The Pacific Ocean is by far the world's largest ocean, more than five times wider than our moon. But why is the Pacific so big?
Covering about 63 million square miles (163 million square kilometers) — more than 30% of Earth's surface — all of the world's continents could fit inside the Pacific basin, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Pacific, which holds more than half of the free water on Earth, is also our planet's deepest water body, extending to a depth of more than 36,000 feet (11,000 meters) at Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, NOAA noted.
