It is believed that the first person to visit the Pacific Ocean by ship was Magellan... In 1520, he circled South America and saw new expanses of water. Since during the entire trip Magellan's team did not meet a single storm, the new ocean was named " Quiet".
But even earlier in 1513 the Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa headed south from Colombia to what he was told was a rich country with a large sea. Having reached the ocean, the conquistador saw the endless surface of the water stretching to the west, and called it " South Sea".
Fauna of the Pacific Ocean
The ocean is famous for the richest flora and fauna. It is home to about 100 thousand species of animals. This diversity is not found in any other ocean. For example, the second largest ocean is the Atlantic Ocean, inhabited by "only" 30 thousand species of animals.
There are several places in the Pacific Ocean where the depth is more than 10 km. These are the famous Mariana Trench, the Philippine Trench and the Kermadec and Tonga Troughs. Scientists were able to describe 20 species of animals living at such a great depth.
Half of all seafood consumed by humans comes from the Pacific Ocean. Among 3 thousand species of fish, commercial scale fishery is open for herring, anchovies, mackerel, sardines, etc.
Climate
The great length of the ocean from north to south quite logically explains the variety of climatic zones - from equatorial to Antarctic. The most extensive zone is the equatorial one. Throughout the year, the temperature here does not drop below 20 degrees. Fluctuations in temperature throughout the year are so small that we can safely say that there is always +25. There is a lot of precipitation, more than 3,000 mm. in year. Very frequent cyclones are characteristic.
The amount of precipitation is greater than the amount of evaporated water. Rivers, which bring more than 30,000 m³ of fresh water into the ocean annually, make surface waters less saline than in other oceans.
The relief of the seabed and islands of the Pacific Ocean
The bottom topography is extremely varied. In the east is located East Pacific Rise where the relief is relatively flat. Basins and deep-water trenches are located in the center. The average depth is 4,000 m, and in some places it exceeds 7 km. The ocean floor is covered with volcanic products with high levels of copper, nickel and cobalt. The thickness of such deposits in some areas can be 3 km. The age of these rocks begins with the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
At the bottom there are several long chains of seamounts formed by the action of volcanoes: mountains of the emperor, Louisville and Hawaiian skeletons. There are about 25,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. This is more than all other oceans combined. Most of them are located south of the equator.
The islands are classified into 4 types:
- Continental islands... Very closely related to the continents. Includes New Guinea, the islands of New Zealand and the Philippines;
- High islands... Appeared as a result of underwater volcanic eruptions. Many of today's high islands have active volcanoes. For example Bougainville, Hawaii and the Solomon Islands;
- Coral elevated atolls;
The latter two island types are huge colonies of coral polyps that form coral reefs and islands.
- This ocean is so huge that its maximum width is equal to half of the Earth's equator, i.e. more than 17 thousand km.
- The fauna is large and varied. Even now, new animals unknown to science are regularly discovered there. So, in 2005, a group of scientists discovered about 1000 species of decapod crayfish, two and a half thousand molluscs and more than a hundred crustaceans.
- The deepest point on the planet is in the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench. Its depth exceeds 11 km.
- The tallest mountain in the world is located in the Hawaiian Islands. It is called Muan-Kea and is an extinct volcano. The height from the base to the top is about 10,000 m.
- Located at the bottom of the ocean Pacific volcanic ring of fire, which is a chain of volcanoes located along the perimeter of the entire ocean.
The content of the article
PACIFIC OCEAN, the largest body of water in the world, with an area estimated at 178.62 million km 2, which is several million square kilometers more than the earth's land area and more than twice the area of the Atlantic Ocean. The width of the Pacific Ocean from Panama to the eastern coast of Mindanao is 17,200 km, and the length from north to south, from the Bering Strait to Antarctica, is 15,450 km. It stretches from the western shores of the Americas to the eastern coasts of Asia and Australia. From the north, the Pacific Ocean is almost completely enclosed by land, connecting with the Arctic Ocean by a narrow Bering Strait (minimum width 86 km). In the south, it reaches the shores of Antarctica, and in the east, its border with the Atlantic Ocean is drawn at 67 ° W. - Cape Horn meridian; in the west, the border of the South Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean is drawn along 147 ° E, corresponding to the position of the South-East Cape in southern Tasmania.
Zoning of the Pacific Ocean.
