Of the five oceanic regions of the planet, the Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest. It is bordered by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east, and stretches from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south.
This largest division of the World Ocean—and, consequently, the hydrosphere—covers 165,250,000 square kilometers (63,800,000 square miles) in area, or about 46% of Earth’s water surface and about 32% of its total surface area, more than twice as large as all of Earth’s land combined (148,000,000 km2) (57,000,000 sq mi). The Pacific Ocean contains the geographic centers of the Western Hemisphere, the Water Hemisphere, and the oceanic pole of inaccessibility. Due to the Coriolis effect, the ocean is divided into two substantially independent quantities of water that meet at the equator: both the South(ern) and North(ern) Pacific Oceans. Despite lying on either side of the equator, the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands are considered to be entirely in the South Pacific.
Why can’t planes fly over the Pacific ocean?
Since storms are more likely to occur over water than on land, most flights are designed to spend the least amount of time possible over it. It is not a safe place to fly a plane since the weather over the Pacific Ocean is sometimes turbulent and there are frequently thunderstorms in some sections of the Pacific.
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