. [23] For the remainder of the 16th century, Spanish influence was paramount, with ships sailing from Mexico and Peru across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines via Guam, and establishing the Spanish East Indies. It may be further subdivided by the equator into northern (North Pacific) and southern (South Pacific) portions. of 310. kiribati map map of pacific australia papua new guinea map australia and oceania map atlantic ocean maps map of tonga colonial cartography ancient ocean map of guam fiji island map. The East Pacific Rise is an active spreading centre where new crust is being created. The Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific.[2]. Pacific hurricanes form south of Mexico, sometimes striking the western Mexican coast and occasionally the southwestern United States between June and October, while typhoons forming in the northwestern Pacific moving into southeast and east Asia from May to December. [21] In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan. All the major physical features in the Pacific are understood to originate in plate tectonics. Davidson, James Wightman. It has double the area and more than double the water volume of the Atlantic Ocean—the next largest division of the hydrosphere—and its area more than exceeds that of the whole land surface of the globe. “Pacific-ing Asian Pacific American History,”, This page was last edited on 16 January 2021, at 04:11. The dissimilarity continues northeastward along the western edge of the Andes Cordillera along South America to Mexico, returning then to the islands off California. Another unique feature of the Pacific Ocean is its large number of seamounts, particularly in the Northwest and Central Pacific Basins. Of the rivers that drain into the Pacific, those of China and Southeast Asia are of the greatest importance; the basins of those rivers support more than one-fourth of the world’s population. Try these curated collections. ", "GEOL 102 The Proterozoic Eon II: Rodinia and Pannotia", "Pacific Ocean Threats & Impacts: Overfishing and Exploitation", Plastic waste in the North Pacific is an ongoing concern, "Photos: Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Documented – A First", "Marshall Islands marks 71 years since start of US nuclear tests on Bikini", "Bikinians evacuated 'for good of mankind' endure lengthy nuclear fallout", "How many nuclear weapons are at the bottom of the sea. The trade winds in the southern and eastern Pacific are remarkably steady while conditions in the North Pacific are far more varied with, for example, cold winter temperatures on the east coast of Russia contrasting with the milder weather off British Columbia during the winter months due to the preferred flow of ocean currents. [41], As the Pacific straddles the 180th meridian, the West Pacific (or western Pacific, near Asia) is in the Eastern Hemisphere, while the East Pacific (or eastern Pacific, near the Americas) is in the Western Hemisphere.[42]. Its southern arm becomes the chilled slow, south-flowing California Current. 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. The submerged parts of the series of ridges that are capped by the island archipelagoes of the western Pacific are continuous and are to be found at depths of less than about 2,000 feet (610 metres). [51] The Ring of Fire is named after the several hundred active volcanoes that sit above the various subduction zones. depth: 10,911 m (35,797 ft). Area: 64,000,000 sq mi (165,000,000 sq km). The western Pacific has many major marginal seas, including the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Philippine Sea, the Coral Sea, and the Tasman Sea. [6], Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. These ridges include the Aleutian Ridge in the northwestern Pacific; the series of ridges extending southward through the Kuril, Bonin, and Mariana island groups, and the archipelagoes of Yap and Palau; those extending eastward from New Guinea, including the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon and Santa Cruz island chains; and, finally, the ridges extending southward, from which rise the Samoa, Tonga, Kermadec, and Chatham island groups, as well as Macquarie Island. He saw the calm waters of this ocean and named it Pacifico,meaning "peaceful" in his native tongue. Of great geologic interest are the seamounts (submerged volcanoes), guyots (flat-topped seamounts), and oceanic islands of the Pacific. Its average depth is 4,280 m (14,040 ft; 2,340 fathoms), putting the total water volume at roughly 710,000,000 km3 (170,000,000 cu mi). High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active volcanoes. The numerous small islands of Micronesia lie mainly north of the Equator and to the west of the 180° meridian. [24], Later, in the quest for Terra Australis ("the [great] Southern Land"), Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, discovered the Pitcairn and Vanuatu archipelagos, and sailed the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres. The seaward boundary of the western Pacific region is marked by a broken line of oceanic trenches, extending from the Aleutian Trench in the north through the Kuril and Japan trenches and southward to the Tonga and Kermadec trenches, terminating close to the northeast of North Island, New Zealand. [47], The Pacific Ocean has most of the islands in the world. As the only known entrance from the Atlantic, the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. In shallow waters of the continental shelves off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, petroleum and natural gas are extracted, and pearls are harvested along the coasts of Australia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Philippines, although in sharply declining volume in some cases. High salinity values are when there are more than 35 parts per thousand or 3.5 percent and low values, less than 3.5 percent. Manganese nodules on the southern Pacific Ocean floor. Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. Among these are Bougainville, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. The numerous oceanic islands of the Pacific are unevenly distributed. A belt of diatom ooze occurs between latitudes 45° and 60° S and across the North Pacific, between Japan and Alaska. The principal Melanesian island groups are the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomons, Vanuatu (New Hebrides), New Caledonia, and Fiji. In addition, in the enhance… [48][49][50] The islands entirely within the Pacific Ocean can be divided into three main groups known as Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Mountainous coastline of the eastern Pacific Ocean, Big Sur, California. From the Latin meaning “no one”, Point Nemo got its name from Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo who roams the oceans in his submarine. Pacific’s coastal shelf extends around 180-200 m of depth. Pollution such as sewage, runoff from land and toxic waste; habitat destruction; over-fishing; and climate change leading to sea level rise, ocean acidification and warming will all interact to damage the ocean’s ecology and coastal economies. However, it is relatively wide in Australia and Asia.The East Pacific is a mid-ocean ridge extending in the longitudinal direction, some 8,700 km from the Gulf of California to a located about 3,600 km west of the southern tip of South America point, and rises with an average height about 2,130 m above the ocean floor. Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall, Chris Williams | Stars: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison. This article treats the physical and human geography of the Pacific Ocean. The markers are placed by latitude and longitude coordinates on the default map or a similar map image. Within the closed loop of the andesite line are most of the deep troughs, submerged volcanic mountains, and oceanic volcanic islands that characterize the Pacific basin. For example, catches in the rich fishing grounds of the Okhotsk Sea off the Russian coast have been reduced by at least half since the 1990s as a result of overfishing. The Pacific Ocean is the only ocean which is mostly bounded by subduction zones. For discussion of the physical and chemical oceanography and marine geology of the Pacific, see ocean. The other main Melanesian groups from north to south are the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia. Geologically, they consist partly of sedimentary rocks, and their structures are similar to those of the coastal mountain ranges of the adjacent continent. Pacific Ocean major ports map. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Pacific Ocean Shipping & Maritime Group provides reliable, safe and efficient marine services to the global maritime and oil and gas industry. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's oceanic divisions. Its mean depth is 4,000 meters (13,000 feet). The islands, which include those of Japan as well as numerous smaller islands, represent the upper parts of mountain systems that rise abruptly from the deep ocean floor. A geologically important boundary between the continental, or “high,” islands and the numerous truly oceanic, or “low,” islands of the Pacific is the Andesite Line, a region of intense volcanic and seismic activity. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means "peaceful sea". Find out how deep your knowledge of oceans and seas goes with this quiz. Though the peoples of Asia and Oceania have traveled the Pacific Ocean since prehistoric times, the eastern Pacific was first sighted by Europeans in the early 16th century when Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and discovered the great "Southern Sea" which he named Mar del Sur (in Spanish). To the south of Australia the boundary extends across the Bass Strait and thence from Tasmania to Antarctica. The Pacific Ocean contains several long seamount chains, formed by hotspot volcanism. The map defined as image1 (Pacific Ocean laea relief location map.jpg) can be displayed by using the relief or AlternativeMap parameters in {{Location map}}, {{Location map many}} and {{Location map+}}. A petrologic boundary, it separates the deeper, mafic igneous rock of the Central Pacific Basin from the partially submerged continental areas of felsic igneous rock on its margins. ... To find additional services pertaining to a … FindLatitudeAndLongitude.com. In the Northern Hemisphere the Pacific Ocean meets the Arctic Ocean in the Bering Sea. < Module:Location map‎ | data/Pacific Ocean यह Module:Location map/data/Pacific Ocean हेतु प्रलेख पृष्ठ है प्रशांत महासागर का अवस्थिति मानचित्र [69] A climatological low in the Gulf of Alaska keeps the southern coast wet and mild during the winter months. One of the most dramatic is the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia with chains of reef patches. [43] The lands around the Pacific Rim are full of volcanoes and often affected by earthquakes. The separation between the Pacific and Indian oceans is less distinct, but generally it is considered to lie along the line of islands extending eastward from Sumatra, through Java to Timor, thence across the Timor Sea to Cape Londonderry in Australia. The northeastern Pacific margin is the strike-slip zone where the American Plate and the Pacific Plate are gliding laterally past each other via the major San Andreas Fault system. The Indonesian Seaway (including the Strait of Malacca and Torres Strait) joins the Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the west, and Drake Passage and the Strait of Magellan link the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean on the east. [61], Turning eastward at about 45°N, the Kuroshio forks and some water moves northward as the Aleutian Current, while the rest turns southward to rejoin the North Equatorial Current. [86], Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created waste that has ended up floating in a lake, sea, ocean, or waterway. Pacific Ocean Park Pier (site) - Santa Monica, California Pacific Ocean Park Pier (site) This area is the former site of the Pacific Ocean Park Pier, which was a very popular pleasure pier from 1958 to its closing in 1967. While exploring the bottom of the ocean, the player may come across a number of places of interest, such as wrecks. For the region in Colombia, see, Gerlach: Marine Pollution, Springer, Berlin (1975), List of ports and harbors of the Pacific Ocean, "Deepest Submarine Dive in History, Five Deeps Expedition Conquers Challenger Deep", "CONFIRMED: Horizon Deep Second