Usually the Pacific Ocean is divided into two regions - North and South, bordering on the equator. Some specialists prefer to draw the boundary along the axis of the equatorial countercurrent, i.e. approximately 5 ° N latitude. Previously, the Pacific Ocean was more often subdivided into three parts: northern, central and southern, the borders between which were the Northern and Southern tropics.
Individual parts of the ocean located between islands or land protrusions have their own names. The largest areas of the Pacific Basin include the Bering Sea in the north; the Gulf of Alaska in the northeast; the bays of California and Tehuantepec in the east, off the coast of Mexico; Fonseca Bay off the coast of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua and slightly to the south - the Gulf of Panama. There are only a few small bays off the west coast of South America, such as Guayaquil off the coast of Ecuador.
In the western and southwestern Pacific, numerous large islands separate many inter-island seas from the mainland, such as the Tasman Sea southeast of Australia and the Coral Sea off its northeastern coast; The Arafura Sea and Carpentaria Bay north of Australia; the Banda Sea to the north of Timor Island; the Flores Sea to the north of the island of the same name; The Java Sea to the north of Java; The Gulf of Thailand between the peninsulas of Malacca and Indochina; Bakbo Bay (Tonkin) off the coast of Vietnam and China; Makassar Strait between the islands of Kalimantan and Sulawesi; the Moluccan and Sulawesi seas, respectively, to the east and north of the Sulawesi island; finally, the Philippine Sea east of the Philippine Islands.
A special area in the southwest of the northern half of the Pacific Ocean is the Sulu Sea within the southwestern part of the Philippine archipelago, which also contains many small bays, bays and semi-enclosed seas (for example, the Sibuyan, Mindanao, Visayan Seas, Manila Bay, Lamon Bays and Pour). The East China and Yellow Seas are located off the eastern coast of China; the latter forms two bays in the north: Bohaiwan and West Korean. The Japanese Islands are separated from the Korea Peninsula by the Korea Strait. In the same northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, there are several more seas: the Inland Sea of Japan among the southern Japanese islands; The Sea of Japan to the west of them; to the north - the Sea of Okhotsk, connected with the Sea of Japan by the Tatar Strait. Farther north, immediately south of the Chukotka Peninsula, is the Anadyr Bay.
The greatest difficulties are caused by drawing the border between the Pacific and Indian oceans in the area of the Malay Archipelago. None of the proposed boundaries could satisfy botanists, zoologists, geologists and oceanologists at the same time. Some scholars consider the so-called. the Wallace Line through the Makassar Strait. Others propose to draw the border through the Gulf of Thailand, the southern part of the South China Sea and the Java Sea.
Characteristics of the shores.
The shores of the Pacific Ocean vary so much from place to place that it is difficult to distinguish any common features. With the exception of the extreme south, the Pacific coastline is surrounded by a ring of dormant or occasionally active volcanoes known as the Ring of Fire. Most of the shores are formed by high mountains, so that the absolute elevations of the surface change sharply at a close distance from the coast. All this testifies to the presence of a tectonically unstable zone along the periphery of the Pacific Ocean, the slightest movement within which is the cause of strong earthquakes.
In the east, the steep slopes of the mountains approach the very coast of the Pacific Ocean or are separated from it by a narrow strip of the coastal plain; this structure is typical for the entire coastal zone, from the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska to Cape Horn. Only in the extreme north does the Bering Sea have low-lying shores.
In North America, the coastal mountain ranges have scattered low areas and passages, but in South America the majestic Andes chain forms an almost continuous barrier throughout the continent. The coastline is fairly flat, and bays and peninsulas are rare. In the north, Puget Sound and San Francisco Bays and the Strait of Georgia are most deeply cut into the land. On most of the South American coastline, the coastline is flattened and almost nowhere forms bays and bays, with the exception of the Gulf of Guayaquil. However, in the extreme north and extreme south of the Pacific Ocean, there are areas that are very similar in structure - the Alexander archipelago (southern Alaska) and the Chonos archipelago (off the coast of southern Chile). Both areas are characterized by numerous islands, large and small, with steep shores, fjords and fjord-like straits that form secluded bays. The rest of the Pacific coast of North and South America, despite its great length, presents only limited opportunities for navigation, since there are very few convenient natural harbors, and the coast is often separated by a mountain barrier from the interior of the mainland. In Central and South America, mountains hinder communication between west and east, isolating a narrow strip of the Pacific coast. In the north of the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea is ice-bound for most of the winter, and the coast of northern Chile is largely desert; the area is known for its deposits of copper ore and sodium nitrate. Areas located in the far north and far south of the American coast - the Gulf of Alaska and the vicinity of Cape Horn - have gained notoriety for their stormy and foggy weather.
