Eastern Pacific High Sea

Eastern Pacific High Sea lies off the Americas near the ocean’s eastern boundary, where the tropical water covers part of a geologically active ocean floor. The Pacific is ringed largely by subduction zones and contains deep trenches and submerged volcanic mountains. In the eastern half, the East Pacific Rise connects with ridges south of North America near the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The resulting seafloor is young compared with the ocean’s oldest crust, which has been consumed at trenches. Above it, the North Equatorial Current and the southward California Current are parts of the clockwise North Pacific circulation.

The wider ocean supported varied economies and ways of moving. Its shallow continental shelves yield petroleum and natural gas, and Pacific fisheries include herring, salmon, sardines, snapper, swordfish and tuna, though these products are unevenly distributed. The eastern sea’s recorded history is closely tied to Spanish navigation: Balboa sighted the ocean in 1513, Magellan crossed it in 1520, and Manila galleons linked Acapulco with Manila for two and a half centuries. The Pacific that carried those ships is a deep, connected basin whose currents and coasts made distant ports part of one maritime world.