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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Pacific Ocean: Geography
</title>
<article><hdr>The World Factbook 1993: Pacific Ocean
Geography</hdr><body>
<p>Location: body of water between the Western Hemisphere and
Asia/Australia
</p>
<p>Area:
</p>
<p> total area: 165.384 million km2
</p>
<p> comparative area: about 18 times the size of the US; the
largest ocean (followed by the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean,
and the Arctic Ocean); covers about one-third of the global
surface; larger than the total land area of the world
</p>
<p>note: includes Arafura Sea, Banda Sea, Bellingshausen Sea,
Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Gulf of
Alaska, Makassar Strait, Philippine Sea, Ross Sea, Sea of Japan,
Sea of Okhotsk, South China Sea, Tasman Sea, and other tributary
water bodies
</p>
<p>Coastline: 135,663 km
</p>
<p>International disputes: some maritime disputes (see littoral
states)
</p>
<p>Climate: 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 land mass back to the
ocean
</p>
<p>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 world's deepest, the 10,924 meter
Marianas Trench
</p>
<p>Natural resources: oil and gas fields, polymetallic nodules,
sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, fish
</p>
<p>Environment: endangered marine species include the dugong, sea
lion, sea otter, seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in
Philippine Sea and South China Sea; dotted with low coral
islands and rugged volcanic islands in the southwestern Pacific
Ocean; subject to tropical cyclones (typhoons) in southeast and
east Asia from May to December (most frequent from July to
October); tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south of Mexico
and strike Central America and Mexico from June to October (most
common in August and September); southern shipping lanes subject
to icebergs from Antarctica; occasional El Nino phenomenon
occurs off the coast of Peru when the trade winds slacken and
the warm Equatorial Countercurrent moves south, killing the
plankton that is the primary food source for anchovies;
consequently, the anchovies move to better feeding grounds,
causing resident marine birds to starve by the thousands because
of their lost food source
</p>
<p>Note: the major choke points are the Bering Strait, Panama
Canal, Luzon Strait, and the Singapore Strait; the Equator
divides the Pacific Ocean into the North Pacific Ocean and the
South Pacific Ocean; ships subject to superstructure icing in
extreme north from October to May and in extreme south from May
to October; persistent fog in the northern Pacific from June to
December is a hazard to shipping; surrounded by a zone of
violent volcanic and earthquake activity sometimes referred to
as the Pacific Ring of Fire
</p></body></article></text>