The western coast of the Pacific Ocean differs significantly from the eastern one; the coasts of Asia have many bays and bays, in many places forming an unbroken chain. There are numerous protrusions of various sizes: from such large peninsulas as Kamchatka, Korean, Liaodong, Shandong, Leizhoubandao, Indochina, to countless capes separating shallow bays. Mountains are also confined to the Asian coast, but they are not very high and are usually somewhat removed from the coast. More importantly, they do not form continuous chains and are not a barrier isolating coastal areas, as is the case on the east coast of the ocean. In the west, many large rivers flow into the ocean: Anadyr, Penjina, Amur, Yalujiang (Amnokkan), Huang He, Yangtze, Xijiang, Yuanjiang (Hongha - Red), Mekong, Chao Phraya (Menam). Many of these rivers have formed vast deltas where large populations live. The Yellow River carries so much sediment into the sea that its sediments have formed a bridge between the coast and a large island, thus creating the Shandong Peninsula.
Another difference between the eastern and western coasts of the Pacific Ocean is that the western coast is bordered by a huge number of islands of different sizes, often mountainous and volcanic. These islands include the Aleutian, Commander, Kuril, Japanese, Ryukyu, Taiwan, Philippine islands (their total number exceeds 7000); finally, between Australia and the Malacca Peninsula there is a huge cluster of islands, in area comparable to the mainland on which Indonesia is located. All these islands have mountainous terrain and are part of the Ring of Fire that encircles the Pacific Ocean.
Only a few large rivers of the American continent flow into the Pacific Ocean - this is hindered by mountain ranges. The exception is some rivers in North America - Yukon, Kuskokwim, Fraser, Columbia, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Colorado.
Bottom relief.
The Pacific Ocean depression has a fairly constant depth throughout the entire area - approx. 3900–4300 m. The most notable elements of the relief are deep-water depressions and trenches; uplifts and ridges are less pronounced. Two uplifts stretch from the shores of South America: the Galapagos in the north and the Chilean, which extends from the central regions of Chile to about 38 ° S latitude. Both of these uplifts join and continue south towards Antarctica. As another example, a rather vast underwater plateau can be mentioned, over which the Fiji and Solomon Islands rise. Deep-sea trenches are often located close to the coast and parallel to it, the formation of which is associated with the belt of volcanic mountains that frame the Pacific Ocean. The most famous are the Challenger deep-water troughs (11,033 m) southwest of Guam; Galatea (10,539 m), Cape Johnson (10,497 m), Emden (10,397 m), three Snellus troughs (named after a Dutch ship) with depths from 10,068 to 10,130 m and Planet trough (9788 m) near the Philippine Islands; Ramapo (10,375 m) south of Japan. The Tuscarora depression (8513 m), which is a part of the Kuril-Kamchatka trench, was discovered in 1874.
The Pacific Ocean floor is characterized by numerous seamounts - the so-called. guyots; their flat tops are located at a depth of 1.5 km or more. It is believed that these are volcanoes that previously rose above sea level, were subsequently washed away by waves. To explain the fact that they are now at great depths, one has to assume that this part of the Pacific Basin is experiencing subsidence.
The Pacific Ocean bed is composed of red clays, blue silts and crushed coral fragments; some vast areas of the bottom are covered with globigerin, diatom, pteropod, and radiolarian oozes. The bottom sediments contain manganese nodules and shark teeth. There are a lot of coral reefs, but they are only common in shallow waters.
The salinity of the water in the Pacific Ocean is not very high and ranges from 30 to 35 ‰. Temperature fluctuations are also quite significant depending on latitudinal position and depth; the temperatures of the near-surface layer in the equatorial belt (between 10 ° N and 10 ° S) are approx. 27 ° C; at great depths and in the extreme north and south of the ocean, the temperature is only slightly above the freezing point of sea water.
Currents, tides, tsunamis.
