The huge Atlantic Ocean, which separates the New and Old Worlds, has long been an insurmountable obstacle for mariners. In it are terrible storms that are dangerous even for modern ships, what about the sailing ships of the past era? Yes, and the depths of the Atlantic has not yet been studied properly, because their research is very complex.
Its area is more than 5 times the area of Russia, the largest country in the world. The deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean lies at a depth of over 8.7 kilometers. The size of the Atlantic Ocean is second only to the Pacific. He owes his modern name to titan Atlas, one of the characters of ancient Greek mythology. Earlier in different countries, the Atlantic Ocean, more precisely, some of its known parts were called the Western Ocean or the Outer Sea. Its average depth exceeds 3.7 kilometers.
The legendary continent of Atlantis, which subsequently sunk, was located, according to legend, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. The waters of this ocean are saltier than those of any other. The first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean was the famous Christopher Columbus. The Atlantic Ocean passes through all the climatic zones existing on Earth, from the Arctic to Antarctica. In terms of the number of fish caught in it every year, the Atlantic Ocean is not inferior even to the Pacific Ocean, the largest of the oceans of our planet. The first flight across the Atlantic was made by an American pilot in 1927. In the 20th century, many companies competed for the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, an honorary award given to ships that could cross the Atlantic especially quickly, faster than most other ships.
The volume of all the ice of Antarctica is approximately equal to the volume of water in the Atlantic Ocean. It is here that the famous Bermuda Triangle is located, which is still considered one of the mysteries of our world. The opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean annually move away from each other by about one and a half to two centimeters. The laying of telegraph cable along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean began in 1847, and with all the repairs it was delayed for fifteen years. It is in the Atlantic Ocean that Greenland is located, the largest island of the Earth. Five times the brave souls attempted to cross the Atlantic on a bunch of balloons, but they all died.
The Atlantic Ocean occupies about 17% of the entire earth’s surface. It contains a quarter of all the water in the world. In the waters of the Atlantic Ocean is the only sea in the world that has no coast – Sargasso. It is in the Atlantic Ocean that the tides are highest in the world. Their height in the Canadian Bay of Fundy sometimes reaches 18 meters. On it passes the Gulf Stream, the longest in the world. The Atlantic Ocean and the seas connected to it wash the shores of nearly a hundred countries.
