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112-464: The quarter mile pier was built in 1973 as part of the city of Pacifica's sewer system. It carries a 28-inch (710 mm) pipe that continues one quarter mile offshore through which treated wastewater was pumped into the Pacific Ocean. This ended with the creation of a new water treatment facility in 2004. The pier has been closed on occasion for both repairs (1993) and during high surf. Since

224-690: A banquet ruse on the night after the battle for being easily defeated by Lapulapu and the people of Mactan and failing to kill Lapulapu) and eventually made their way to the Moluccas in November 1521. Laden with spices, they attempted to set sail for Spain in December, but found that only one of their remaining two ships, the Victoria , was seaworthy. The Victoria , captained by Juan Sebastián Elcano , finally returned to Spain by 6 September 1522, completing

336-648: A central lagoon . Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Modern humans first reached the western Pacific in the Paleolithic , at around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Originating from a southern coastal human migration out of Africa, they reached East Asia , Mainland Southeast Asia , the Philippines, New Guinea , and then Australia by making the sea crossing of at least 80 kilometres (50 mi) between Sundaland and Sahul . It

448-499: A distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly; for the shots only passed through the shields.... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice.... An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in

560-481: A false start in the estuary of Río de la Plata ), weather conditions forced the fleet to stop their search to wait out the winter. They found a sheltered natural harbor at the port of Saint Julian , and remained there for five months. Shortly after landing at St. Julian, there was a mutiny attempt led by the Spanish captains Juan de Cartagena , Gaspar de Quesada and Luis de Mendoza . Magellan barely managed to quell

672-438: A hand-written copy of his notes from the journey. He would later travel through Europe giving copies to other royals including John III of Portugal , Francis I of France , and Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam . After returning to his home of Venice, Pigafetta published his diary (as Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo ) around 1524. Scholars have come to view Pigafetta's diary as the most thorough and reliable account of

784-441: A nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history. Magellan was born in northern Portugal c. 1480. His father, Pedro de Magalhães, was a minor member of Portuguese nobility and mayor of the town. His mother was Alda de Mezquita. Magellan's siblings included Diogo de Sousa and Isabel Magellan. He was brought up as a page of Queen Eleanor , consort of King John II . In 1495 he entered

896-528: A permanent limp. He was accused of trading illegally with the Moors . The accusations were proven false, but he received no further offers of employment after 15 May 1514. Later in 1515, he was offered employment as a crew member on a Portuguese ship, but rejected this. In 1517, after a quarrel with Manuel I of Portugal, who denied his persistent requests to lead an expedition to reach the Spice Islands from

1008-494: A small force on the morning of 27 April 1521. During the resulting battle against Lapulapu's troops, Magellan was struck by a "bamboo" spear ( bangkaw , which are actually metal-tipped fire-hardened rattan ), and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons. Antonio Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra provided written documents of the events culminating in Magellan's death: When morning came forty-nine of us leaped into

1120-583: A storm while surveying nearby waters, though no men were killed. Following the winter, the fleet resumed their search for a passage to the Pacific in October 1520. Three days later, they found a bay which eventually led them to a strait, now known as the Strait of Magellan , which allowed them passage through to the Pacific. While exploring the strait, one of the remaining four ships, the San Antonio , deserted

1232-468: A western route, a feat never before accomplished. Bergreen further states that Magellan claimed to Charles that his Malaccan or Sumatran slave Enrique had been a native of the Spice Islands and used Enrique and letters from Serrão to "prove" that the islands were so far east that they would fall within the Spanish sphere of influence if the world were truly to be divided in half. (The details of

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1344-579: A woman from Amboina and became a military advisor to the Sultan of Ternate , Bayan Sirrullah . His letters to Magellan later proved decisive, giving information about the spice-producing territories. After taking a leave without permission, Magellan fell out of favour. In mid-1513 he was sent to fight against the Moroccan stronghold of Azemmour and there, in August, he sustained a leg wound resulting in

1456-479: Is 4,280 m (14,040 ft; 2,340 fathoms), putting the total water volume at roughly 710,000,000 km (170,000,000 cu mi). Due to the effects of plate tectonics , the Pacific Ocean is currently shrinking by roughly 2.5 cm (1 in) per year on three sides, roughly averaging 0.52 km (0.20 sq mi) a year. By contrast, the Atlantic Ocean is increasing in size. Along

1568-491: Is not known with any certainty what level of maritime technology was used by these groups – the presumption is that they used large bamboo rafts which may have been equipped with some sort of sail. The reduction in favourable winds for a crossing to Sahul after 58,000 B.P. fits with the dating of the settlement of Australia, with no later migrations in the prehistoric period. The seafaring abilities of pre-Austronesian residents of Island South-east Asia are confirmed by

1680-616: Is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions . It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica ) in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At 165,250,000 square kilometers (63,800,000 square miles) in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), this largest division of