The main currents in the North Pacific include the warm Kuroshio Current, or the Japanese Current, passing into the North Pacific (these currents play the same role in the Pacific Ocean as the system of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current in the Atlantic Ocean); cold California current; North Passat (Equatorial) current and cold Kamchatka (Kuril) current. In the southern part of the ocean, the warm currents of the East Australian and South Passat (Equatorial) currents are distinguished; cold currents of the West Winds and the Peruvian. In the Northern Hemisphere, these main systems of currents move clockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere - against it. The tides are generally low for the Pacific Ocean; the exception is Cook Bay in Alaska, which is famous for its exceptionally high water rise during high tides and is second only to the Bay of Fundy in the northwest Atlantic Ocean in this respect.
When earthquakes or large landslides occur on the seabed, waves - tsunamis - occur. These waves travel huge distances, sometimes more than 16 thousand km. In the open ocean, they are low in height and long, but when approaching land, especially in narrow and shallow bays, their height can increase up to 50 m.
Research history.
Navigation in the Pacific Ocean began long before the beginning of the written history of mankind. However, there is evidence that the first European to see the Pacific Ocean was the Portuguese Vasco Balboa; in 1513 the ocean opened before him from the Darien Mountains in Panama. In the history of Pacific exploration, there are such famous names as Fernand Magellan, Abel Tasman, Francis Drake, Charles Darwin, Vitus Bering, James Cook and George Vancouver. Later, scientific expeditions on the British ship "Challenger" (1872-1876), and then on the ships "Tuscarora", played an important role. "Planet" and Discovery.
However, not all seafarers who crossed the Pacific Ocean did it on purpose, and not all were well equipped for such a voyage. It could well be that winds and ocean currents picked up primitive boats or rafts and carried them to distant shores. In 1946, the Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl put forward a theory according to which Polynesia was settled by settlers from South America who lived in Peru in pre-Inca time. In support of his theory, Heyerdahl with five satellites sailed almost 7 thousand km across the Pacific Ocean on a primitive raft made of balsa logs. However, although his voyage, which lasted 101 days, proved the possibility of such a voyage in the past, most oceanographers still do not accept Heyerdahl's theories.
In 1961, a discovery was made that indicated the possibility of even more striking contacts between the inhabitants of the opposite shores of the Pacific Ocean. In Ecuador, in a primitive burial at the Valdivia site, a pottery fragment was discovered that is strikingly similar in design and technology to the pottery of the Japanese Islands. Other pottery items have also been found, belonging to these two spatially separated cultures, and also having a noticeable similarity. According to archaeological data, this transoceanic contact between cultures, located at a distance of about 13 thousand km, occurred ca. 3000 BC.
Presentation on the theme "Seas washing the borders of Russia" in geography for schoolchildren. Consists of twenty eight slides. Author - Ishmuratova Lilia Malikovna
Fragments from the presentation:
Targets and goals:
- Get acquainted with the peculiarities of the seas and oceans washing the territory of Russia
- Consider the natural resources of the seas of Russia and the ecological problems of the seas
Arctic Ocean
Characteristics of the seas of the Arctic Ocean
- All marginal seas, except for the White
- All seas are located on the continental shelf, so they are shallow
- Salinity of seas below oceanic
- The climate of the seas is harsh, only part of the Barents Sea does not freeze
- The Northern Sea Route passes through the seas of the Arctic Ocean - the shortest route from the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok
- Ice moves clockwise under the influence of winds and currents - it drifts. Ice collide, forming piles of ice - hummocks
Pacific Ocean
Characteristics of the Pacific seas
- All the seas of the Pacific Ocean are marginal and are separated from the ocean by a chain of islands
- All have significant depths, since they have almost no shelf zone
- The seas are located in the zone of the Pacific Ring of Fire, in the area of the boundaries of the lithospheric plates, therefore tsunamis are frequent here, and along the shores there are volcanoes, the shores of the seas are mountainous
- The nature of the Bering and Okhotsk seas is harsh. The seas freeze, and in summer the water temperature is not higher than + 12C. Only the southernmost, the Sea of Japan, does not freeze. Typhoons and violent storms are frequent here. The Sea of Okhotsk has the highest tides in Russia
Atlantic Ocean
Characteristics of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean
- All seas are internal, that is, they are connected to the ocean by narrow straits and are surrounded on all sides by land
- Deep - Black Sea (maximum depth - 2210 m), and Azov - the shallowest sea in Russia - maximum depth 15 m, average 5-7 m.
