Characteristics of the Pacific Ocean. The rivers and seas of the Pacific Ocean. Ecological state of the ocean

The characteristics of the Pacific show that it is the largest and deepest on the planet. It washes such continents as Eurasia, America, Australia and Antarctica. In the Mariana Trench the depth of the ocean reaches 11 km.

Etymology

The first person living in Europe, who visited the eastern side of the ocean, was Balboa, the Spanish conquistador. When he crossed the Isthmus of Panama and, without knowing it, got into the ocean, he called it the Southern Sea. A few years later, Fernand Magellan decided to try his fortune . He traveled for almost four months, crossing the ocean from the Philippines to Tierra del Fuego. After that, he was called Quiet. But the French scientist Buiash, who swam with his team and the Pacific Sea, and his entire pool, appreciating the gigantic size, called it the Great. However, this hydronym has not caught on.

Salinity and water properties in winter

Basically, the highest salt index reaches 35.6%. A similar variant is found only in the tropics due to the fact that the climate in these areas does not have a large amount of precipitation, but here one can observe intense evaporation. Characteristic of the Pacific Ocean, which is found in many reference books, suggests that near the eastern part of the water salinity is greatly reduced due to cold currents. It should be noted that in temperate as well as subpolar zones this indicator is approaching the minimum mark due to constant rains and snows.

The appearance of ice, that is, the freezing of water, directly depends on the content of salts. Often, they cover only the Antarctic regions, as well as the waters of the Bering Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Sea of Okhotsk. On the coasts of Alaska icebergs often arise, which mostly "travel" through the Pacific Ocean.

Ecology

Due to the impact of destructive human activities, the map of the Pacific allows one to mark several zones of water that are completely polluted and cause immense harm to people, and also threaten the lives of such species of animals as fur seals and whales. The main pollution is oil and all kinds of waste. Because of them, the ocean is overloaded with metals, radioactive substances, which in the water simply can not be. A full characteristic of the Pacific Ocean showed that all substances falling into it are carried throughout its entire water area. The most interesting is that even in the body of animals living near Antarctica, similar compounds were found.

The place, which attracts tourists, has long been unlike picturesque landscapes. Most people come to look at the garbage dump formed a few years ago because of the waste that is brought by the currents. It's terrible that it almost reaches the shores of California, Hawaii and Japan. If for 2001 the area of the spot was 1 billion square meters. Km, and weight - 4 million tons, at the moment this figure has increased several thousand times! Every 10 years this dump grows to a decent size.

Due to the fact that some birds take small plastic gatherings for food, they themselves eat them or feed them to the chicks. As a result, these substances are not digested by the body, and the creature dies due to the impossibility of their withdrawal.

Animal and plant life

More than half the inhabitants of the World Ocean live in the waters of the Pacific. Many species of fish and plants are represented here. Only phytoplankton is more than 1,300 representatives. The vegetation of the water totals 4 thousand water and 29 terrestrial plants. Laminaria are common in cold areas, the length of which sometimes reaches 200 m. And in tropical areas - red and fucus algae.

At depths live holothurians, which feed on only the soil. The tropical waters of the ocean are richer in fish several thousand times, unlike other waters. Here you can see sea urchins, horseshoes, and several other species of animals that are not preserved in other oceans. Most of the salmon live there.

Rivers of the Pacific Ocean

All the water streams that flow into the ocean do not have huge dimensions, but they have a sufficiently high flow velocity. At the moment there is no exact number, how many streams merge with these mighty waters. Some have more than 100 watercourses, while others - and more than a thousand.

The map of the Pacific allows you to see 40 rivers that are directly related to its basin. The largest of them is the watercourse, the mouth of which is the Sea of Okhotsk - Amur.

Minerals

You can not miss the fact that the bottom of the Pacific contains many minerals. There you can find deposits of various minerals. In the shelves of many countries, especially such as Japan, the United States of America, Australia and others, they extract gas and oil. Tin is produced in huge quantities in Malaysia, zircon is in Australia. Ores and manganese deposits are in the northern part of the waters. Due to the estimates that contain the characteristic of the Pacific Ocean, it can be said for sure that these waters conceal about 40% of the gas and oil reserves. Here are also hydrates, because of which in 2013 in Japan it was decided to drill wells for natural gas production in the direction from the capital of the country to the northeast of the ocean.

The seas of the Pacific do not often show their nature as a troubled current. At the same time, interesting is the fact that, traveling across the waters, Magellan and his team did not hit any storm during all three months of their stay here. That's why the ocean got its name. It is divided into several parts: the northern and southern, the border between which runs along the equator line.