1792-642: The Americas , although evidence for this remains inconclusive. The first contact of European navigators with the western edge of the Pacific Ocean was made by the Portuguese expeditions of António de Abreu and Francisco Serrão , via the Lesser Sunda Islands , to the Maluku Islands , in 1512, and with Jorge Álvares 's expedition to southern China in 1513, both ordered by Afonso de Albuquerque from Malacca . The eastern side of

1904-424: The Americas , more than 25,000 islands, large and small, rise above the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Multiple islands were the shells of former active volcanoes that have lain dormant for thousands of years. Close to the equator, without vast areas of blue ocean, are a dot of atolls that have over intervals of time been formed by seamounts as a result of tiny coral islands strung in a ring within surroundings of

2016-520: The Bering Sea in the Arctic to the northern extent of the circumpolar Southern Ocean at 60°S (older definitions extend it to Antarctica 's Ross Sea ), the Pacific reaches its greatest east–west width at about 5°N latitude , where it stretches approximately 19,800 km (12,300 mi) from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia  – halfway around the world, and more than five times

2128-601: The Pacific War ; however, by the end of that war, Japan was defeated and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was the virtual master of the ocean. The Japanese-ruled Northern Mariana Islands came under the control of the United States. Since the end of World War II, many former colonies in the Pacific have become independent states . The Pacific separates Asia and Australia from the Americas. It may be further subdivided by

2240-572: The Sea of Magellan , in his honor, until the 18th century) and lends his name to the Strait of Magellan . His name has also since been applied to a variety of other entities , including the Magellanic Clouds (two dwarf galaxies visible in the night sky of the southern hemisphere), Project Magellan (a Cold War -era US Navy project to circumnavigate the world by submarine), and NASA's Magellan spacecraft . Even though Magellan did not survive

2352-738: The Sirena Deep , is also located in the Mariana Trench. The western Pacific has many major marginal seas , including the Philippine Sea , South China Sea , East China Sea , Sea of Japan , Sea of Okhotsk , Bering Sea , Gulf of Alaska , Gulf of California , Mar de Grau , Tasman Sea , and the Coral Sea . In the early 16th century , Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and sighted

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2464-725: The Southern Hemisphere . The North Equatorial Current , driven westward along latitude 15°N by the trade winds , turns north near the Philippines to become the warm Japan or Kuroshio Current . Turning eastward at about 45°N , the Kuroshio forks and some water moves northward as the Aleutian Current , while the rest turns southward to rejoin the North Equatorial Current. The Aleutian Current branches as it approaches North America and forms

2576-710: The Southwest Pacific around Oceania . The Pacific Ocean's mean depth is 4,000 meters (13,000 feet). Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench , located in the northwestern Pacific, is the deepest known point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,928 meters (35,853 feet). The Pacific also contains the deepest point in the Southern Hemisphere , the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench , at 10,823 meters (35,509 feet). The third deepest point on Earth,

2688-755: The Spanish Empire . Granted special powers and privileges by the king, he led the Armada from Sanlucar de Barrameda southwest across the Atlantic Ocean, to the eastern coast of South America, and south to Patagonia . Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition successfully passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Mar del Sur , which Magellan renamed the Mar Pacifico , or Pacific Ocean. The expedition landed at Guam after an arduous crossing of

2800-633: The Strait of Magellan to the Philippines , the explorer indeed found the ocean peaceful; however, the Pacific is not always peaceful. Many tropical storms batter the islands of the Pacific. The lands around the Pacific Rim are full of volcanoes and often affected by earthquakes . Tsunamis , caused by underwater earthquakes, have devastated many islands and in some cases destroyed entire towns. The Martin Waldseemüller map of 1507

2912-818: The Western Hemisphere . The Southern Pacific Ocean harbors the Southeast Indian Ridge crossing from south of Australia turning into the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge (north of the South Pole ) and merges with another ridge (south of South America) to form the East Pacific Rise which also connects with another ridge (south of North America) which overlooks the Juan de Fuca Ridge . For most of Magellan's voyage from

3024-673: The World Ocean and the hydrosphere covers about 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of the planet's total surface area, larger than its entire land area (148,000,000 km (57,000,000 sq mi)). The centers of both the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere , as well as the oceanic pole of inaccessibility , are in the Pacific Ocean. Ocean circulation (caused by the Coriolis effect ) subdivides it into two largely independent volumes of water that meet at

3136-583: The crab claw sail ) – it is likely that the progressive development of these technologies were related to the later steps of settlement into Near and Remote Oceania. Starting at around 2200 BCE, Austronesians sailed southwards to settle the Philippines . From, probably, the Bismarck Archipelago they crossed the western Pacific to reach the Marianas Islands by 1500 BCE, as well as Palau and Yap by 1000 BCE. They were

