The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea") is the largest of Earth’s oceanic divisions, covering nearly a third of the planet’s surface. It extends north to south from the Arctic to Antarctica and is bounded by the Americas in the east and Asia and Australia in the west. The equator subdivides this vast expanse of water into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean.
The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,798 ft). The world’s tallest mountain, from base to peak, is Hawaii’s Mauna Kea at 33,480 feet (10,314 meters). Neighboring Mauna Loa is the world’s largest shield volcano (in terms of area covered). It may be Earth’s biggest mountain in general, though I haven’t verified it.
The Pacific Ocean embraces about 25,000 islands, most of them south of the equator. Most of these islands lie within a vast region called Oceania (both a geographical and geopolitical unit), which is subdivided ethnologically into Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
Good references include Wikipedia > Pacific Ocean. For current events, try Google News > Pacific Ocean. (However, one should always be suspicious of news and views reported by the corporate media, particularly concerning socio-political issues.)
If I can find the time, I will research and write an article about the Pacific Ocean, focusing on it from this website’s perspective. With nearly two dozen websites to develop, I’m simply overwhelmed. But now that I’ve completed a major upgrade (May 2009) of most of my websites, I’m once again focusing on content, attacking it witih a combination of articles, databases and blogs.
In the meantime, if you can’t find whatever you’re looking for here, you might click the Regions and/or Children tabs above (if any) and explore some of those links. Note, also, the WebRing links near the bottom of the page.
Finally, you can try my new, improved and expanded search pages, where you can search this website, a combination of sites or the entire web. (See the Search link at the top of the page.)
Good general references include Wikipedia > Pacific Ocean. For current events, try Google News > Pacific Ocean. (However, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the corporate media, particularly on socio-political issues.)
Thanks for bearing with me, and please check back now and then. :)
David Blomstrom -- May 7, 2009Warning: main(/home/geobear2/public_html/AContent/Child/World/KonOce/GZ/Pacific_Ocean.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/geobear2/public_html/2B/inc/D/Content/Child/StaticWorld.php on line 155
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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - 
