Official name: Atlantic Ocean
Water volume: 329,700,000 cubic km
Total area: 79,721,274 sq. Km
Coastline length: 111 866 km
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest after the quiet one. This ocean, which takes its name from the mythological island of Atlantis, divides or, better said, connects in its northern part the most populated and most civilized parts of the world; therefore, despite the fact that it is the most turbulent of all seas, the Atlantic Ocean differs in that same time and greatest excitement.
Washes the shores of Africa, North and South America and Europe.
The area covered by the Atlantic Ocean alone is 79,721,274 sq. Km, and together with the coastal and Mediterranean seas (Mediterranean, Baltic, North, Irish-Scottish and the Gulf of St. Lawrence), it is equal to 88,634,133 sq. Km. The length from north to south is 13,335 km, the greatest width, between Senegambia and the Gulf of Mexico - 9,000 km, the smallest - 1,445 km between Norway and Greenland (7,225 km. Between Georgia and Africa, 7,225 km between Cape Horn and Cape Dobra) hope, 5 550 km between the Capes of San Roca and Sierra Leone).
In the northern part of the ocean, the shores are indented by the Bay of St. Lawrence, the Gulfs of Mexico and the Caribbean, just as the European mainland with the Baltic and German Seas, the Gulf of Aquitaine, the Mediterranean and Black Seas; the southern shores of the ocean, both South American and African, appear, on the contrary, very little indented. The projection of the Gulf of Guinea corresponds to the projection of Brazil, and also to the projection of Senegambia and Sudan - the cut of the Antilles. In terms of the wealth of oceanic islands, towering among the open sea, the ocean is significantly inferior to the Pacific only near North America and islands abound off the coast. Important stations are: Iceland and the Faroe Islands between Europe and polar America; and the Bermuda group between Europe and central and southern North America; Ascension Islands, St. Helena, and between Africa and South America; finally, the Falkland Islands.
Seas: Baltic, North, Mediterranean, Black, Sargasso, Caribbean, Norwegian. Large bays: Biscay, Guinean, Mexican. The largest straits: Davis, Danish, Drake. The largest islands are British, Iceland, Newfoundland, Great and Lesser Antilles, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Falkland Islands (Maldives).
The deepest is the Milwaukee depression in the Puerto Rico trench (-8 605 m).
The main surface currents are: warm - the North Passat, Gulf Stream, North Atlantic and cold - Labrodor and Canary in the North Atlantic Ocean; warm - South Tradewinds, Brazilian and cold - West Winds and Bengal in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Major ports: Rotterdam (Netherlands), Nework, Houston (USA), Marseille (France), Hamburg (Germany), Genoa (Italy), London (UK), Buenos Aires (Argentina), St. Petersburg (Russia), Ilyichevsk (Ukraine) ).
From the article you will find out which continents are washed by the Atlantic Ocean and how it affects them.
Characteristics of the Atlantic Ocean
The ocean covers an area of 91.66 million square meters. km, making it the second largest after the Quiet. More than 16% of its total area falls on straits, seas and bays. The salinity of the water is approximately 34-37 ppm. The deepest point is the Puerto Rico Trench, 8742 meters deep. The average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is about 4 kilometers, and this is less than that of the Pacific and Indian.
The Atlantic is located in all 4 hemispheres and washes 5 continents. Danish Strait and Davis Strait in the north connect it to the North Arctic Ocean... in the south it communicates it with the Pacific Ocean, and with the Indian it is connected by the water space between Antarctica and Africa.
Previously, the Atlantic Ocean was called the Western, Outer, North Sea, now the term "Atlantic" is often used to designate it. On the European map, the author of which was the Dutchman Varenius, the modern name of the ocean appeared in 1650.
The origin of the name "Atlantic Ocean" is associated with the African Atlas Mountains. Scientists suggest that even among the ancient Greeks, this name literally meant "the sea beyond the Atlass mountains." There are two more versions of the name - one connects it with the sunken Atlantis, the other with the name of the titan Atlant.
Atlantic exploration
People began to explore the described expanses of water earlier than other oceans, through the Mediterranean Sea. Even before our era, ancient peoples founded cities and states on the shores of the Mediterranean. Watching the ebb and flow, animals and flora, they were the first to explore these waters.
Of course, in ancient times, people did not know exactly which continents were washed by the Atlantic Ocean. Their geographical knowledge was markedly different from that of today. Nevertheless, Pytheas sailed across the North Atlantic as early as the 4th century BC. And in the 10th century AD, a native of Normandy made the first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, arriving on the shores of the island of Newfoundland.