3248-991: The equator , the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean (or more loosely the South Seas ). The Pacific Ocean can also be informally divided by the International Date Line into the East Pacific and the West Pacific , which allows it to be further divided into four quadrants, namely the Northeast Pacific off the coasts of North America , the Southeast Pacific off South America , Northwest Pacific off Far Eastern / Pacific Asia , and

3360-532: The Atlantic toward South America. In late November, they made landfall at Cabo de Santo Agostinho , near present day Recife . The Tupi natives, having already engaged with Portuguese and French loggers, were familiar with Europeans, and the encounter was cordial. In December, they arrived at Guanabara Bay , the location of present-day Rio de Janeiro . Magellan and the crew stayed onshore for two weeks, replenishing their provisions and peacefully interacting with

3472-852: The Atlantic, the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent the entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western side of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines . The 18th century marked the beginning of major exploration by the Russians in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands , such as the First Kamchatka expedition and the Great Northern Expedition , led by

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3584-533: The Atlantic. The andesite line is the most significant regional distinction in the Pacific. A petrologic boundary, it separates the deeper, mafic igneous rock of the Central Pacific Basin from the partially submerged continental areas of felsic igneous rock on its margins. The andesite line follows the western edge of the islands off California and passes south of the Aleutian arc , along

3696-645: The Cebuanos. The king then told the Spaniards to go to the island of Mactan to kill his enemy Lapulapu . The Spaniards went to the island of Mactan just as Rajah Humabon told them to. However, they did not initially come by force and wanted to Christianize them. Unlike the people of Cebu who accepted the new religion readily, the King of Mactan, Datu Lapulapu, and the rest of the island of Mactan resisted. On 27 April, Magellan and members of his crew attempted to subdue

3808-735: The Chilean coast, the South Equatorial Current divides; one branch flows around Cape Horn and the other turns north to form the Peru or Humboldt Current . The climate patterns of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres generally mirror each other. The trade winds in the southern and eastern Pacific are remarkably steady while conditions in the North Pacific are far more varied with, for example, cold winter temperatures on

3920-844: The Danish-born Russian navy officer Vitus Bering . Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest , reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and colonized Polynesia , and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii , and the North American Pacific Northwest . In 1768, Pierre-Antoine Véron , a young astronomer accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of exploration, established

4032-715: The Indian Ocean and north along the Atlantic coast of Africa, finally returning to Spain in September 1522 and achieving the first complete circuit of the globe. While in the Kingdom of Portugal 's service, Magellan had already reached the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia on previous voyages traveling east (from 1505 to 1511–1512). By visiting this area again but now traveling west, Magellan achieved

4144-415: The Kingdom of Cebu (Sugbo). To mark the arrival of Christianity in the Far East, Magellan then planted a Cross on the shorelines of the kingdom. Magellan set about converting the locals, including the king and his wife, Queen Humamay, to Christianity. Rajah Humabon was renamed "Carlos" and Queen Humamay was renamed "Juana" after the king and queen of Spain. After her baptism, the queen asked the Spaniards for

4256-425: The Mactan natives by force, but in the ensuing battle , the Europeans were overpowered and Magellan was killed by Lapulapu and his men. Following his death, Magellan was initially succeeded by co-commanders Juan Serrano and Duarte Barbosa (with a series of other officers later leading). The fleet left the Philippines (following a bloody betrayal by former ally Rajah Humabon, who had poisoned many Spanish soldiers on

4368-498: The Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions encountered the Caroline Islands , the Aru Islands , and Papua New Guinea . In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan. In 1564, five Spanish ships carrying 379 soldiers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi , and colonized the Philippines and Mariana Islands . For the remainder of the 16th century, Spain maintained military and mercantile control, with ships sailing from Mexico and Peru across

4480-493: The Pacific Ring of Fire is the world's foremost belt of explosive volcanism . The Ring of Fire is named after the several hundred active volcanoes that sit above the various subduction zones. The Pacific Ocean is the only ocean which is mostly bounded by subduction zones. Only the central part of the North American coast and the Antarctic and Australian coasts have no nearby subduction zones. Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( c. 1480 – 27 April 1521)

4592-429: The Pacific Ocean to the Philippines via Guam , and establishing the Spanish East Indies . The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries, linking Manila and Acapulco , in one of the longest trade routes in history. Spanish expeditions also arrived at Tuvalu , the Marquesas , the Cook Islands , the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , the Marshalls and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. Later, in

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4704-399: The Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which are the Celebes Sea , Coral Sea , East China Sea (East Sea), Philippine Sea , Sea of Japan , South China Sea (South Sea), Sulu Sea , Tasman Sea , and Yellow Sea (West Sea of Korea). The Indonesian Seaway (including the Strait of Malacca and Torres Strait ) joins the Pacific and the Indian Ocean to

4816-402: The Pacific in recorded history. They were part of a Spanish expedition to the Spice Islands that would eventually result in the first world circumnavigation . Magellan called the ocean Pacífico (or "Pacific" meaning, "peaceful") because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn , the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until

