Pacific Ocean width at about 5°N latitude, where it stretches approximately from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia—halfway around the world, and more than five times the diameter of the Moon. The lowest known point on Earth—the Mariana Trench—lies below sea level. Its average depth is , putting the total water volume at roughly . Due to the effects of plate tectonics, the Pacific Ocean is currently shrinking by roughly per year on three sides, roughly averaging a year. By contrast, the Atlantic Ocean is increasing in size. Along the Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which
Ocean color oceans in the global carbon cycle. Ocean colour data is a vital resource for a wide variety of operational forecasting and oceanographic research, earth sciences, and related applications, as well as in many of the Societal Benefit Areas identified by the Group on Earth Observations. A few examples of some of the ways that ocean colour data and related data types have been used include. Ocean color The "color" of the ocean is determined by the interactions of incident light with substances or particles present in the water. White light from the sun is made up of a combination of