Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ferdinand Magellan named the Pacific Ocean the Pacífico, or peaceful sea, in 1520. This name was given after his crew survived months of storm-tossed terror in the strait that now bears his name and was greeted by calm waters and gentle trade winds.
The first humans to reach the western Pacific Ocean arrived in the Paleolithic era, approximately 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. These early settlers crossed the sea from Sundaland to Sahul using large bamboo rafts and possibly equipped with sails.
The Marshall Islands served as the Pacific Proving Grounds from 1946 to 1958. During this period, the United States conducted a total of 67 nuclear tests across various atolls in the region.
The Japanese Cabinet approved the discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in 2021. This discharge is scheduled to occur over a course of 30 years.
The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean increased a hundredfold between 1972 and 2012. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is currently located between California and Japan and is three times the size of France.
NOAA reported that global ocean surface temperatures remained at near-record levels in September 2025. June and August 2025 ranked as the third warmest in their 176-year record.