Page 183 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

IT CAN’T BE TRUE! 181

PLASTIC PACIFIC
The total area taken
up by land on Earth is
about 57 million sq
miles (148 million km ).
2

Asia
The Great Pacific Garbage
Patch is an area up to
7 million sq miles
(15 million km ) that
2
contains trash—mostly
plastic—that has been
dumped in the ocean
and swept together by
the currents.
Europe The Pacific Basin is slowly
shrinking due to tectonic
movement: some of the plates
(pieces of Earth’s crust) that
make up the ocean floor are
sliding under the continental
plates that make up the land.
South
Australasia FAST FACTS

Africa The Ring of Fire is a zone
around the edge of the
Pacific that contains more
than three-quarters of the
world’s volcanoes. Nine
out of 10 earthquakes
also take place here.
Antarctica Earth’s surface, and
Water
covers about
two-thirds of
half of this is in the
Pacific Ocean.

US_180-181_309600_Pacific_Basin.indd 181 19/12/17 2:37 pm