- Brazilian;
- Guiana;
- Gulf Stream;
- Norwegian.
- Greenlandic;
- Labrador;
- Canary;
- Benguela.
Conclusion
Now we know which continents are washed by the Atlantic Ocean and what influence it has on them. Stretching from north to south, this expanse of water has long been of great importance to people. The waters of the Atlantic connect the five continents and significantly affect their weather conditions.
Secrets of the Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean has been known to human civilization since time immemorial. It was here, according to ancient legends, that the mysterious island of Atlantis was located, which went under water seventeen thousand years ago. A warlike and courageous people (Atlanteans) lived on it, and the god Poseidon reigned over it along with his wife Kleito. Their eldest son's name was Atlan. In his honor, the boundless sea washing this land was named the Atlantic.
Atlantic Ocean
The mysterious civilization has sunk into oblivion, the sea was renamed into the ocean, and the name remained. The secrets of the Atlantic Ocean have not disappeared. Over the centuries, their number has disappeared. But before you get acquainted with everything unusual and mysterious, you need to get a general idea of the majestic waters washing simultaneously the shores of hot Africa, and the lands of old Europe, and the distant rocky coast of the American continent covered with a haze of fairy tales.
Nowadays, the Atlantic Ocean is called a huge body of water on planet Earth, which accounts for 25% of the volume of the World Ocean. Its area is almost 92 million km², together with the adjacent seas and the Atlantic part of the Southern Ocean. From north to south the waters of the Atlantic stretch for 15.5 thousand km, and from west to east, in the narrowest part (from Brazil to Liberia), they have a width of 2.8 thousand km.
If we take the distance Atlantic waters from the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the eastern coast of the Black Sea, then there will be a completely different figure - 13.5 thousand km. The depth of the ocean is also a great difference. Her average value is 3600 m, and the maximum is recorded in the trench of Puerto Rico and corresponds to 8742 meters.
The Atlantic floor is bisected lengthwise by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It exactly repeats the outlines of a huge reservoir and stretches in a wide winding mountainous chain: from the north - from the Reykjanes ridge (Iceland) to the African-Antarctic ridge in the south (Bouvet Island), going beyond the border of the Arctic ice.
To the right and to the left of the ridge are scattered depressions, trenches, faults, small ridges, which make the relief of the ocean floor very complex and confusing. The coastline (especially in northern latitudes) also has no simple structure... It is heavily indented by small bays, has vast water areas that cut deep into the land and form seas. An integral part is also the numerous straits in the coastal zone of the continents, as well as straits and channels connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean.
Atlantic Ocean Washes 96 state entities... It owns 14 seas and 4 large bays. The diverse climates in these geographic and geological parts of the earth's surface are supported by numerous surface currents. They flow deeply in all directions and are subdivided into warm and cold.
In the northern latitudes, up to the equator, the North Passat, Gulf Stream and North Atlantic currents dominate. They carry warm waters and delight the world around them with a mild climate and high temperatures. The same cannot be said about the Labrador and Canary currents. The latter are cold and create frosty and slushy weather on the adjacent lands.
South of the equator, the picture is the same. The warm South Passat, Guinean and Brazilian currents rule the ball here. The cold Western Winds and Bengalskoye try not to be inferior to their more humane colleagues and also make their feasible negative contribution to the formation of the climate of the southern hemisphere. In general, the average temperature on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean is plus 16 ° Celsius. At the equator, it can go up to 28 ° Celsius. But in the northern latitudes it is very cold - here the water freezes.
Icebergs of the Atlantic
From what has been said, it is easy to guess that from the north and south the waters of the Atlantic are squeezed by eternal giant ice crusts. True, at the expense of eternity, a little too much, since often very large blocks of ice break off from them and begin to slowly drift towards the equator. Such blocks are called icebergs, and they move in the north of Greenland up to 40 ° N. w, and in the south of Antarctica to 40 ° S. sh. Their remains are observed closer to the equator, reaching 31-35 ° southern and northern latitudes.
Very big sizes- a loose concept. More specifically, we come across icebergs, the length of which is tens of kilometers, and the area sometimes exceeds 1000 km². These ice floes can travel across the ocean for years, hiding their true size under the water surface.
The fact is that a blue mountain of ice shines above the water, which corresponds to only 10% of the total volume of the iceberg. The remaining 90% of this block is hidden in the ocean depths due to the fact that the density of ice does not exceed 940 kg / m³, and the density of sea water on the surface ranges from 1000 to 1028 kg / m³. The usual, average height of an iceberg, as a rule, corresponds to 28-30 meters, while its underwater part is just over 100-120 meters.
