Of all the world’s oceans, the Pacific boasts the most diverse marine biodiversity. Pacific islands are occasionally subject to tropical cyclones that form in the southern Pacific basin. On the other hand, typhoons form in the northwestern area of the Pacific, hitting southeast Asia from May to December. Among these, we recognize the Pacific hurricanes that normally originate in the Gulf of Mexico and, sometimes, hit the United States’ coasts between June and October. The Pacific ocean comprises further climate phenomena, known as tropical cyclone basins. 5 ☌ (0.9 ☏) above or below normal for that period, then an El Niño or La Niña is considered in progress. The timeframe of these atmospheric phenomena lasts about three-months and it is determined by the average sea-surface temperature of the southeast area of Hawaii: if it is more that 0. These two represent periodic climate patterns that cause, respectively, heating and cooling processes of ocean waters. The tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific ocean are periodically affected by weather oscillations known as El Niño and La Niña Southern Oscillation s. Specifically, in the North, there are considerable differences between the eastern and western regions in the same latitude: the extreme temperatures that characterize the winters off the east coast of Russia, for instance, contrasts sharply with the relative mildness of winters in British Columbia. In the North Pacific, conditions are not as uniform as they are in the southern part of this massive body of water. The climate patterns of the Northern and Southern hemispheres generally mirror each other. Its greatest latitudinal extent reaches 19,000 km (12,000 miles) between the coast of Colombia and the Malay Peninsula. The Pacific also connects to the Indian Ocean basin close to the Strait of Malacca, Sumatra, and to the Atlantic by the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage. The vast ocean contains approximately 30,000 islands divided between the Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia regions. mi), roughly 46% of the water surface on Earth. Occupying almost 32% of the Earth’s surface, the Pacific covers 165,250,000 square kilometers (63,800,000 sq. One curious fact is that the area of the Pacific exceeds the land of all continents put together. The Pacific Ocean basin has twice the area and more than two times the water volume of the Atlantic, which comes next in terms of size. Its name comes from the fact that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, during his journey to the Philippines, found the Ocean to be quite peaceful, thus “pacific”. It stretches from the Western coasts of North and South America to Oceania, Asia and Russia in the North. T he largest ocean basin is, by far, the Pacific. In this article, we will focus on the largest ocean basin on the planet, and find out all its details and characteristics. The ocean provides humans with millions of jobs, goods, and services all around the world, but also absorbs huge amounts of CO2 that we produce, which is one of the major causes of climate change.ĭue to cultural, geographical, and historical factors, human beings have divided the ocean into five recognized ocean basins : the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Ocean basins. Warm currents move to the Poles along the surface, and as they reach the Poles they cool down, and sink, circling back from the depths towards the equator this regulates the global climate and maintains the balance of marine and land ecosystems. Oceans regulate the global climate by moving warm and cold masses of sea waters around the planet. It is from the ocean that 50-80% of the oxygen we breathe thanks to the Process of photosynthesis that tiny marine algae known as phytoplankton produce. It is also the largest ecosystem on Earth: it represents 99% of all the planet’s biosphere. The ocean is one massive body of water, connected throughout the globe, also known as the Global Ocean, covering almost 71% of Earth’s surface and containing more than 97% of the planet’s total amount of water.
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