Q 01/05

How does the Pacific rank among Earth's oceans?

A) Largest and deepest

B) Largest but not deepest

C) Second largest

D) Third largest

Answer · why

A) Largest and deepest

The Pacific is both the largest and deepest ocean, covering about 165 million square kilometres, nearly a third of Earth's surface, with its deepest p...

Q 02/05

Which of these has a smaller area than the Pacific Ocean?

A) Earth's total ocean surface

B) All of Earth's land combined

C) The other four oceans combined

D) The Northern Hemisphere's total surface

Answer · why

B) All of Earth's land combined

All of Earth's land combined covers roughly 149 million square kilometres, less than the Pacific's 165 million; the other oceans together, the whole o...

Q 03/05

Which explorer named the ocean 'Mar Pacífico', meaning peaceful sea?

A) Francis Drake

B) Ferdinand Magellan

C) Vasco Núñez de Balboa

D) James Cook

Answer · why

B) Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan entered the ocean on November 28, 1520 after a stormy passage through the strait later named for him, and called the calm water he ...

Q 04/05

Which Spanish explorer crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and named the ocean the 'South Sea'?

A) Hernán Cortés

B) Juan Ponce de León

C) Francisco Pizarro

D) Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Answer · why

D) Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Vasco Núñez de Balboa waded into the water on September 29, 1513 and claimed the Mar del Sur for Spain; the name came from its lying south of the Pana...

Q 05/05

What is the deepest known point in the world's oceans?

A) Sirena Deep

B) Horizon Deep

C) Challenger Deep

D) Milwaukee Deep

Answer · why

C) Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, measures about 10,930 metres; Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh reached it in the bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960.