Which ocean is the largest?

The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth. It stretches between Asia and Australia in the west and North and South America in the east, reaching from the Arctic region to the Southern Ocean.

Covering about 165.25 million square kilometres, the Pacific occupies roughly one-third of Earth's total surface and is larger than all of Earth's land area combined. It is also the deepest ocean: the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench reaches nearly 11,000 metres below sea level.

The name Pacific comes from Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who called it Mar Pacífico, meaning “peaceful sea,” after encountering relatively calm conditions in 1521. That name can be misleading, because the Pacific is also associated with powerful typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis and the volcanic “Ring of Fire.”

A common mix-up is confusing the Pacific with the Atlantic because the Atlantic is historically prominent in European exploration. The Pacific is larger, deeper and contains more islands, including Hawaii, New Guinea and many island groups of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.