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Canada’s Three Oceans (Pacific)

• The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth and contains more than half the world's water. It is twice as big as the Atlantic Ocean.
  
  
• It has a complex shoreline of rugged mountains, inlets, fjords and islands.
  
  
• There is a great richness and diversity of coastal fisheries in the Pacific Ocean.
  
  
• The Pacific coast has a narrow continental shelf less than 50 km wide.
  
  
• Canada's Pacific sees extensive coastal/commercial traffic; it is an area of expanding ocean industries. Canada's Pacific sees extensive coastal/commercial traffic; it is an area of expanding ocean industries. Canada's Pacific sees extensive coastal/commercial traffic; it is an area of expanding ocean industries.
  
  
• Ferry, fishing and pleasure craft fleets compete for space on Canada's West Coast.
  
  
• There are many international arrangements, treaties and accords relating to the Pacific Ocean.
  
  
• Canada's Pacific Coast stretches about 804km, from the Juan de Fuca Strait north to Alaska. If this jagged shoreline were laid straight, it would extend about 26,000km.
  
  
• The deepest point in the ocean is the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is 10,920m (36,200 feet) deep. If Mt. Everest were dropped into the Challenger Deep its summit would be covered by water more than two kilometers deep.
  
  
• On January 23, 1960 the bathyscaphe Trieste carried two men, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This is the only time a human has been that deep.
  
  
• The Pacific has more underwater volcanoes (or seamounts) than any other ocean.
  
  
• The tallest mountain on Earth is Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawaii. The top of Mauna Kea is 9,200 m above its base on the seafloor, while the top of Mt. Everest is 8,848 m above sea level.
  
  
• Many submarine volcanoes are arranged in linear chains, like the Hawaiian Islands. These are thought to have been formed as the ocean plate moves over a stationary 'hot spot' in the Earth's mantle below. There are seven such chains in the Pacific.
  
  
• On July 6, 1973 the container ship Sea-Land Commerce arrived in Long Beach California after crossing the Pacific from Yokohama Japan in 6 days, 1 hour and 27 minutes, an average speed of 33.3 knots. This is the fastest crossing of the Pacific
  
  
• The Arctic Ocean covers over nine million square kilometers, with an average depth of 1,330m.