4928-412: The Pacific, and then reached the Philippines . There, in April 1521, Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan . Under the command of captain Juan Sebastian Elcano , the expedition finally reached the Spice Islands. The fleet's two remaining ships then split ways, one attempting, unsuccessfully, to reach New Spain by sailing east across the Pacific. The other , commanded by Elcano, sailed west across

5040-423: The Philippines during his voyage , and his crew completed the return trip to Spain in 1522. Born c. 1480 into a family of minor Portuguese nobility , Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer in service of the Portuguese Crown in Asia. King Manuel I refused to support Magellan's plan to reach the Moluccas , or Spice Islands, by sailing westwards around the American continent. Magellan then proposed

5152-540: The Philippines already in 7000 BCE. Additional earlier migrations into Insular Southeast Asia, associated with Austroasiatic-speakers from Mainland Southeast Asia, are estimated to have taken place already in 15000 BCE. At around 1300 to 1200 BCE, a branch of the Austronesian migrations known as the Lapita culture reached the Bismarck Archipelago , the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , Fiji , and New Caledonia . From there, they settled Tonga and Samoa by 900 to 800 BCE. Some also back-migrated northwards in 200 BCE to settle

5264-528: The United States. Significant contributions to oceanographic knowledge were made by the voyages of HMS Beagle in the 1830s, with Charles Darwin aboard; HMS Challenger during the 1870s; the USS Tuscarora (1873–76); and the German Gazelle (1874–76). In Oceania, France obtained a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853, respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro negotiated

5376-416: The andesite line and include New Guinea, the islands of New Zealand, and the Philippines. Some of these islands are structurally associated with nearby continents. High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active volcanoes. Among these are Bougainville , Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. The coral reefs of the South Pacific are low-lying structures that have built up on basaltic lava flows under

5488-408: The andesite line. Within the closed loop of the andesite line are most of the deep troughs, submerged volcanic mountains, and oceanic volcanic islands that characterize the Pacific basin. Here basaltic lavas gently flow out of rifts to build huge dome-shaped volcanic mountains whose eroded summits form island arcs, chains, and clusters. Outside the andesite line, volcanism is of the explosive type, and

5600-409: The arctic, icing from October to May can present a hazard for shipping while persistent fog occurs from June to December. A climatological low in the Gulf of Alaska keeps the southern coast wet and mild during the winter months. The Westerlies and associated jet stream within the Mid-Latitudes can be particularly strong, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, due to the temperature difference between

5712-467: The arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. Nothing of Magellan's body survived; that afternoon

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5824-404: The assassination of the navigator. When Magellan eventually sailed to the open seas in August 1519, a Portuguese fleet was sent after him, though it failed to capture him. Magellan's fleet consisted of five ships carrying supplies for two years of travel. The crew consisted of about 270 men of different origins, though the numbers may vary downwards among scholars based on contradicting data from

5936-536: The balangays of Rajah Kulambo and reached its port on 7 April. Magellan met with the King of Cebu, Rajah Humabon , who asked them for tribute as a trade, thinking they were traders bartering with them. Magellan and his men insisted that they did not need to pay tribute as they were sent by the king of Spain, "the most powerful king in the world", and that they were willing to give peace to them if they wanted peace and war if they wanted war. Humabon then decided not to ask for any more tribute and welcomed them instead to

6048-421: The base of a counter-clockwise circulation in the Bering Sea . Its southern arm becomes the chilled slow, south-flowing California Current . The South Equatorial Current , flowing west along the equator, swings southward east of New Guinea , turns east at about 50°S , and joins the main westerly circulation of the South Pacific, which includes the Earth-circling Antarctic Circumpolar Current . As it approaches

6160-433: The circumnavigation, and its publication helped to eventually counter the misinformation spread by Elcano and the other surviving mutineers. In an often-cited passage following his description of Magellan's death in the Battle of Mactan, Pigafetta eulogizes the captain-general: Magellan's main virtues were courage and perseverance, in even the most difficult situations; for example he bore hunger and fatigue better than all

6272-430: The circumnavigation. Of the 270 men who left with the expedition, only 18 or 19 survivors returned. After several weeks in the Philippines, Magellan had converted as many as 2,200 locals to Christianity, including Rajah Humabon of Cebu and most leaders of the islands around Cebu. However, Lapulapu , the leader of Mactan, resisted conversion. In order to gain the trust of Rajah Humabon, Magellan sailed to Mactan with

6384-408: The diameter of the Moon. Its geographic center is in eastern Kiribati south of Kiritimati , just west from Starbuck Island at 4°58′S 158°45′W  /  4.97°S 158.75°W  / -4.97; -158.75 . The lowest known point on Earth – the Mariana Trench  – lies 10,911 m (35,797  ft ; 5,966 fathoms ) below sea level. Its average depth

6496-402: The difference between temperatures aloft and sea surface temperatures is the greatest; however, each particular basin has its own seasonal patterns. On a worldwide scale, May is the least active month, while September is the most active month. November is the only month in which all the tropical cyclone basins are active. The Pacific hosts the two most active tropical cyclone basins , which are

6608-456: The east (i.e., while sailing westwards, thus avoiding the need to sail around the tip of Africa ), he left for Spain. In Seville he befriended his countryman Diogo Barbosa and soon married the daughter of Diogo's second wife, Maria Caldera Beatriz Barbosa. They had two children: Rodrigo de Magallanes and Carlos de Magallanes, both of whom died at a young age. His wife died in Seville around 1521. Meanwhile, Magellan devoted himself to studying

6720-434: The east and the islands of Kiribati in the southeast. Melanesia, to the southwest, includes New Guinea , the world's second largest island after Greenland and by far the largest of the Pacific islands. The other main Melanesian groups from north to south are the Bismarck Archipelago , the Solomon Islands , Santa Cruz , Vanuatu , Fiji and New Caledonia . The largest area, Polynesia , stretching from Hawaii in

6832-423: The east coast of Russia contrasting with the milder weather off British Columbia during the winter months due to the preferred flow of ocean currents . In the tropical and subtropical Pacific, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather conditions. To determine the phase of ENSO, the most recent three-month sea surface temperature average for the area approximately 3,000 km (1,900 mi) to

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6944-458: The eastern division implicit in the Tordesillas treaty would later be formalized in the 1529 Treaty of Zaragoza .) King Manuel saw all of this as an insult and did everything in his power to disrupt Magellan's arrangements for the voyage. The Portuguese king allegedly ordered that Magellan's properties be vandalized as it was the coat of arms of the Magellan displayed at the family house's façade in Sabrosa, his home town, and may have even requested

7056-403: The eastern edge of the Kamchatka Peninsula , the Kuril Islands , Japan, the Mariana Islands , the Solomon Islands , and New Zealand's North Island . The dissimilarity continues northeastward along the western edge of the Andes Cordillera along South America to Mexico, returning then to the islands off California. Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, New Guinea, and New Zealand lie outside

7168-410: The eighteenth century. Magellan stopped at one uninhabited Pacific island before stopping at Guam in March 1521. Although Magellan himself died in the Philippines in 1521, Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano led the remains of the expedition back to Spain across the Indian Ocean and round the Cape of Good Hope , completing the first world circumnavigation in 1522. Sailing around and east of

7280-487: The equator into northern (North Pacific) and southern (South Pacific) portions. It extends from the Antarctic region in the South to the Arctic in the north. The Pacific Ocean encompasses approximately one-third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 165,200,000 km (63,800,000 sq mi) – larger than Earth's entire landmass combined, 150,000,000 km (58,000,000 sq mi). Extending approximately 15,500 km (9,600 mi) from

7392-469: The equator, which can have a salinity as low as 34 parts per thousand, is less salty than that found in the mid-latitudes because of abundant equatorial precipitation throughout the year. The lowest counts of less than 32 parts per thousand are found in the far north as less evaporation of seawater takes place in these frigid areas. The motion of Pacific waters is generally clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (the North Pacific gyre ) and counter-clockwise in

7504-487: The exhausted fleet made landfall at the island of Guam and were met by native Chamorro people who came aboard the ships and took items such as rigging, knives, and a ship's boat . The Chamorro people may have thought they were participating in a trade exchange (as they had already given the fleet some supplies), but the crew interpreted their actions as theft. Magellan sent a raiding party ashore to retaliate, killing several Chamorro men, burning their houses, and recovering

7616-479: The expedition came from the crew of the San Antonio , led by Estêvão Gomes , which deserted the fleet in the Strait of Magellan and returned to Seville 6 May 1521. The deserters were put on trial, but eventually exonerated after producing a distorted version of the mutiny at Saint Julian, and depicting Magellan as disloyal to the king. The expedition was assumed to have perished. The Casa de Contratación withheld Magellan's salary from his wife, Beatriz, "considering

7728-474: The expedition's chronicler. Under questioning by Valladolid's mayor, the men claimed that Magellan refused to follow the king's orders (and gave this as the cause for the mutiny at Saint Julian), and that he unfairly favoured his relatives among the crew, and disfavoured the Spanish captains. One of the few survivors loyal to Magellan was Antonio Pigafetta. Though not invited to testify with Elcano, Pigafetta made his own way to Valladolid and presented Charles with

7840-402: The failure of subsequent expeditions which attempted to retrace his route, beginning with the Loaísa expedition in 1525 (which featured Juan Sebastián Elcano as second-in-command). The next expedition to complete a circumnavigation, led by Francis Drake , was not until 58 years after the return of the Victoria , in 1580. Magellan named the Pacific Ocean (which was sometimes referred to as

7952-420: The first completely documented European landing in Australia (1606), in Cape York Peninsula , and Abel Janszoon Tasman circumnavigated and landed on parts of the Australian continental coast and arrived at Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a mare clausum  – a sea closed to other naval powers. As the only known entrance from

8064-534: The first humans to reach Remote Oceania , and the first to cross vast distances of open water. They also continued spreading southwards and settling the rest of Maritime Southeast Asia , reaching Indonesia and Malaysia by 1500 BCE, and further west to Madagascar and the Comoros in the Indian Ocean by around 500 CE. More recently, it is suggested that Austronesians expanded already earlier, arriving in

8176-541: The fleet, returning east to Spain. The fleet reached the Pacific by the end of November 1520. Based on the incomplete understanding of world geography at the time, Magellan expected a short journey to Asia, perhaps taking as little as three or four days. In fact, the Pacific crossing took three months and twenty days. The long journey exhausted their supply of food and water, and around 30 men died, mostly of scurvy . Magellan himself remained healthy, perhaps because of his personal supply of preserved quince . On 6 March 1521,

8288-478: The great "Southern Sea" which he named Mar del Sur (in Spanish). Afterwards, the ocean's current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favorable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico , which in Portuguese means 'peaceful sea'. Top large seas: Across the continents of Asia, Australia and

8400-461: The grieving rajah-king, hoping to recover his remains, offered Mactan's victorious chief a handsome ransom of copper and iron for them, but Datu Lapulapu refused. He intended to keep the body as a war trophy. Since his wife and child died in Seville before any member of the expedition could return to Spain, it seemed that every evidence of Ferdinand Magellan's existence had vanished from the earth. In

8512-592: The image of the Child Jesus ( Santo Niño ), which she was drawn to, and begged them for the image in contrition, amidst her tears. Magellan then gave the image of the Child Jesus, along with an image of the Virgin Mary , and a small cross to the queen as a gesture of goodwill for accepting the new faith. The king then had a Blood Compact with Magellan in order to cement the allegiance of the Spaniards and

8624-466: The immediate aftermath of the circumnavigation, few celebrated Magellan for his accomplishments, and he was widely discredited and reviled in Spain and his native Portugal. In Portugal, some regarded Magellan as a traitor for having sailed for Spain. In Spain, Magellan's reputation suffered due to the largely unflattering accounts of his actions given by the survivors of the expedition. The first news of

8736-439: The incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888. By occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations. By 1900 nearly all Pacific islands were in control of Britain, France, United States, Germany, Japan, and Chile. Although the United States gained control of Guam and the Philippines from Spain in 1898, Japan controlled most of the western Pacific by 1914 and occupied many other islands during

8848-613: The islands in the world. There are about 25,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands entirely within the Pacific Ocean can be divided into three main groups known as Micronesia , Melanesia and Polynesia . Micronesia, which lies north of the equator and west of the International Date Line , includes the Mariana Islands in the northwest, the Caroline Islands in the center, the Marshall Islands to

8960-752: The islands of eastern Micronesia (including the Carolines , the Marshall Islands , and Kiribati ), mixing with earlier Austronesian migrations in the region. This remained the furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into Polynesia until around 700 CE when there was another surge of island exploration. They reached the Cook Islands , Tahiti , and the Marquesas by 700 CE; Hawaiʻi by 900 CE; Rapa Nui by 1000 CE; and finally New Zealand by 1200 CE. Austronesians may have also reached as far as

9072-498: The locals also wore and used a great amount of golden jewelry and golden artifacts, which piqued Magellan's interest. On 31 March, Magellan's crew held the first Mass in the Philippines , planting a cross on the island's highest hill. Before leaving, Magellan asked the rulers for the next nearest trading ports. They recommended he visit the Rajahnate of Cebu ("Zubu"), because it was the largest. They set off for Cebu , accompanied by

9184-444: The locals. Despite the pleasantries, the first fatal casualty of the expedition occurred. Two months earlier, during the Atlantic crossing, a member of the crew, Antonio Salomon, was caught raping a cabin boy. Tried and found guilty, he was garroted two months later on the shore of Guanabara Bay. From there, they sailed south along the coast, searching for a way through or around the continent. After three months of searching (including

9296-426: The many documents available. About 60 percent of the crew were Spaniards from virtually all regions of Castile . Portuguese and Italian followed with 28 and 27 seamen respectively, while mariners from France (15), Greece (8), Flanders (5), Germany (3), Ireland (2), England and Malaysia (one each) and other people of unidentified origin completed the crew. The fleet left Spain on 20 September 1519, sailing west across

9408-549: The most recent charts , investigating, in partnership with cosmographer Rui Faleiro , a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the possibility that the Moluccas were Spanish under the demarcations of the Treaty of Tordesillas . After having his proposed expeditions to the Spice Islands —the Moluccas beside New Guinea —repeatedly rejected by King Manuel I of Portugal , Magellan proposed his project to Charles I ,