- The Black Sea is located in a tectonic depression
- The Baltic and Azov seas are covered with ice for a short time. In the Baltic, bays freeze, and the Black Sea is the warmest sea in Russia and ice occurs only in its northern bays
- The Black Sea is contaminated from a depth of 200 m with poisonous hydrogen sulfide and is deprived of life from a depth of 200 m
- Caspian Sea - lake basin of internal flow
The most, the most, the most
- The deepest sea in Russia - Beringovo (maximum depth - 5500 m)
- The largest in area - Beringovo
- The shallowest - Azov (maximum depth - 15 m)
- The smallest area is Azovskoe
- The coldest - East Siberian (in summer water temperature +1 C)
- The cleanest is Chukotka
- The warmest is the Black Sea
Resources of the seas
- The Barents Sea is the richest in biological resources of the Arctic Ocean
- Richer in resources of the Pacific Ocean
- The Caspian Sea contains 80% of the planet's sturgeon stocks
- In the Baltic Sea they catch
- The Sea of Azov is an important fishing area
- The Black Sea does not have an important fishing value, but fishing is also carried out here
- Kislogubskaya tidal power plant (Barents Sea)
- The seas have rich mineral resources
The Black Sea has the richest recreational resources
- Anapa
- Tuapse
The main sources of pollution of the seas
- Industrial effluent from river water - 40%
- Sea transport - 30%
- Accidents of oil tankers
- Accidents of oil pipelines laid along the seabed
Ways to improve the environmental situation
- Use waste-free production along the coasts and river banks
- Construction of treatment facilities
- Avoid high concentration (accumulation of industrial enterprises) on the coasts of the seas
- Creation of protected water areas (marine reserves and reserves)
Sea comparison plan
- Which ocean basin does it belong to?
- Fringe or internal
- Coastline (rugged, no, bays, peninsulas)
- Depths
- Salinity
- Water temperature (ice)
- Resources of the seas
- Ecological problems
Comparative characteristics of the Black and Kara seas
Black Sea
- Atlantic Ocean basin
- Inland sea
- Indented, Crimean Peninsula
- 1315 m
- January - 1 ° + 7 °, July + 25 °
- Recreational resources
- Ecological problems
Kara Sea
- Arctic Ocean basin
- Okrannoe
- Heavily indented, Yamal Peninsula, Gydansky, Taimyr
- 111 m
- 7-33 ‰
- January -1.5 °, July + 1 ° + 4 °
- Biological resources
- Ecological problems
"Map of rivers, lakes, seas of Russia" - Rivers of Russia. Conclusions. Many large industrial cities have been built on the Volga. Laptev sea. Yenisei. Bering Sea. Seas of Russia. Lena. Baltic Sea. Baikal. Caspian Sea. Seas of the Arctic Ocean. Ob. The banks of the Lena are very poorly populated. Seas, lakes and rivers of Russia. Large stretch of coastline. Japanese Sea. Ladoga lake. There are more than 100 species of fish. Rivers. Lake. Kara Sea. White Sea. The Azov sea.
"Provision of water resources in Russia" - Flow regulation. Water consumption and water use. Protection of water resources. Agriculture. Reservoirs and canals. What is "Water Resources". Water resources. Stocks. Self-esteem. Full-flowing rivers. Water resources of Russia. Placement of water resources.
"What seas wash Russia" - the Atlantic Ocean. Which ocean basin it belongs to. Sturgeon. Pink salmon. Comparison plan of the seas. Only the southernmost, the Sea of Japan, does not freeze. The Caspian Sea contains 80% of the planet's sturgeon stocks. Richer in resources of the Pacific Ocean. Kislogubskaya tidal power plant (Barents Sea). Biological resources. Mineral resources. Sochi. Arctic Ocean. Chukchi Sea.
"Reservoirs of Russia" - Watercourses. Pacific Ocean Basin. Natural waters. Caspian Sea. Wetlands. Groundwater. The origin of the lakes. Reservoirs of Russia. Oceans. Classification of reservoirs. Seas. Estuary lakes. Swamps of the forest zone. Rivers. Permafrost. River system. The Azov sea. Lakes. Black Sea.
