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Added a section on pollution problems in the Pacific
The '''Pacific Ocean''' is the part of the [[ocean]] between [[California]] and [[Japan]]. It was first discovered by [[Vasco Nuñez de Balboa]],{{fact}} not, as many believe, the [[Native Americans]]. [[John Keats]] wrongly recorded this event in his poem [[On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer]], claiming it [[Cortez]] who discovered the Ocean.
The '''Pacific Ocean''' is the part of the [[ocean]] between [[California]] and [[Japan]]. It was first discovered by [[Vasco Nuñez de Balboa]],{{fact}} not, as many believe, the [[Native Americans]]. [[John Keats]] wrongly recorded this event in his poem [[On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer]], claiming it [[Cortez]] who discovered the Ocean.
The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest ocean, and one of the fabled "[[seven seas]]." [[Ferdinand Magellan]] crossed it on his voyages around the world. [[Scientist]]s have calculated that it has the same volume as the [[moon]],{{fact}} and may be the [[crater]] left when the moon and Earth were separated{{fact}}.
The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest ocean, and one of the fabled "[[seven seas]]." [[Ferdinand Magellan]] crossed it on his voyages around the world. [[Scientist]]s have calculated that it has the same volume as the [[moon]],{{fact}} and may be the [[crater]] left when the moon and Earth were separated{{fact}}.
==Pollution problems in the Pacific==
An area of the Pacific Ocean, about the size of Africa, was known in the past as the Horse Latitudes. It is extremely calm there, and so named because sailing ships with diminishing provisions would jettison horses and other livestock.
Whatever is dumped into the Pacific ends up in the Horse Latitudes. Because of air heating and cooling at the equator and poles, the wind and currents spiral to the center of this area. The technical name for this atmospheric phenomenon is the subtropical high, and the ocean current it creates is called the north Pacific central or sub-tropical gyre. The result is an area, larger than the USA, full of humanity's rubbish.
Organic debris is broken down by microorganisms, but they cannot deal with plastics, and there is now in this area of water 6 pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton. <ref> http://marine-litter.gpa.unep.org/documents/World's_largest_landfill.pdf</ref>
Plastic does not biodegrade, it photodegrades. Sunlight gradually breaks it down until it becomes indigestible molecules of plastic. This is a severe environmental hazard for any species in the area. 90% of Hawaiian green sea turtles nest here and eat the debris, Albatrosses are feeding on cigarette lighters and colored plastic pieces can be seen in the bellies of transparent feeding sinophores. <ref>http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/1103/1103_feature.html</ref>
==References==
==References==
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[[Category:Seas]]
[[Category:Seas]]