What is the largest ocean that ever existed on Earth?

Earth’s present largest ocean, the Pacific, blankets greater than 30% of the planet’s floor, stretching 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) at its widest level, between Colombia and the Malay Peninsula, in line with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Fee of UNESCO (IOC UNESCO (opens in new tab)). However that titanic sea represents solely the remnants of the most important ocean in Earth‘s historical past.

So what was the most important ocean ever to exist on our planet?

That might be Panthalassa, a world-spanning sea that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea from about 300 million to 200 million years in the past, Brendan Murphy, a geology professor at St. Francis Xavier College in Nova Scotia, advised Reside Science.

“The largest ocean normally occurs when supercontinents kind, as a result of in the event you solely have one giant supercontinent, then you definately’ve solely acquired one ocean that exists round it,” Murphy stated.

Associated: Will there ever be one other Pangaea?

That has seemingly occurred a number of instances, Murphy stated, however all these single world oceans would have been comparable in measurement. The newest supercontinent was Pangaea, wherein as we speak’s continents match collectively, together with the jigsaw-like items of Africa and South America. One other supercontinent, Rodinia, mixed Earth’s landmasses in a unique configuration about 650 million years in the past, in line with the Smithsonian Establishment (opens in new tab); geologists debate whether or not one other supercontinent arose in between, Murphy stated.

Vector graphic of the land mass of the supercontinent Pangaea_Rainer Lesniewski via Getty Images

An illustration of the huge historical ocean Panthalassa that coexisted with the supercontinent Pangaea. (Picture credit score: Rainer Lesniewski through Getty Photographs)

Panthalassa would have stacked no less than one other 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers) onto the Pacific’s width, Murphy stated. To place that into perspective, in the event you had been touring by jet airplane throughout the equator, it could take 10 hours to cross the Pacific however 15 to span Panthalassa, he defined. Or consider it this manner: At its widest level, the Pacific may match greater than 5 moon diameters; Panthalassa’s further width would accommodate almost another moon.

By floor space, Panthalassa dwarfed the Pacific, protecting roughly 70% of Earth’s floor (opens in new tab), in line with a 2022 overview within the journal Earth-Science Opinions (opens in new tab), or almost 140 million sq. miles (360 sq. km). The Pacific’s 30% of the Earth’s floor provides as much as greater than 63 million sq. miles (165 million sq. km), in line with IOC UNESCO (opens in new tab).

Visualizing Panthalassa because the Pacific padded with greater than 1,800 additional miles captures the geological historical past, too: Pangaea broke up largely because of the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, on the expense of Panthalassa. Its remnants grew to become the Pacific, so you may image Panthalassa because the Pacific pasted onto the Atlantic, which as we speak ranges between about 1,800 miles, between Brazil and Liberia, and three,000 miles (4,800 km), between North America and North Africa, in line with IOC-UNESCO.

Technically, nonetheless, Earth seemingly had a fair bigger ocean at one level — however one not outlined by continents. About 150 million years after Earth shaped, it had oceans however no continents but, so an unbroken sea lined the planet, in line with the Smithsonian. That might imply the ocean spanned the almost 24,901 miles (40,075 km) of Earth’s equatorial circumference and the total 197 million sq. miles (510 million sq. km) of Earth’s floor (opens in new tab).

Even as we speak, although, scientists think about Earth’s oceans to be a single “world ocean,” provided that the waters interconnect at varied factors, in line with the MarineBio Conservation Society (opens in new tab). The Atlantic mingles with the Pacific on the backside of South America, for instance, and contacts the Indian Ocean beneath Africa, Murphy stated.

Nonetheless, as outlined by continents, the Pacific has held the title of the world’s largest ocean since Pangaea’s demise round 200 million years in the past. But when present projections of tectonic plate actions maintain true, Australia will break up the Pacific in two over the following 70 million years, Murphy stated. On the similar time, the Atlantic will widen, taking the crown of Earth’s largest ocean.

Initially revealed on Reside Science.

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