"Internal waters and rivers of Russia" - Rivers regime. Swamps. Lakes. Water resources. Types of rivers. Rivers belong to the basins of three oceans. Moraine lakes. Volcanic lakes. Internal waters of Russia. Glaciers. Slope and fall of the river. Permafrost. The structure of the river. Types of inland waters. Reservoirs. Human influence on water resources. Types of river feeding. Rivers. The groundwater. Glacial tectonic lake. Tectonic lake. Thermokarst lakes.
"Seas of the Atlantic Ocean, washing Russia" - Properties of the waters of the Azov Sea. The organic world of the ocean. With numerous straits. Salinity. Seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Ocean. Gulf of the Black Sea. Recreational resources. Black Sea. Coast. Geographical position. Economic activity of the seas. Russia. Properties of the Black Sea waters. Properties of the waters of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Seas. Salinity change. Sea area. The Azov sea.
The average depth is 3988 m. The deepest point of the ocean (it is also the deepest point in the world) is located in the Mariana Trench and is called the Challenger Abyss (11.022 m).
... Average temperature: 19-37 ° C. The widest part of the Pacific Ocean is located in the equatorial-tropical latitudes, so the temperature of surface waters is much higher than in other oceans.
... Dimensions: area - 179.7 million sq. Km, volume - 710.36 million sq. Km.
To imagine how big the Pacific Ocean is, enough numbers: it occupies a third of our planet and makes up almost half of the World Ocean.
Salinity - 35-36 ‰.
Pacific Ocean currents
Alaskan- it washes the western coast of North America and reaches the Bering Sea. It spreads to great depths, down to the bottom. Current speed: 0.2-0.5 m / s. Water temperature: 7-15 ° С.
East Australian- the largest off the Australian coast. It starts at the equator (Coral Sea) and runs along the east coast of Australia. Average speed - 2-3 knots (up to 7). Temperature - 25 ° С.
Kuroshio(or Japanese) - washes the southern and eastern shores of Japan, transferring the warm waters of the South China Sea to northern latitudes. It has three branches: East Korean, Tsushima and Soya. Speed: 6 km / h, temperature 18-28 ° С.
North Pacific- continuation of the Kuroshio flow. It crosses the ocean from west to east, branches off the coast of North America into Alaskan (goes to the north) and California (to the south). Near the coast of Mexico, it folds and crosses the ocean in the opposite direction (North-Trade Current) - up to the Kuroshio.
South Passatnoye- flows in southern tropical latitudes, stretches from east to west: from the shores of South America (Galapogos Islands) to the shores of Australia and New Guinea. Temperature - 32 ° C. It gives rise to the Australian current.
Equatorial countercurrent (or inter-trade)- stretches from west to east between the North-Trade and South-Trade currents.
Cromwell flow- subsurface countercurrent, which passes under the South Passatny. Speed 70-150 cm / sec.
Cold:
California- the western branch of the North Pacific Current, flows along the western shores of the United States and Mexico. Speed - 1-2 km / h, temperature 15-26 ° С.
Antarctic circumpolar (or current of the West Winds)- goes around the entire globe between 40 ° and 50 ° S latitude. Speed 0.4-0.9 km / h, temperature 12-15 ° C. This current is often referred to as the "Roaring Forties" as powerful storms rage here. The Peruvian Current branches off from it in the Pacific Ocean.
Peruvian current (or Humboldt current)- flows from south to north from the shores of Antarctica along the western coasts of Chile and Peru. Speed 0.9 km / h, temperature 15-20 ° C.
The underwater world of the Pacific
The flora and fauna of the underwater world in the Pacific Ocean is the richest and most diverse. Almost 50% of all living organisms of the World Ocean live here. The most densely populated area is considered to be the water area near the Great Balier Reef.
All the living nature of the ocean is located according to climatic zones - in the north and south it is more scarce than in the tropics, but the total number of each species of animals or plants is greater here.
The Pacific Ocean provides more than half of the world's seafood catch. The most popular commercial species are salmon (95% of the world catch), mackerel, anchovies, sardines, horse mackerel, halibuts. There is a limited whale fishery: baleen and sperm whales.
The numbers testify to the wealth of the underwater world:
- more than 850 types of algae;
- more than 100 thousand species of animals (of which more than 3800 species of fish);
- about 200 species of animals living at a depth of more than 7 thousand km;
- more than 6 thousand species of molluscs.
