The total surface area of Earth is about 5.2 x 10^14 square meters. The Pacific Ocean has a surface area of about 1.81 x 10^14 square meters. About what percent of Earth’s surface area is the Pacific Ocean
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Answer: ≈ 35 %
Explanation
When scientists compare colossal quantities such as the areas of oceans and planets, they often express them in scientific notation. Writing Earth’s total surface area as 5.2 × 10¹⁴ m² and the Pacific Ocean’s area as 1.81 × 10¹⁴ m² keeps the numbers compact while preserving the many zeroes that would otherwise follow. Each “10¹⁴” factor signals that both values are scaled by one hundred trillion (100 000 000 000 000), so we can focus on the front, or “mantissa,” of each number to find their ratio.
To see what share of Earth’s surface the Pacific occupies, we form the fraction Pacific areaEarth’s area = 1.81×10145.2×1014 = 1.815.2,\frac{\text{Pacific area}}{\text{Earth’s area}} \,=\, \frac{1.81 \times 10^{14}}{5.2 \times 10^{14}} \,=\, \frac{1.81}{5.2},
because the identical “10¹⁴” terms cancel. Long division (or a calculator) shows 1.81 ÷ 5.2 ≈ 0.348. This decimal is the Pacific’s share expressed as a proportion, meaning 0.348 of the whole planet’s surface.
Percent simply means “per one hundred,” so we multiply the proportion by 100: 0.348×100≈34.8.0.348 \times 100 \approx 34.8.
Rounded to the nearest whole number, the Pacific Ocean covers about 35 percent of Earth’s entire surface.
This result can feel surprisingly large until we recall two related facts. First, water dominates our planet: roughly 71 % of Earth’s surface is ocean. Second, among the five named oceans, the Pacific is by far the most expansive; its east-to-west stretch (from Indonesia to Panama) spans more than half the globe’s circumference. Stating its size as a percentage rather than an absolute area makes the comparison intuitive: of every hundred square meters on Earth—land, sea, ice, and all—about thirty-five lie within the Pacific. That vast expanse influences global climate, marine biodiversity, and human commerce, underscoring why meteorologists, ecologists, and navigators alike pay such close attention to “Earth’s largest single feature.”