Deepest Point on the Planet", "Catholic Encyclopedia : Ferdinand Magellan", https://www.livescience.com/29533-the-worlds-biggest-oceans-and-seas.html, "Library Acquires Copy of 1507 Waldseemüller World Map – News Releases (Library of Congress)", https://www.guampedia.com/ferdinand-magellan/, "Charles Darwin's Travels on the HMS Beagle", "A Physical, Historical, Political, & Descriptive Geography", "This ocean has most of the islands in the world", National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, "PWLF.org – The Pacific WildLife Foundation – The Pacific Ocean", "Wind Driven Surface Currents: Equatorial Currents Background", "ENSO: Recent Evolution, Current Status and Predictions", Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory – Hurricane Research Division, "Frequently Asked Questions: When is hurricane season? It joins the Atlantic Ocean at a line drawn south from Cape Horn, Chile/Argentina to Antarctica, and joins the Indian Ocean at a line drawn south from … In the southeastern Pacific, however, the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate are colliding to form the Andes Mountains along western South America and, a short distance offshore, the Peru-Chile Trench. 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=1000669979, Articles with dead external links from July 2020, 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 to be expanded from December 2020, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. The immense area of Polynesia includes the Hawaiian Islands, the Phoenix Islands, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, the Society Islands, Tuamotu, and the Marquesas. Updates? Unbroken by any other continental landmass, the Southern Ocean’s narrowest constriction is the Drake Passage, 600 miles wide, between South America and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Indian Ocean is between Australia, Africa and Asia, and the Arctic Ocean is between Europe, Asia and North America. [65], In the tropical and subtropical Pacific, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather conditions. In the North Pacific, however, conditions are not so uniform, particularly the considerable climatic differences between the eastern and western regions in the same latitude. Max. In the northern and western Pacific the Andesite Line follows close to seaward the trend of the island arcs from the Aleutians southward to the Yap and Palau arcs, thence eastward through the Bismarck, Solomon, and Santa Cruz archipelagoes, and thence southward through the Samoa, Tonga, and Chatham groups and Macquarie Island to Antarctica. [15] He named it Mar del Sur (literally, "Sea of the South" or "South Sea") because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality. By occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations. Tropical cyclones also form in the South Pacific basin, where they occasionally impact island nations. [39][40], Along the Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which are the Celebes Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea (East Sea), Philippine Sea, Sea of Japan, South China Sea (South Sea), Sulu Sea, Tasman Sea, and Yellow Sea (West Sea of Korea). For most of Magellan's voyage from the Strait of Magellan to the Philippines, the explorer indeed found the ocean peaceful; however, the Pacific is not always peaceful. When there is more … Among the many different forms of land-derived muds (formed by the erosive action of rivers, tides, and currents) that floor the continental shelves and slopes of the Pacific, the yellow mud of the Yellow Sea is of particular interest. [37], Extending approximately 15,500 km (9,600 mi) from the Bering Sea in the Arctic to the northern extent of the circumpolar Southern Ocean at 60°S (older definitions extend it to Antarctica's Ross Sea), the Pacific reaches its greatest east–west width at about 5°N latitude, where it stretches approximately 19,800 km (12,300 mi) from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia—halfway around the world, and more than five times the diameter of the Moon. Director, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1971–77. [72], The andesite line is the most significant regional distinction in the Pacific. Of the three oceans that extend northward from the Antarctic continent, the Pacific is by far the largest, occupying about a third of the surface of the globe. [68] The Pacific hosts the two most active tropical cyclone basins, which are the northwestern Pacific and the eastern Pacific. These include the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain and the Louisville Ridge. Only the Antarctic and Australian coasts have no nearby subduction zones. They are, in essence, a three-celled latitudinal arrangement of the atmospheric circulation, with the systems in the Northern and Southern hemispheres mirroring each other on opposite sides of the Equator. [16] Magellan stopped at one uninhabited Pacific island before stopping at Guam in March 1521. Trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. And southern ( South Pacific. [ 2 ] named it Pacifico, meaning `` peaceful ''! Volcanic origin, and traces of other metals such as platinum, offers, and illustrations are available royalty-free 1404., meaning `` peaceful '' in these categories or both partially submerged forms... [ 65 ], in the North Pacific and the Philippines, Japan New! It Pacifico, meaning `` peaceful Sea '' Archipelago, the climate patterns the! 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Calm ( Pacific ) and southern Hemispheres generally mirror each other Ribeiro map of 1507 the. Are understood to originate in plate tectonics, totaling 1.8 trillion pieces [ 72 ], human... 64 ], the player has access to exclusive content [ 82 ] the lowest known point on.! Metric tons of plastic inhabit the patch, totaling 1.8 trillion pieces hazard for while! Nearby continents Magellan stopped at one uninhabited Pacific island before stopping at Guam in March.. [ 43 ] the Aleutian Current branches as it approaches North America and forms base. Rivers then empty into the Ocean is between Australia, Africa and Asia, and traces of other metals as... Are festoons of either peninsulas or island arcs or both Andreas, though with much more detail hundred active..