Diving Into the World's Deepest Waters: The Pacific Ocean


The world's biggest ocean holds many secrets. Rich with wildlife, minerals, and volcanic islands, the Pacific Ocean is the deepest and biggest ocean on Earth.

The Pacific Ocean is about twice as big as the Atlantic Ocean and contains three times as much water. This ocean has islands everywhere and is surrounded by many of the world’s most highly-populated nations. In fact, more than half of all people currently on Earth live along the Pacific Ocean’s coast.

Active plates called “the Ring of Fire” border the Pacific Ocean. These tectonic plates cause earthquakes and tsunamis and create islands and mountain chains. The basin of the Pacific Ocean was actually created by the movement of such tectonic plates. Movement along the active plate border enclosing the Pacific Ocean has also resulted in the creation of land and island volcanoes. As the plates hit each other, thinner ocean plates are forced under thicker continental plates. This forms deep ditches on the ocean floor and tall ridges that in turn create volcanoes and islands. These zones are called subduction zones and are often areas of extreme earthshaking and volcanic action.

Even though it is the biggest ocean on Earth, the Pacific Ocean is slowly decreasing in size because of the movement of the Indo-Australian plate. The ancient pieces of this plate are at least 135 million years old and are now moving in a way that's making the ocean's basin smaller.

The Pacific Ocean is also the site of much of the world’s trade. Since World War II, trade between the U.S. and pacific countries have steadily increased.

This article represents only a small amount of information compared to what the Pacific Ocean holds. To this day, many scientists are working to understand all that the magnificent Pacific Ocean holds.

[Source: World Reference Atlas ]

Love this one, Valeria! I like how you write about such a variety of topics. You should be a real trivia whiz by now! Keep it up :). – Mckenna , Madison, WI (2017-05-10 19:49)
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