II.

Boundaries and Size

The Pacific Ocean is bounded on the east by the North and South American continents; on the north by the Bering Strait; on the west by Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean. In the southeast it is arbitrarily divided from the Atlantic Ocean by the Drake Passage along 68° west longitude; in the southwest, its separation from the Indian Ocean is not officially designated. Apart from the marginal seas along its irregular western rim, it has an area of 155.6 million sq km (60.1 million sq mi), substantially larger than the entire land surface of the globe. Its length north to south is 13,900 km (8,637 mi) and its greatest width is 17,700 km (11,000 mi) from Panama to the Malay Peninsula. Its average depth is 4,280 m (14,040 ft). The greatest known depth in any of the world's oceans is 11,033 m (36,198 ft) in the Mariana Trench off Guam.