Meeting such a sea traveler has never been a joy for ships. He poses the greatest danger already in adulthood. By this time, the iceberg thaws significantly, its center of gravity shifts, and a huge block of ice overturns. Its underwater part is above the water. It does not shine blue, but is a dark blue ice cap, which, especially in poor visibility conditions, is very difficult to distinguish on the surface of the ocean.
The sinking of the Titanic
A typical example of the insidiousness of floating ice blocks can be the sinking of the Titanic, which occurred on the night of April 14-15, 1912. He sank 2 hours 40 minutes after colliding with an iceberg in the northern waters of the Atlantic Ocean (41 ° 43 ′ 55 ″ N, 49 ° 56 ′ 45 ″ E). The result was the death of 1,496 passengers and crew.
True, you need to make a reservation right away: it is rather imprudent to attribute everything to the "lost" iceberg. This shipwreck and today is one of the greatest secrets Atlantic Ocean. There is still no solution to the causes of the tragedy, although there are a great many different beliefs and assumptions.
It is assumed that the largest passenger ship in the world (length 269 m, width 28.2 m, displacement 46,300 tons) collided with an iceberg, which was of venerable age and apparently turned over in the water more than once. Its dark surface did not give reflections, it merged with the water surface of the ocean, so it was very difficult to notice a huge floating ice block in time. The culprit of the tragedy was identified only when he was at a distance of 450 meters from the vessel, and not 4-6 km, as usually happens in such situations.
The sinking of the Titanic made a lot of noise. It was a worldwide sensation at the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century. Mostly everyone was amazed - how could such a huge and reliable ship sink so quickly, dragging hundreds and hundreds of unfortunate people to the bottom with it. Nowadays, many researchers tend to see the true causes of the terrible tragedy not in the ill-fated iceberg (although few deny its indirect role), but in completely other factors, which for some reason, at one time, were hidden from the general public.
Versions, guesses, assumptions
The official conclusion of the commission to investigate the disaster was unambiguous - the ice of the Atlantic turned out to be stronger than steel. He ripped open the underwater hull of the Titanic like a tin can. The wound was terrible: its length reached 100 meters, and of the sixteen watertight compartments, six were damaged. This turned out to be enough for the proud Briton to sink to the bottom and calm down forever at a great depth, taking with him to the sea bottom human lives and colossal material values.
The sinking of the Titanic
The sinking of the Titanic
Such a verdict is not convincing for a specialist, and a person far from shipbuilding understands that carrying the hull of a huge liner plowing the oceans cannot resemble a tin can in any way. The thawed ice of the old man-iceberg also does not have sufficient hardness, which, judging by the conclusion, should have surpassed the strength of a diamond in order to weave the steel skin of a multi-ton passenger ship by tens of meters.
You can build various assumptions and hypotheses for as long as you like, but only practical research can give answers to all questions. In this situation, given the depth at which the Titanic lay, exploration work became possible no earlier than the 80s of the XX century. It was by this time that deep-sea vehicles appeared capable of for a long time be at a depth of 4 kilometers.
The first such swallow was the expedition of the American oceanologist Robert Ballard, which in September 1985 arrived at the scene of the tragedy on the ship Knor. She was armed with a deep-water towed complex "Argo". It was he who determined the depth of the Titanic's remains. The water column in this place was 3,750 meters. The ship lay on seabed, split into two parts, the distance between them was equal to about 600 meters.
No visible damage was found that caused the death of the ocean liner. Robert Ballard considered that they were hidden by the soil, in which the multi-ton structure was bogged down. A laceration wound on the Titanic's hull was not found during the second expedition organized by an American scientist in 1986.
French and American specialists followed the beaten track. In the summer of 1987, they arrived in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and spent two long months at the crash site. Using the Nautil deep-sea vehicle, the researchers lifted from the bottom more than 900 objects on board the sunken ship. These were samples of ship utensils, some of which ended up in museums, and some were sold to private collections.
Survey of the Titanic
Underwater vehicle examines the sunken Titanic
Finally, in 1991, the ship Akademik Mstislav Keldysh arrived at the site of the sinking of the Titanic. On board was an international research expedition led by Canadian oceanographic geologist Steve Blask. The expedition had at its disposal two autonomous underwater vehicles "Mir-1" and "Mir-2". The researchers made 38 dives on them. The hull of the ship was examined, a sample of the side plating was taken, films, videos and photographs were taken.
