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Explorer Ferdinand Magellan
- Explorer Ferdinand Magellan named the Pacific Ocean in the 16th century.
oceanservice.noaa.gov › facts › pacificHow did the Pacific Ocean get its name? - NOAA's National ...
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Oct 18, 2023 · Explorer Ferdinand Magellan named the Pacific Ocean in the 16th century. Covering approximately 155 million square kilometers (59 million square miles) and containing more than half of the free water on Earth, the Pacific is by far the largest of the world's ocean basins.
The Pacific Ocean was named by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first European to navigate the ocean. Magellan named the ocean “Mar Pacifico,” which means “peaceful sea,” because of its calm waters compared to the Atlantic.
- ARCTIC. Most bodies of water are named for the areas they surround or the areas that surround them. For example, the Arctic Ocean was named because of its location in the Arctic Circle—which begs the question, how did the Arctic Circle get its name?
- ATLANTIC. The first documented usage of the term “Atlantic” was in the sixth century BC by a Greek poet, Atlantikôi pelágei or the “Sea of Atlas.” In Greek mythology, Atlas is the Titan tasked with holding up the heavens for all eternity.
- INDIAN. The Indian Ocean has been known as such since at least 1515 and is another example of an ocean being named by the area that surrounds it. Earlier accounts named it the Eastern Ocean and Ancient Greece referred to the northwestern Indian ocean as the Erythraean Sea or the Red Sea, likely referring to seasonal blooms of cyanobacteria near the water’s surface turning the normal green-blue water a reddish brown.
- PACIFIC. The Pacific Ocean or Mare Pacificum, meaning “peaceful sea,” was dubbed so by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520 after his treacherous journey to find the “Spice Islands”, now known as the Malaku Islands in eastern Indonesia.
In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and encountered the Pacific Ocean, calling it the South Sea. In 1521, a Spanish expedition led by the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was the first recorded crossing of the Pacific Ocean, Magellan then naming it the "peaceful sea."
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for leading an expedition across the narrow isthmus of Panama, and reaching the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European to see this large body of water. Like many explorers of his day, Balboa went to the new world seeking riches and adventure.
He is best known for crossing the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World. He traveled to the New World in 1500 and, after some exploration, settled on the island of Hispaniola.
Afterwards, the ocean's current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favorable winds on reaching the ocean.
