The Pacific Holds More Than Half of Earth's Free Water

The Pacific is in a size class of its own. NOAA’s National Ocean Service describes it as the largest and deepest of the world ocean basins, containing more than half of the free water on Earth. NOAA puts the scale another way: all of the world’s continents could fit into the Pacific basin. It is also the oldest of the existing ocean basins. The edge of the basin is restless. NOAA explains that the Pacific basin is referred to as the Ring of Fire because of intense earthquake and volcanic activity near areas where one tectonic plate is forced under another. The other basins follow in order of size. The Atlantic is second largest, followed by the Indian Ocean basin, the Southern Ocean and finally the Arctic Ocean basin.