Despite all the efforts, torn hole, several tens of meters long, was not found. But they managed to find a hole, the size of which did not exceed a square meter, and numerous cracks were noticed along the lines of rivets.
A piece of steel that broke away from the Titanic's hull was sent for testing. It was tested for metal brittleness - the conclusion was not comforting: the prototype was amazingly fragile. This could be attributed to the long 80 years on the seabed, which significantly affected the properties of steel. Therefore, for the objectivity of the picture, a similar piece of metal was tested, preserved at the shipyard since 1911. The result was much the same.
Believe it or not, the Titanic's hull did not meet regulatory requirements. It was made from a material with a high sulfur content. The last and gave steel structure high fragility, which in combination with ice water made her very fragile.
If the body were made of steel that meets all the standards and requirements, then after contact with the iceberg, it would bend, but retain its integrity. In this situation, the ship hit the starboard side of the iceberg - and the impact was of small force, but the fragile skin of the Titanic could not withstand it either. It split along the rivet lines below the waterline. Ice water poured into the holes formed, which instantly filled the lower compartments and, most likely, caused the explosion of incandescent steam boilers.
The huge ship began to plunge rapidly into the waters of the Atlantic. According to eyewitnesses, the Titanic initially sank on an even keel, which indicates that the lower compartments were filled with water evenly. Then a nose trim appeared. The stern began to rise upward, reached a vertical position, and the multi-ton colossus very quickly went to the bottom. Already at great depth, due to high pressure, "Titanic" split into two parts, which were pulled along the ocean floor for more than 500 meters.
Who benefited from the sinking of the Titanic?
It turns out that this disaster has nothing to do with the secrets of the Atlantic Ocean: everything seems to be clear. No, there is no need to rush to conclusions. As already mentioned, there are many versions of the death of the ocean liner, and among them there is not one that can be called the ultimate truth. There are many other assumptions, opinions of very authoritative people who consider the cause of the terrible catastrophe from a completely different angle.
So to this day, there is a version that the culprit of the accident was the White Star Line itself - the owner of the ship. It was her leaders who initially planned the construction of the Titanic with gross violations of all possible rules and regulations. The goal of this grandiose fraud was to get huge insurance coverage that could fix the company's precarious financial position and save it from total collapse.
That is why the ocean liner, despite warnings about icebergs from ships in the same area, went with the maximum possible speed(20.5 mph). The captain of the ship had only one task - to provoke a collision of the Titanic with a huge floating ice floe.
Most likely, no one even could have imagined such a number dead people, since according to all calculations it turned out that the ship would sink for a long time. The main stake was placed on rescue ships, which had to have enough time to get to the scene of the tragedy and have time to save all passengers and valuables on board. However, an unpredictable fate made its own adjustments to the original scenario.
In addition to this rather dubious and shaky version, there is another. This is a coal bunker fire. At long-term storage, the lower layers of coal begin to smolder, releasing an explosive gas. The temperature gradually increases, the concentration of gas vapors increases. In such a situation, the explosion can occur from a normal shock. The collision with the iceberg was the detonator that caused a huge burst of energy that tore apart and destroyed the entire lower part of the ship.
In a word, even today there is no consensus about the causes of the terrible tragedy. Only the remains of a ship resting at great depth can reveal this secret of the Atlantic Ocean. Their scrupulous study by dozens of specialists is possible only in normal terrestrial conditions. To do this, you need to raise the "Titanic" from the bottom of a huge reservoir.
Technically, this is extremely difficult to implement. As for financial side question, then here is a different picture. Although such work will cost crazy money, it will more than pay off. After all, we must not forget that there are 10 million pounds of gold bars on the ship. Jewelry, diamonds, jewelry are also kept here. richest people of the world that sailed on this ship. Fragments of the "Titanic" body, the remains of the interior, dishes will go from auctions "with a bang" at fabulous prices.
If we consider the unfortunate "Titanic" as a source of material wealth, then he is by no means alone. The bottom of the Atlantic Ocean is the Klondike, Eldorado. Here lies a huge number of ships, which are simply filled with precious metals, diamonds, and other valuables that can make anyone who gets to them gilded. This is exactly the whole question: to break through the thickness ocean waters- an unaffordable task not only for individual adventurers, but also for serious companies and solid financial structures.
Underwater ship graveyards
At the beginning of the XXI century, there are many companies specializing in the search for sunken ships. The game is worth the candle, since according to experts, at least 80,000 ships of all countries and peoples rest at the bottom of the Atlantic alone, shipwrecked over the past 400 years, with $ 600 billion worth of valuables on board.
One of these companies - the American company "Odyssey" - discovered in 2007, in the Canary Islands region, a Spanish sailing ship. On board were 500 thousand old gold and silver coins. Their total weight reached 17 tons, and the cost was equal to $ 500 million. This is $ 100 million more than the wealth that was raised in 1985 from a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast of Florida in the twenties of the 17th century.
The lion's share of all the valuables that went to the bottom of the ocean in the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries rests precisely on Spanish ships, which in a continuous caravan carried gold and silver plundered from the Indian peoples to Europe from America, gems and products from them.
In theory, the good obtained in this way cannot be the property of the state. The Spanish government judged differently. V early XXI century, it declared 800 Spanish ships sunk in the XVI-XVIII centuries, transporting illegally acquired utensils - a national treasure. The monetary equivalent of all this wealth is estimated at $ 130 billion.
Underwater treasures are available to search teams in the Atlantic coastal areas. Here, as a rule, ships were drowned, having run into shallows or reefs. On the endless expanses of water, where under the keel lies at least 3,000 meters, galleons, brigantines, frigates, and then steamships, motor ships, yachts, battleships went to the bottom, experiencing all the power and strength of ocean storms (the height of the waves in the Atlantic often reaches 10-15 meters) or the deceit and cruelty of pirate ships and enemy submarines during the years of hostilities.
The ratio of ships that have sunk in coastal zones and in the open ocean over the past 400 years is 85 to 15. That is, it turns out that the closer to the coast, the more dangerous. Only every seventh ship perished in the endless and majestic expanses of the Atlantic Ocean, the rest of the floating facilities were drowning in the visibility of native or foreign shores, which, as they say, were within easy reach.
One of the largest underwater cemeteries is the English Channel. Its length is 560 km, width in the west is 240 km, in the east is 32 km, and the average depth is 63 m. Only in some places the depth exceeds this mark and reaches 170 m. There are many shoals, frequent fogs. Countless ships rest at the bottom of the strait, especially in its western part.
In terms of the number of shipwrecks, the waters in the area of Cape Hatteras (North Carolina, USA) are not lagging behind. Here is a narrow long spit, the eastern protrusion of which is actually the unfortunate cape. This place is characterized by countless shoals, constant storms, fogs, strong currents. Ships that dare to approach these shores expose themselves to a very real danger - the manifestation of carelessness, frivolity and ignorance of the sailing, almost constantly, leads to tragic consequences.
Perhaps the most intriguing secret of the Atlantic Ocean is the Bermuda Triangle. Its peaks lie at the southern tip of Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. It is part of the so-called Devil's Belt, of which the Devil's Triangle is also a part, located in the Pacific waters around Miyake Island (Japan).
The excitement around this seemingly unremarkable place arose in the second half of the 20th century. Earlier, for hundreds of years, everything seemed to be fine. The ships decorously crossed this ocean space, and the crews on them did not even know what mortal danger they exposed themselves.
The year 1950 put an end to such outrageous frivolity. It was then that a small article by Associated Press correspondent Edward Johnson came out. It was not even an article, but a thin pamphlet published in Florida in a small print run. It had the name "Bermuda Triangle", and the facts stated in it told about the mysterious disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda region.
Bermuda Triangle
She did not attract public attention in any way, but apparently forced to attract the attention of individual people, feeding on sensations and bestseller circulations. However, it took almost 15 years before the light saw the article by Vincent Gladdis entitled "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle." It was published in 1964 in a spiritualistic journal. With a short break, a book by the same author, "Invisible Horizons", was published. In it, a whole chapter was allotted to the mysterious area of the ocean.
A more detailed, solid and capacious work was presented to the readers' judgment ten years later. The author of this bestseller, simply and succinctly titled "The Bermuda Triangle", was Charles Berlitz. It provided a lot of data on the mysterious disappearances of ships and aircraft, as well as described incomprehensible phenomena associated with changes in the properties of time and space. Reputable publishers different countries reprinted this book, and, in a short time, tens of millions of citizens living in different parts of the planet learned about the Bermuda Triangle.
In any business, there will always be corrosive skeptics who do not feed them bread, but let a fly in the ointment spoil a barrel of honey. A blow to such a successfully and dynamically spreading sensation was struck already in the next 1975 by the American journalist Lawrence David Kusche. This gentleman left no stone unturned from all the arguments and statements of Charles Berlitz on the pages of his book "The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle Solved".
To the author's credit, the content of the book is by no means unsubstantiated criticism, which would be based on envy of a more successful and nosy colleague, but a serious study based on a painstaking study of documents and eyewitness accounts. It was on the basis of factual material that many errors, inaccuracies, and sometimes outright hoaxes were revealed in the work of Charles Berlitz.
