26-30 Pacific Ocean Facts
26. The USA owns a 0.012 square km island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean called Kingman Reef. – Source
27. Macquarie Island is the only place in the Pacific Ocean where rocks from the mantle are exposed at or above sea level. – Source
28. The Pacific Ocean at its widest point is more than five times the diameter of the moon. – Source
29. The United States DoD maintains a 280 ft. tall radar platform that is semi-submersible and self-propelled in the Pacific Ocean. – Source
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
31-35 Pacific Ocean Facts
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. – Source
32. There is an island in the Pacific Ocean where a dead U.S. soldier and Prince Philip are gods. – Source
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
34. The Ryou-Un Maru, a ship that broke free from Japan after the tsunami 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
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
36-40 Pacific Ocean Facts
36. A rare Pacific Ocean bird was driven to extinction because all of them were eaten by starving Japanese soldiers in WWII. – Source
37. There is an actual underwater post office in the South Pacific Ocean. – Source
38. The depth of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is greater than the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner. – Source
39. In Central Panama, the sun rises over the Pacific Ocean and sets over the Atlantic Ocean. – Source
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