9520-455: The mutiny, despite at one point losing control of three of his five ships to the mutineers. Mendoza was killed during the conflict, and Magellan sentenced Quesada and Cartagena to being beheaded and marooned, respectively. Lower-level conspirators were made to do hard labor in chains over the winter, but were later freed. During the winter, one of the fleet's ships, the Santiago , was lost in

9632-478: The names of neighboring islands and local customs. After resting and resupplying, Magellan sailed on deeper into the Visayan Islands . On 28 March, they anchored off the island of Limasawa ("Mazaua") where they encountered a small outrigger boat ("boloto"). After talking with the crew of the boat via Enrique of Malacca (Magellan's slave-interpreter who was originally from Sumatra ), they were met by

9744-434: The new governor Afonso de Albuquerque , Magellan and Serrão participated in the conquest of Malacca . After the conquest their ways parted: Magellan was promoted, with a rich plunder. In the company of a Malay he had indentured and baptized, Enrique of Malacca , he returned to Portugal in 1512 or 1513. Serrão departed in the first expedition sent to find the " Spice Islands " in the Moluccas , where he remained. He married

9856-601: The north to New Zealand in the south, also encompasses Tuvalu , Tokelau , Samoa , Tonga and the Kermadec Islands to the west, the Cook Islands , Society Islands and Austral Islands in the center, and the Marquesas Islands , Tuamotu , Mangareva Islands , and Easter Island to the east. Islands in the Pacific Ocean are of four basic types: continental islands, high islands, coral reefs and uplifted coral platforms. Continental islands lie outside

9968-619: The northern Philippines , but also earlier groups associated with Austroasiatic-speakers , resulting in the modern peoples of Island Southeast Asia and Oceania. A later seaborne migration is the Neolithic Austronesian expansion of the Austronesian peoples . Austronesians originated from the island of Taiwan c.  3000 –1500 BCE. They are associated with distinctive maritime sailing technologies (notably outrigger boats , catamarans , lashed-lug boats, and

10080-575: The northwestern Pacific and the eastern Pacific. Pacific hurricanes form south of Mexico, sometimes striking the western Mexican coast and occasionally the Southwestern United States between June and October, while typhoons forming in the northwestern Pacific moving into southeast and east Asia from May to December. Tropical cyclones also form in the South Pacific basin , where they occasionally impact island nations. In

10192-451: The ocean was encountered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached a new ocean. He named it Mar del Sur ("Sea of the South" or "South Sea" ) because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. In 1520, navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were the first to cross

10304-562: The ocean's surface. One of the most dramatic is the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia with chains of reef patches. A second island type formed of coral is the uplifted coral platform, which is usually slightly larger than the low coral islands. Examples include Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) and Makatea in the Tuamotu group of French Polynesia . The volume of the Pacific Ocean, representing about 50.1 percent of

10416-555: The outcome of the voyage", and she was placed under house arrest with their young son on the orders of Archbishop Fonseca . The 18 survivors who eventually returned aboard the Victoria in September 1522 were also largely unfavourable to Magellan. Many, including the captain, Juan Sebastián Elcano, had participated in the mutiny at Saint Julian. On the ship's return, Charles summoned Elcano to Valladolid , inviting him to bring two guests. He brought sailors Francisco Albo and Hernándo de Bustamante, pointedly not including Antonio Pigafetta,

10528-582: The pier was no longer being used to pump wastewater into the Pacific Ocean , its primary purpose has been for fishing. The pier is famous for salmon runs where hundreds of salmon are caught in a single day. When this occurs there is a frenzy of activity where every available space is used to catch fish and hundreds of anglers are fishing shoulder to shoulder. Primary species caught at the pier: Other Recreation Pacific Ocean Main five oceans division: Further subdivision: The Pacific Ocean

10640-581: The quest for Terra Australis ("the [great] Southern Land"), Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós , arrived at the Pitcairn and Vanuatu archipelagos, and sailed the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres . Dutch explorers, sailing around southern Africa, also engaged in exploration and trade; Willem Janszoon , made

10752-565: The rest of us. He was a magnificent practical seaman, who understood navigation better than all his pilots. The best proof of his genius is that he circumnavigated the world, none having preceded him. Magellan has come to be renowned for his navigational skill and tenacity. The first circumnavigation has been called "the greatest sea voyage in the Age of Discovery ", and even "the most important maritime voyage ever undertaken". Appreciation of Magellan's accomplishments may have been enhanced over time by

10864-522: The same plan to King Charles I of Spain , who approved it. In Seville , he married, fathered two children, and organized the expedition. In 1518, for his allegiance to the Hispanic monarchy , Magellan was appointed an admiral of the Spanish fleet and given command of the expedition—the five-ship "Armada of Molucca." He was also made a Commander of the Order of Santiago , one of the highest military ranks of