The Pacific Ocean is home to the largest number of endemics (animals that are found only here): dugongs, fur seals, sea otters, sea lions, sea cucumbers, polychaetes, leopard sharks.
The nature of the Pacific Ocean has been studied only by 10 percent. Every year scientists discover new species of animals and plants. For example, in 2005 alone, more than 2,500 new species of molluscs and more than 100 species of crustaceans were found.
Pacific Ocean Exploration
According to research by scientists, the Pacific Ocean is the oldest on the planet. Its formation began in the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic, that is, more than 140 million years ago. The development of the ocean began long before the advent of writing. People who lived on the shores of the greatest water area used the gifts of the ocean thousands of years ago. So, the expedition of Thor Heyerdahl on the Kon-Tiki balsa raft confirmed the scientist's theory that the islands of Polynesia could be populated by immigrants from South America who were able to cross the Pacific Ocean on the same rafts.
For Europeans, the history of the development of the ocean is officially calculated from September 15, 1513. On this day, the traveler Vasco Nunez de Balboa first saw the surface of the water, stretching to the horizon, and christened it the South Sea.
According to legend, the ocean got its name from F. Magellan himself. During his trip around the world, the great Portuguese circled South America for the first time and found himself in the ocean. Having sailed on it for more than 17 thousand kilometers and not having experienced a single storm during all this time, Magellan christened the ocean the Pacific. And only later studies proved that he was wrong. The Pacific Ocean is actually one of the most turbulent. It is here that the largest tsunamis occur, and typhoons, hurricanes and storms are more frequent here than in other oceans.
Since then, an active exploration of the largest ocean on the planet began. We list only the most significant discoveries:
1589 - A. Ortelius publishes the world's first detailed map of the ocean.
1642-1644 - A. Tasman conquers the ocean and discovers a new continent - Australia.
1769-1779 - D. Cook's three voyages around the world and exploration of the southern part of the ocean.
1785 - voyage by J. La Perouse, exploration of the southern and northern parts of the ocean. The mysterious disappearance of the expedition in 1788 still haunts the minds of researchers.
1787-1794 - the journey of A. Malaspin, who made a detailed map of the western coast of America.
1725-1741 - two Kamchatka expeditions led by V.I. Bering and A. Chirikov, exploration of the northern and northwestern parts of the ocean.
1819-1821 - F. Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev's circumnavigation of the world, the discovery of Antarctica and islands in the southern part of the ocean.
1872-1876 - the world's first scientific expedition to study the Pacific Ocean on the Challenger corvette (England) was organized. Maps of depths, bottom topography were compiled, a collection of flora and fauna of the ocean was collected.
1949-1979 - 65 scientific voyages of the Vityaz vessel under the flag of the USSR Academy of Sciences (measuring the depth of the Mariana Trench and detailed maps of the underwater relief).
1960 - first dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
1973 - establishment of the Pacific Oceanological Institute (Vladivostok)
Since the 90s of the twentieth century, a comprehensive study of the Pacific Ocean began, which combines and systematizes all the data obtained. Currently, the priority areas are geophysics, geochemistry, geology and commercial use of the ocean floor.
Since the discovery of the Challenger Abyss in 1875, only three people have descended to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench. The last dive took place on March 12, 2012. And the brave diver was none other than the famous filmmaker James Cameron.
For many representatives of the fauna of the Pacific Ocean, gigantism is characteristic: giant mussels and oysters, tridacna clam (300 kg).
There are over 25 thousand islands in the Pacific Ocean, more than in all other oceans combined. Here is also the most ancient island on the planet - Kauai, whose age is estimated at 6 million years.
More than 80% of tsunamis are "born" in the Pacific Ocean. The reason for this is the large number of underwater volcanoes.
The Pacific Ocean is full of secrets. There are many mystical places here: the Devil's Sea (near Japan), where ships and planes disappear; the bloodthirsty island of Palmyra, where everyone who remains there perishes; Easter Island with its mysterious idols; Laguna Truk, where the largest military equipment cemetery is located. And in 2011, not far from Australia, a feature island was discovered - Sandy Island. It appears and disappears, as evidenced by numerous expeditions and Google satellite photos.
In the north of the ocean, the so-called Garbage Continent was discovered. It is a large garbage heap containing over 100 million tons of plastic waste.
