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In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and encountered the Pacific Ocean, calling it the South Sea. In 1521, a Spanish expedition led by the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was the first recorded crossing of the Pacific Ocean, Magellan then naming it the "peaceful sea."
He is best known for crossing the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, [2] becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World. [ 3 ] He traveled to the New World in 1500 and, after some exploration, settled on the island of Hispaniola .
Three days later, they found a bay which eventually led them to a strait, now known as the Strait of Magellan, which allowed them passage through to the Pacific. While exploring the strait, one of the remaining four ships, the San Antonio, deserted the fleet, returning east to Spain. The fleet reached the Pacific by the end of November 1520.
The fleet's remaining three ships completed the journey to the Pacific by 28 November after weeks of fruitlessly searching for the San Antonio. [88] Magellan named the waters the Mar Pacifico, or Pacific Ocean, because of how still and peaceful the sea was, especially compared with the straits. [89] [7]
An emerging threat for the Pacific Ocean is the development of deep-sea mining. Deep-sea mining is aimed at extracting manganese nodules that contain minerals such as magnesium, nickel, copper, zinc and cobalt. The largest deposits of these are found in the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii in the Clarion Clipperton fracture zone. [108]
A daring deep sea search has found tiny pieces of a mysterious meteor that crashed to Earth in 2014. ... “It’s easier to seek extraterrestrial facts on the Pacific Ocean floor than get them ...
The umbrella term Pacific Islands has taken on several meanings. [1] Sometimes it is used to refer only to the islands defined as lying within Oceania. [2] [3] [4] At other times, it is used to refer to the islands of the Pacific Ocean that were previously colonized by the British, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, or Japanese, or by the United States.
HONG KONG — For at least three centuries, it grew in secret on the seabed of the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Now, the largest coral ever recorded has been discovered, scientists said Thursday ...