10976-477: The service of Manuel I , John's successor. In March 1505, at the age of 25, Magellan enlisted in the fleet of 22 ships sent to host Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India . Although his name does not appear in the chronicles, it is known that he remained there eight years, in Goa , Cochin and Quilon . He participated in several battles, including the battle of Cannanore in 1506, where he

11088-505: The settlement of Buka by 32,000 B.P. and Manus by 25,000 B.P. Journeys of 180 kilometres (110 mi) and 230 kilometres (140 mi) are involved, respectively. The descendants of these migrations today are the Negritos , Melanesians , and Indigenous Australians . Their populations in maritime Southeast Asia , coastal New Guinea , and Island Melanesia later intermarried with the incoming Austronesian settlers from Taiwan and

11200-504: The southeast of Hawaii is computed, and if the region is more than 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) above or below normal for that period, then an El Niño or La Niña is considered in progress. In the tropical western Pacific, the monsoon and the related wet season during the summer months contrast with dry winds in the winter which blow over the ocean from the Asian landmass. Worldwide, tropical cyclone activity peaks in late summer, when

11312-417: The stolen goods. On 16 March, the fleet sighted the island of Samar ("Zamal") in the eastern Philippine Islands . They weighed anchor in the small (then uninhabited) island of Homonhon ("Humunu"), where they would remain for a week while their sick crew members recuperated. Magellan befriended the tattooed locals of the neighboring island of Suluan ("Zuluan") and traded goods and supplies and learned of

11424-481: The trip, he has received more recognition for the expedition than Elcano has. Since Magellan was the one who began it, Portugal wanted to recognize a Portuguese explorer, although Spain wanted to recognize the role of Elcano and the funding of the Spanish King in the expedition. In 2019, the 500th anniversary of the voyage, Spain and Magellan's native Portugal submitted a new joint application to UNESCO to honour

11536-804: The tropics and Antarctica, which records the coldest temperature readings on the planet. In the Southern hemisphere, because of the stormy and cloudy conditions associated with extratropical cyclones riding the jet stream, it is usual to refer to the Westerlies as the Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties and Shrieking Sixties according to the varying degrees of latitude. The ocean was first mapped by Abraham Ortelius ; he called it Maris Pacifici following Ferdinand Magellan 's description of it as "a pacific sea" during his circumnavigation from 1519 to 1522. To Magellan, it seemed much more calm (pacific) than

11648-449: The two large balangay warships ("balanghai") of Rajah Kulambo ("Colambu") of Butuan , and one of his sons. They went ashore to Limasawa where they met Kulambo's brother, another leader, Rajah Siawi ("Siaui") of Surigao ("Calagan"). The rulers were on a hunting expedition on Limasawa. They received Magellan as their guest and told him of their customs and of the regions they controlled in northeastern Mindanao . The tattooed rulers and

11760-491: The water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two crossbow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, those men had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries.... The musketeers and crossbowmen shot from

11872-586: The west, and Drake Passage and the Strait of Magellan link the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean on the east. To the north, the Bering Strait connects the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean . As the Pacific straddles the 180th meridian , the West Pacific (or western Pacific , near Asia) is in the Eastern Hemisphere , while the East Pacific (or eastern Pacific , near the Americas) is in

11984-534: The width of the Pacific with precision for the first time in history. One of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by European powers, and later Japan and

12096-434: The world's oceanic water, has been estimated at some 714 million cubic kilometers (171 million cubic miles). Surface water temperatures in the Pacific can vary from −1.4 °C (29.5 °F), the freezing point of seawater, in the poleward areas to about 30 °C (86 °F) near the equator. Salinity also varies latitudinally, reaching a maximum of 37 parts per thousand in the southeastern area. The water near

12208-570: The young king of Spain (later emperor Charles   V of the Holy Roman Empire ) and became one of his subjects and navigators. Under the terms of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas , Portugal was to control the eastern routes to Asia that went around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Magellan instead proposed to seek a southwestern passage around South America to reach the Spice Islands by

12320-528: Was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519–22 Spanish expedition to the East Indies , which achieved the first circumnavigation of Earth in history. During this expedition, he also discovered the Strait of Magellan , allowing his fleet to pass from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean and perform the first European navigation to Asia via the Pacific . Magellan died in

12432-583: Was the first to show the Americas separating two distinct oceans. Later, the Diogo Ribeiro map of 1529 was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size. (Inhabited dependent territories are denoted by the asterisk (*), with names of the corresponding sovereign states in round brackets. Associated states in the Realm of New Zealand are denoted by the hash sign (#).) Territories with no permanent civilian population. The Pacific Ocean has most of

12544-498: Was wounded, and the Battle of Diu in 1509. He later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy to Malacca , with Francisco Serrão , his friend and possibly cousin. In September, after arriving at Malacca, the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy and ended in retreat. Magellan had a crucial role, warning Sequeira and risking his life to rescue Francisco Serrão and others who had landed. In 1511, under

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