The Pacific Ocean covers more area than all the land on Earth combined. In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan's crew became the first Europeans to cross it by sailing west. They had already been at sea for over a year. On March 16, 1521, they finally spotted land -- a group of islands now called the Philippines. The voyage across the Pacific had been brutal. Magellan named it the Pacific, meaning "peaceful," because the water seemed calm after the storms near South America. But the calm hid danger. The crew ran out of fresh food and survived on leather, sawdust, and rats. Many sailors got sick. The Philippines are an archipelago -- a chain of over 7,600 islands in Southeast Asia. They sit along the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, between the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea. The islands are tropical, with warm weather all year, heavy rain, and thick forests. Today, over 110 million people live there. The Philippines are also located in the "Ring of Fire," a zone around the Pacific where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common. The geography that Magellan stumbled upon is still one of the most geologically active regions on Earth.