Pacific Ocean (Important Facts and Features for Competitive Exams)

The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest and deepest Ocean. 

It is nearly twice the area of the Atlantic and contains almost three times as much water.

The Ocean is dotted with islands and surrounded by some of the world’s most populous states, over half the world’s population lives on its shores.

The Pacific is bordered by active plate margins known as the ‘Ring of Fire’ causing earthquakes and tsunamis and creating volcanic islands and subterranean mountain chain.

The largest underwater mountains break the surface as island arcs.

The fisheries of the pacific are some of the most productive in the world and provide a vital resource for many of the Pacific Islands.

The Hawaiian Volcanoes lie in the centre of a plate, not on a plate margin and are known as intra plate volcanoes. They are associated with hot spots, whereby a plume a hot molten rock rises to the surface as the plate moves over it. 

Coral reefs and atolls are found throughout the warm waters of the South Pacific Ocean. 

The Mariana Trench marks a subduction zone between the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Plate. It is the world’s deepest trench, reaching depths 11,034 m. 

The Tonga trench lies north of New Zealand’s North Island.

The Peru-Chile trench is the longest trench in the Pacific Ocean extending 5900 km.

Micronesia consists of numerous small, oceanic islands is the western Pacific Ocean. The Micronesian islands are all oceanic in origin, rising directly up from the ocean floor.