ocean
Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean, body of salt water extending from the 60° S parallel in the south to the Arctic in the north and lying between the continents of Asia and Australia on the west and North America and South America on the east.Of the three major oceans, the Pacific is by far the largest, occupying about one-third of the surface of the globe. Its area, excluding the South China Sea, encompasses about 62.5 million square miles (161.76 million square km). It has double the area and more than double the water volume of the Atlantic Ocean—the next largest division of the hydrosphere—and its area more than exceeds that of the whole land surface of the globe. The Pacific Ocean stretches from the Bering Strait to 60° S latitude through more than 120° of latitude, nearly 9,000 miles (about 14,500 km). Its greatest latitudinal extent measures some 12,000 miles (about 19,000 km) along latitude 5° N, between the coasts of Colombia in South America and the Malay Peninsula in Asia. The mean depth of the Pacific (excluding adjacent seas) is 14,040 feet (4,280 metres), and its greatest known depth is 36,201 feet (11,034 metres)—in the Mariana Trench—also the greatest depth found in any ocean.
Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean, also called Antarctic Ocean, body of salt water covering approximately one-sixteenth of Earth’s total ocean area. The Southern Ocean is made up of the portions of the world ocean south of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans and their tributary seas surrounding Antarctica below 60° S. It is unbroken by any other continental landmass. Its narrowest constriction is the Drake Passage, 600 miles (about 1,000 km) wide, between South America and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. In terms of area, only the Arctic Ocean is smaller.The Southern Ocean covers 8,479,000 square miles (21,960,000 square km), and it holds 17,226,000 cubic miles (71,800,000 cubic km) of water. It has an average depth of 10,728 feet (3,270 metres) and a maximum depth of 24,383 feet (7,432 metres) in the South Sandwich Trench, southeast of the island of South Georgia.