--- title: "40 Interesting Facts About Pacific Ocean" url: https://www.kickassfacts.com/pacific-ocean-facts/ date: 2018-07-10 modified: 2018-07-13 lang: en author: "jazz" description: "Here are 40 Interesting Pacific Ocean facts. 1-5 Pacific Ocean Facts 1. There is a pass in Wyoming where a stream splits and half the water goes to the Pacific..." categories: - "Fact List" - "Our World" - "Science" image: https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pacific-ocean-article.jpg word_count: 1305 --- # 40 Interesting Facts About Pacific Ocean Here are 40 Interesting Pacific Ocean facts. ## 1-5 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Two_Ocean_Pass.png) 1. There is a pass in Wyoming where a stream splits and half the water goes to the Pacific Ocean and half goes to the Atlantic Ocean. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Ocean_Pass) 2. A $350m drillship built in the early '70s by US billionaire, Howard Hughes, to collect 'mineral riches' from the ocean floor was actually a cover for the CIA to be used to lift a lost Soviet submarine, loaded with nuclear missiles, up from the floor of thePacific Ocean, 3 miles deep. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian) 3. In 1992, 28000 rubber ducks fell off a shipping container in the Pacific Ocean and revolutionized our understanding of ocean circulation. - [Source](http://www.columbiatribune.com/1533a1a4-f9e8-11e2-afcf-10604b9f6eda.html) 4. When ships pass through Point Nemo in the southern Pacific Ocean, the closest other humans are in the International Space Station 400km up. - [Source](https://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/news/8644_8-Point-Nemo-facts.html) 5. Every year hundreds of Great White Sharks migrate to a random area in the mid-Pacific Ocean and loiter around, no one knowing why. This area has been coined as the "White Shark Cafe'". - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Shark_Caf%C3%A9) ## 6-10 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Orona_Atoll.png) 6. There's a giant donut island in the middle of the Pacific ocean that has feral cats and a "sizeable lagoon" in the middle. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orona) 7. The Amazon River once flowed into the Pacific Ocean but was dammed up by the newly formed Andes Mountains. The Amazon's basin then became a giant lake until it eroded away sandstone to the west, letting the lake drain into the Atlantic and forming the modern river. - [Source](https://news.softpedia.com/news/Amazon-River-Flowed-into-Pacific-38648.shtml) 8. In 2012, Jose Alvarenga, a Salvadorian fisherman, survived 438 days on a raft in the Pacific Ocean. With no motor or [GPS](https://www.kickassfacts.com/gps-facts/) or food, he survived on raw turtle and [fish](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-kickass-interesting-facts-about-fishes-part-1/), rainwater, turtle blood, and his own urine. He is believed to be the longest surviving castaway. - [Source](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/07/fisherman-lost-at-sea-436-days-book-extract) 9. There is an area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where no longer needed [spacecraft](https://www.kickassfacts.com/spacecraft-facts/) are and have been routinely deposited. It is known as the "Spacecraft cemetery", and notably it is also the place where the defunct Mir space station rests. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_cemetery) 10. Snails have crossed from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, alive, by being digested by [birds](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-amazing-facts-birds-part-2/) and being pooped out, still living. - [Source](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2011/09/15/snails-cross-continents-by-flying-inside-birds/) ## 11-15 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Singapore_Airlines.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org 11. Singapore Airlines flight 21 which had the longest non-stop flight (18 hours), from [Singapore](https://www.kickassfacts.com/41-interesting-singapore-facts/) to [New Jersey](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-new-jersey/), had special lockers on the plane to store corpses if people died en route since the flight path over the Pacific Ocean and the North Pole meant the plane couldn't land if someone died. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Airlines_Flight_21#Aircraft_configuration) 12. There is an [island](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-islands/) in the Pacific Ocean that uses huge, immovable stone discs as currency. When a purchase is made, instead of moving a stone disc, it is simply "publicly reassigned" to a new owner. - [Source](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money) 13. There is an intact cask of plutonium dioxide on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean because Apollo 13 failed to [land on the moon](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-and-interesting-facts-about-moon-landing/). - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator) 14. The U.S. Navy's most secretive naval base is located in a remote lake in northern Idaho. This base is believed to be used to develop stealth [submarine](https://www.kickassfacts.com/submarine-facts/) technology and some locals believe that there is an underground waterway to the Pacific Ocean used for top-secret deployment. - [Source](http://www.ss563.org/idahoss.html) 15. Coconuts do in fact migrate, being buoyant enough to float on the current of the tropical Pacific Ocean until it is washed up on land to take root and grow. - [Source](https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/pldec398.htm#coconut) ## 16-20 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Sea_Launch_.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org 16. There is a mobile spaceport floating out in the Pacific Ocean that has been in use since the late 1990s. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Launch) 17. The largest [volcano](https://www.kickassfacts.com/volcano-facts/) on [Earth](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-earth-part-2/) is named Tamu Massif. Located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean it has a surface area the same as New Mexico making it one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System. - [Source](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130905-tamu-massif-shatsky-rise-largest-volcano-oceanography-science/) 18. The mysterious bloop recorded in the Pacific Ocean in 1997 is not a large unknown organic species, but rather enormous ice-quakes. - [Source](http://www.wired.co.uk/article/bloop-mystery-not-solved-sort-of) 19. Thor Heyerdahl traveled over 4000 miles across the Pacific Ocean in a wooden raft to demonstrate his theory that Polynesians came from South America. - [Source](https://www.history.com/news/thor-heyerdahls-kon-tiki-voyage) 20. When the Robertson family was shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean, the only [water](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-water/) they had was poisonous. The mother gave the others enemas to safely hydrate them with it. The family survived for 37 days before rescue. - [Source](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/22/shipwreck-lucette-sailing) ## 21-25 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/garbage.jpg) 21. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now 2,000 times the size of [NYC](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-and-interesting-facts-about-new-york-city-part-2/) and growing rapidly. - [Source](https://thebrag.com/trash-island-is/) 22. There is no December 30, 2011, in the history of the Pacific Ocean islands of Samoa and Tokelau as the day was skipped when these islands moved their time zone from the last time zone east of the international date line to the first west of the dateline. - [Source](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16351377) 23. Scientists have defined "Zealandia" as the world's 8th continent, 94 percent of which is below the Pacific Ocean. - [Source](https://www.smh.com.au/technology/meet-zealandia-the-underwater-continent-that-new-zealand-sits-on-20170217-guf3ea.html) 24. In 2001, Taco Bell towed a large target into the Pacific Ocean. They promised a free taco to every citizen of the [U.S.](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-usa-part-2/) if a piece of the Mir Space Station hit it upon re-entry. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_Bell#Advertising) 25. ~4-10% of islanders on the atoll Pingelap in the Pacific Ocean have no working cones, leaving them completely color blind. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingelap#Color-blindness) ## 26-30 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Aerial_view_of_the_Southeast_Part_of_Kingman_Reef.png)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org 26. The USA owns a 0.012 square km island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean called Kingman Reef. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingman_Reef) 27. Macquarie Island is the only place in the Pacific Ocean where rocks from the mantle are exposed at or above sea level. - [Source](http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/629) 28. The Pacific Ocean at its widest point is more than five times the diameter of the [moon](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-and-interesting-facts-about-moon/). - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean#Overview) 29. The United States DoD maintains a 280 ft. tall radar platform that is semi-submersible and self-propelled in the Pacific Ocean. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-based_X-band_Radar) 30. The bikini was named after the U.S. nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean. The designer hoped to cause an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" just like the bomb. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini#Etymology) ## 31-35 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pacific_Ocean.png) 31. The Pacific Ocean's name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He named it "Mar Pacífico" meaning "Peaceful sea" as he encountered favorable winds on reaching the [ocean](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-interesting-facts-seas-oceans/). - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean) 32. There is an island in the Pacific Ocean where a dead U.S. soldier and Prince Philip are gods. - [Source](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gvvav/prince-phillip-cults-tanna-vlad-sokhin) 33. In 2012, Russ George did an unauthorized "Geoengineering experiment" of dumping ~ 100 tonnes of iron sulfate into the Pacific Ocean. The hope was to "lock carbon into the deep ocean over the long term". - [Source](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-iron-fertilisation-geoengineering) 34. The Ryou-Un Maru, a ship that broke free from [Japan](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-amazing-facts-about-japan-part2/) after the [tsunami](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-facts-about-tsunamis/) of 2011, crossed the Pacific Ocean with no crew and made its way to U.S. waters where it was shot and sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryou-Un_Maru) 35. As many as six supercontinents are thought to have formed and broken up prior to Pangaea. Roughly 400 million years pass between each repetition of the supercontinent cycle, which is currently causing the Pacific Ocean to shrink until yet another supercontinent will someday be formed. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercontinent_cycle) ## 36-40 Pacific Ocean Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Wake-Island-rail.jpg)Image credit: pinterest.ca 36. A rare Pacific Ocean bird was driven to extinction because all of them were eaten by starving Japanese soldiers in [WWII](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-about-world-war-2-part-1/). - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Island_rail) 37. There is an actual underwater post office in the South Pacific Ocean. - [Source](https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/472166/World-s-first-UNDERWATER-post-office-lets-tourists-send-postcards-home-from-under-the-sea) 38. The depth of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is greater than the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner. - [Source](https://www.livescience.com/27551-our-amazing-planet-top-to-bottom-mountaintop-to-ocean-trench-infographic.html) 39. In Central Panama, the [sun](https://www.kickassfacts.com/35-amazing-sun-facts/) rises over the Pacific Ocean and sets over the Atlantic Ocean. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Panama) 40. The Malenesian people, who are native to the Pacific Ocean, can have naturally blonde hair. One of the few places outside of Europe where this trait is known to have evolved independently. - [Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanesians)