We are creating the world's most trusted encyclopedia and knowledge base. Once you join us and log in, you'll be able to edit this page instantly!

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

The Pacific Ocean is the largest single mass of water in the world. It lies between Asia and Australia on its west, and North America and South America on its east. It encompasses more territory than all the landmass in the world combined. It is named from the Latin, Mare Pacificum, meaning 'peaceful sea' by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer serving under the auspices of the Spanish crown.

The area of the Pacific Ocean depends on the definition used for its boundaries, and whether smaller bodies of water are included. The Pacific Ocean borders the Arctic Ocean at the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia, the Atlantic Ocean at Drake's Passage between Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean between Indonesia and Australia, and between Australia and Antarctica. Some definitions of oceans include a Southern Ocean (or Antarctic Ocean), part of which is considered a part of the Pacific Ocean by other definitions. Excluding the Southern Ocean, and drawing the conventionally accepted boundaries, the Pacific Ocean covers about 32% of the earth's surface.

The Pacific Ocean has the deepest point in the Earth's ocean, 10,911 metres (35,798 ft) in the Marianas Trench.