The Science Quiz | Features of the Pacific Ocean

Questions:

1. The North Pacific has a plastic trash problem that popularly goes by the name X. But contrary to what it suggests, the problem is spread out over a large area and isn’t easily visible to the named eye. What is X?

2. The west of North America experiences a strange kind of tide in which there are two high tides and two low tides every day, each at a different height. What are these tides called?

3. The Maori name for this feature is Te Riu-a-Māui. It’s a piece of almost completely submerged continental crust north of New Zealand, the largest known microcontinent, and over a billion years old. Name it.

4. The ____ of ____ is a long belt of volcanoes almost completely encircling the Pacific Ocean. Almost 90% of all earthquakes in the world occur along this belt. Fill in the blanks.

5. In about 300 million years, the movement of tectonic plates will cause the Atlantic Ocean to expand and the Pacific Ocean to close up, creating a new supercontinent. What is the name the scientific community has proposed for this land?

Visual:

Name this man. Ahead of landing at Guam on March 6, 1520, on a famous expedition, he changed the name of the Mar del Sur to ‘Pacific Ocean’.

Answers:

1. Great Pacific Garbage Patch

2. Mixed semidiurnal tides

3. Zealandia

4. Ring of Fire

5. Amasia

Visual: Ferdinand Magellan