The conclusion of the book by Lawrence David Couchet is unambiguous: nothing mysterious, supernatural, inexplicable happens in the Bermuda Triangle. The statistics of tragedies in this section of the Atlantic Ocean correspond to similar data in any other place of the huge body of water. Mysterious disappearances of material objects are invented, and stories about ships abandoned by crews, about lost time, about instantaneous movement in space for hundreds of kilometers is a myth.
Critics of anomalous phenomena are sober people. To convince them of something, you need to provide iron evidence of this phenomenon. But in Everyday life It is not that simple. What lies beyond the realm defies explanation in terms of the laws of physics, mechanics or chemistry. Rather, it is human imagination and belief in the mysterious and the unusual that dominate here.
By the way, many of the paranormal phenomena that take place in the Bermuda Triangle can be interpreted as a direct consequence of the usual banal processes taking place in the waters of the Atlantic. For example, the mysterious disappearance of sea vessels has a simple explanation associated with methane emissions. This gas escapes from the gas hydrate deposits on the seabed and saturates the water. The density of the latter drops sharply. A ship hitting such a section of the ocean instantly sinks.
The released methane is not limited only to the aquatic environment. It rises into the air and also reduces its density. This can lead to the death of aircraft, which is almost impossible to explain to people on the ground. It should not be forgotten that the gas dissipates very quickly in both water and air. That is, he is a killer who leaves no traces behind.
The anomalies over time can be explained by the increased activity of the magnetic field in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. Trapped in a bunch of magnetic forces, aircraft passengers can be convinced of their effect by looking at the hands of a wrist watch that have stopped or slowed down. After some time, the negative factor disappears, the clock starts to run normally again, but everyone, without exception, lags behind by the same number of minutes. This gives rise to the false belief that the plane disappeared in another dimension.
If we talk about ships found in the ocean, on which there was not a single crew member, then here the blame can be blamed on the infrasound that occurs on water surface under certain conditions. The human brain, heart, other organs of his body - they all have their own vibration frequency. If some of them coincide with the frequency of infrasound, then the resulting resonance can mercilessly hit the psyche of people, plunge them into horror and panic, make them jump overboard and die in the water.
All the presented arguments look quite convincing and realistic. But we must not forget that these are not proofs, but only assumptions. Supporters of the paranormal version can also lay out their vision of the problem to the public, which will be no less convincing and will find many adherents.
Where is the truth? Probably, as always, in the middle. A sober look, combined with a belief in the unusual and supernatural, will be more productive in solving the mysteries of not only the Bermuda Triangle, but also other mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean, of which there are a great many both on its surface and in the dark depths.
Based on material factruz
Its area is much smaller and amounts to 91.6 million km². About a quarter of this area falls on the shelf seas. The coastline is very indented, primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, in the Southern it is relatively flat. The ocean washes all continents except Australia. The islands located in the ocean area are located near the continents. The Atlantic washes the most big Island planet - Greenland.
This ocean began to be mastered by European civilization earlier than all others, and therefore is of great importance for Europe. It got its name in honor of the titan Atlas, since he held the firmament not far from the mythical garden of the Hesperides, located at the edge of the earthly firmament, just where the Atlantic Ocean went - as the ancient Greeks believed. Also, its name is associated with the legendary Atlantis, according to legend, was located somewhere in the waters of the Atlantic and irretrievably sunk in its depths. Perhaps the myth of Atlantis has a real foundation. As a result of the movement of the earth's crust, some of the Mediterranean islands went under water, along with temples, palaces and columns erected by ancient civilizations. For thousands of years, new states have arisen and disappeared along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea: Crete, Mycenae, policies Ancient Greece, Phenicia, Carthage, finally Rome. Ancient Rome from a small city of the state for several centuries turned into the strongest Mediterranean power. V 1st-2nd centuries AD Rome controlled the entire Mediterranean coast. The Romans even called it "Mare Nostrum" or "Our Sea". In the Middle Ages, the most important trade routes between Europe, Asia and Africa passed here. The countries that had access to the Atlantic began to colonize more and more remote corners of the planet. With the discovery of America, the Atlantic Ocean became a link between the Old and New Worlds. And today its economic and transport importance is still very great.
