- The Pacific is the largest of these oceans, covering 63,784,077 sq miles (165,200,000 km²). It fills the area between the western coastline of the Americas, the eastern coastlines of Asia and Australia, and is capped to the North and South by the Arctic and Antarctic regions. In part because of the numerous tropical islands of East Asia, the Pacific boasts the longest total shoreline, some 84,300 miles (135,663 km). It also holds the deepest point on the earth’s sea floor, the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, near the island of Guam. At close to 11,000 meters below sea level, or almost 7 miles, this crevice was first sounded in 1875 by the HMS Challenger. It would be thought that life forms could not exist at that depth and extreme water pressure. But beginning with radiolarians dredged by the Challenger, hundreds of different species have been found in the Challenger Deep, including shrimp, flatworms, and single-celled protists thought to be very similar to Earth’s earliest life forms. The Pacific was named by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who set sail from Spain in 1519 to find a westerly route to the Spice Islands around the southernmost tip of South America. Rounding the Horn for the first time in November 1520, Magellan passed through the Straits now named for him into a vast sea so calm he described it as a “beautiful, peaceful [pacific] ocean.”
Many of us know India either by the name of "India" or "Bharata". Some who have a little interest in history, also, know India by the name of "Bharatvarsha" or "Aryavarta". But in past immemorial, India was known by several different names in several different eras and societies and some of those names are listed here: Jambudvipa Jambudvipa is the ancient name of India which literally means “the land of Jambu trees” and can be found in numerous religious texts of various Sanathan Dharma ’s offshoots viz. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The Jambu or Jambul means Indian blackberry and dvipa means the continent. Nabhivarsha In Jain texts, India was known as Nabhivarsha, the country of Nabhi. Nabhi was a Chakravarti King and father of first Jain thirthankara Rishabhanatha. In ancient Hindu texts, a different definition for the Nabhivarsha is given. According to Hindu texts, here Nabhi means “navel of the Brahma” and varsha means “the country.” Arya...
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