Geography
Pacific Ocean

Location:

body of water between the Southern Ocean, Asia, Australia, and the
Western Hemisphere

Geographic coordinates:

0 00 N, 160 00 W

Map references:

Political Map of the World

Area:

total: 155.557 million sq km
note: includes Bali Sea, Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Coral Sea, East
China Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of Tonkin, Philippine Sea, Sea of
Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, South China Sea, Tasman Sea, and other
tributary water bodies

Area - comparative:

about 15 times the size of the US; covers about 28% of the global
surface; larger than the total land area of the world

Coastline:

135,663 km

Climate:

planetary air pressure systems and resultant wind patterns exhibit
remarkable uniformity in the south and east; trade winds and
westerly winds are well-developed patterns, modified by seasonal
fluctuations; tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south of
Mexico from June to October and affect Mexico and Central America;
continental influences cause climatic uniformity to be much less
pronounced in the eastern and western regions at the same latitude
in the North Pacific Ocean; the western Pacific is monsoonal - a
rainy season occurs during the summer months, when moisture-laden
winds blow from the ocean over the land, and a dry season during the
winter months, when dry winds blow from the Asian landmass back to
the ocean; tropical cyclones (typhoons) may strike southeast and
east Asia from May to December

Terrain:

surface currents in the northern Pacific are dominated by a
clockwise, warm-water gyre (broad circular system of currents) and
in the southern Pacific by a counterclockwise, cool-water gyre; in
the northern Pacific, sea ice forms in the Bering Sea and Sea of
Okhotsk in winter; in the southern Pacific, sea ice from Antarctica
reaches its northernmost extent in October; the ocean floor in the
eastern Pacific is dominated by the East Pacific Rise, while the
western Pacific is dissected by deep trenches, including the Mariana
Trench, which is the world's deepest

Elevation extremes:

lowest point: Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench -10,924 m
highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources:

oil and gas fields, polymetallic nodules, sand and gravel
aggregates, placer deposits, fish

Natural hazards:

surrounded by a zone of violent volcanic and earthquake activity
sometimes referred to as the "Pacific Ring of Fire";