Speaking about the relief of the Atlantic seabed, it should be said that this is a young ocean. It was formed only in the Mesozoic era, when the single continent of Pangea began to split into pieces, and America separated from Africa. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge stretches across the entire ocean from north to south. The island of Iceland in the north is nothing more than the exit of this ridge to the surface, which is why Iceland is a country of geysers and volcanoes. Now the ocean continues to expand, and the continents are moving away from each other at a rate of several centimeters a year. The Mediterranean Sea is the largest inland sea of the ocean in its origin, together with the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas, are the remains of the ancient tropical ocean Tethys, which closed after the collision of Africa and Eurasia. In the future, in millions of years, these seas will completely disappear, and mountains will form in their place.
The climate of the Atlantic Ocean is very diverse, because it, like the Pacific Ocean, is located in all climatic zones of the planet. However, the temperature surface waters here it is lower than in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. This is due to the constant cooling effect of melting ice brought here from the Arctic. Currents facilitate movement floating ice, the distribution boundary of which reaches 40 ° N latitude. At the same time, the salinity of the Atlantic is very high, since most large areas the ocean has in the tropics, where evaporation is great and there is very little rainfall. The evaporated moisture is carried away by the winds to the continents, due to the relative narrowness of the ocean, without having time to fall over its water area.
The organic world of the Atlantic is poorer than the world of the Pacific. The reason for this is the colder climate and its youth. But with a small variety, the number of fish and other marine animals is significant. The shelf occupies large areas here, and therefore convenient spawning grounds for many commercial fish are created: cod, herring, mackerel, sea bass, capelin. Whales and seals are found in polar waters. The unique Sargasso Sea is located off the coast of North America, it has no shores, and its borders are formed by ocean currents. The sea surface is covered with sargassum algae, the sea waters are poor in plankton. Once the Sargasso Sea was also the most transparent on the planet, however, now its surface is heavily polluted with oil products.
Thanks to its natural conditions, The Atlantic Ocean is the most productive in terms of quantity biological resources... Most of the fish catch falls on its northern part, but too active fishing has led to a noticeable decrease in the amount of resources in last years... There are a lot of oil and gas reserves on the Shelf, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, however, the 2010 accident showed what colossal damage to the ecology of the ocean is caused by their production. There are also large deposits of hydrocarbons on the shelf North Sea off the coast of Europe. Today the ocean is already very heavily polluted by human activities and is not capable of self-cleaning at such a rate. The task of the developed states of the Earth for the coming decades is to protect and preserve its natural resources.
The Atlantic Ocean, or the Atlantic, is the second largest (after the Pacific) and the most developed among the rest of the water areas. From the east it is limited to the coast of South and North America, from the west - Africa and Europe, in the north - Greenland, in the south it merges with the Southern Ocean.
Distinctive features of the Atlantic: a small number of islands, a complex bottom topography and a heavily indented coastline.
Ocean characteristics
Area: 91.66 million square kilometers, with 16% of the territory covered by seas and bays.
Volume: 329.66 million sq. Km
Salinity: 35 ‰.
Depth: average - 3736 m, maximum - 8742 m (Puerto Rico trench).
Temperature: in the very south and north - about 0 ° C, at the equator - 26-28 ° C.
Currents: conditionally there are 2 gyres - North (currents move clockwise) and South (counterclockwise). The gyres are separated by the Equatorial countercurrent.
Main currents of the Atlantic Ocean
Warm:
North trade wind - begins off the western coast of Africa, crosses the ocean from east to west and meets the Gulf Stream near Cuba.
Gulf Stream- the most powerful current in the world, which carries 140 million cubic meters of water per second (for comparison: all rivers in the world carry only 1 million cubic meters of water per second). It originates near the shores of the Bahamas, where the Florida and Antilles currents meet. Having united, they give rise to the Gulf Stream, which through the strait between Cuba and the Florida Peninsula enters the Atlantic Ocean with a powerful stream. Then the current moves north along the coast of the United States. Approximately off the coast of North Carolina, the Gulf Stream turns east and out into the open ocean. After about 1500 km, it meets the cold Labrador Current, which slightly changes the course of the Gulf Stream and carries it to the northeast. Closer to Europe, the current splits into two branches: Azores and the North Atlantic.
Only recently it became known that 2 km below the Gulf Stream flows reverse flow heading from Greenland to the Sargasso Sea. This stream of icy water was called the Antigulf Stream.
North Atlantic- the continuation of the Gulf Stream, which washes the western coast of Europe and brings the warmth of the southern latitudes, providing a mild and warm climate.
Antilles- begins east of the island of Puerto Rico, flows to the north and flows into the Gulf Stream near the Bahamas. Speed - 1-1.9 km / h, water temperature 25-28 ° C.
Countercurrent flow - current encircling the globe along the equator. In the Atlantic, it separates the North Tradewind and South Tradewind currents.
South Passat (or South Equatorial) - passes through the southern tropics. The average water temperature is 30 ° C. When the South Trade Wind reaches the shores South America, it is divided into two sleeves: Caribbean, or Guiana (flows north to the coast of Mexico) and Brazilian- moves south along the coast of Brazil.
Guinean - located in the Gulf of Guinea. It flows from west to east and then turns south. Together with the Angola and South Equatorial flows, it forms the cyclical current of the Gulf of Guinea.
Cold:
Lomonosov countercurrent - discovered by a Soviet expedition in 1959. It originates off the coast of Brazil and moves north. A stream 200 km wide crosses the equator and flows into the Gulf of Guinea.
Canary- flows from north to south, to the equator along the coast of Africa. This wide stream (up to 1 thousand km) near Madeira and the Canary Islands meets the Azores and Portuguese currents. Approximately in the region of 15 ° N. joins with the Equatorial Countercurrent.
Labrador - begins in the strait between Canada and Greenland. It flows south to the Newfoundland Bank, where it meets the Gulf Stream. The waters of the current carry cold from the Arctic Ocean, and together with the current, huge icebergs are carried to the south. In particular, the iceberg that destroyed the famous "Titanic" was brought precisely by the Labrador current.
Benguela- is born near the Cape of Good Hope and moves along the coast of Africa to the north.
Falkland (or Malvinas) branches off the Stream westerly winds and flows north along the east coast of South America to the Gulf of La Plata. Temperature: 4-15 ° C.
Current of the westerly winds encircles the globe in the region of 40-50 ° S. The stream moves from west to east. It branches off in the Atlantic South Atlantic flow.
The underwater world of the Atlantic Ocean
The underwater world of the Atlantic is poorer in diversity than in Pacific... This is due to the fact that the Atlantic Ocean was more exposed to freezing during the Ice Age. But the Atlantic is richer in the number of individuals of each species.
Flora and fauna underwater world clearly distributed across climatic zones.
The flora is represented mainly by algae and flowering plants (zostera, poseidonia, fucus). In northern latitudes, kelp prevails, in temperate latitudes - red algae. Phytoplankton actively flourishes throughout the ocean at depths of up to 100 m.
The fauna is rich in species. Almost all species and classes of marine animals live in the Atlantic. Among commercial fish, herring, sardine, and flounder are especially appreciated. There is an active catch of crustaceans and molluscs, whaling is limited.
The tropical belt of the Atlantic is striking in its abundance. There are many corals and many amazing species of animals: turtles, flying fish, several dozen species of sharks.
For the first time, the name of the ocean is found in the writings of Herodotus (5th century BC), who calls it the sea of Atlantis. And in the 1st century AD. Roman scientist Pliny the Elder writes about a vast water surface, which he calls the Oceanus Atlanticus. But official name The "Atlantic Ocean" took hold only by the 17th century.
There are 4 stages in the history of Atlantic exploration:
1. From antiquity to the 15th century. The first documents that tell about the ocean date back to the 1st millennium BC. The ancient Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cretans and Greeks knew the coastal areas of the water well. Preserved maps of those times with detailed depth measurements, indications of currents.
2. Time of the Great geographical discoveries(XV-XVII centuries). The development of the Atlantic continues, the ocean becomes one of the main trade routes. In 1498 Vasco de Gama rounded Africa and paved the way to India. 1493-1501 - three voyages of Columbus to America. Identified anomaly Bermuda, discovered many currents, compiled detailed maps depths, coastal zones, temperatures, bottom topography.
Expeditions of Franklin in 1770, I. Kruzenshtern and Yu. Lisyansky 1804-06.
3. XIX-first half of XX century - the beginning of scientific oceanographic research. Chemistry, physics, biology, geology of the ocean are studied. A map of currents has been compiled, research is being carried out for laying submarine cable between Europe and America.
4. 1950s - today. A comprehensive study of all components of oceanography is being carried out. Priority: climate research different zones, identification of global atmospheric problems, ecology, mining, ship traffic, seafood production.
In the center of Belize barrier reef there is a unique underwater cave - Bolshaya Blue hole... Its depth is 120 meters, and at the very bottom there is a whole gallery of smaller caves connected by tunnels.
The only sea in the world without shores is located in the Atlantic - Sargassovo. Its boundaries are formed by ocean currents.
One of the most mysterious places on the planet is located here: the Bermuda Triangle. The Atlantic Ocean is also home to another myth (or reality?) - the continent of Atlantis.