With its rich fertile waters, the Atlantic Ocean has been a source of food and livelihood for a large number of cultures around the world for thousands of years. It is a life-giver. This wide expanse of water- the second largest in the world- has also played an instrumental part in some of history’s greatest achievements, breakthroughs, discoveries, and of course, tragedies.
Read on to explore some of the most interesting facts about the Atlantic Ocean.
- With its rich waters, the Atlantic Ocean is home to the world’s most fertile fishing grounds. Some of the major species of fish that are caught here include mackerel, cod, haddock, and herring.
- The lowest point on the Atlantic is the Puerto Rico Trench, which measures eight and a half thousand meters deep. It is located near the boundary of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
- Among the world’s oceans, the Atlantic is considered to be the youngest. It is estimated to have been formed during the Jurassic Period.
- The Atlantic Ocean formed around 130 million years ago when the Americas, Africa, and Europe- then all part of the ancestral super continent Pangaea– started to drift away from each other.
- The Equator subdivides the Atlantic Ocean into two parts, called the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic.
- The North Atlantic Ocean separates Europe and the Americas, the “Old World” and the “New World”.
- Informally, the North Atlantic is called “The Pond,” (especially by the Irish and the British) hence the idiomatic expression “across the pond.”
- Greenland, with its total land area of 2.16 million square kilometers, is the largest island on the Atlantic Ocean.
- The Atlantic Ocean is the first ocean to have been successfully crossed by ship and airplane.
- There’s a huge expanse in the South Atlantic Ocean called the “Roaring Forties.” Located between the tips of South America and South Africa, this area is named as such because of the strong winds and huge waves that usually occur in this area.
- The Atlantic Ocean is where the infamous Bermuda Triangle is located. This area, wherein many ships, airplanes, and boats are said to have crashed or mysteriously disappeared, is located near San Juan, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, Miami, Florida.
- Surtsey is an island in the Atlantic Ocean that was only recently formed through volcanic activity in 1963. The island is now considered as a World Heritage Site.
- With an area of 106 million square kilometers, the Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest body of water in the world.
- A coelacanth, a species of fish that is thought to have been extinct for nearly 60 million years, was fished out of the South Atlantic Ocean in 1938.
- The name of the Atlantic Ocean comes from the Greek word “Atlantikos.” This is also the same name that the ancient Greeks applied to the mythical island of Atlantis.
- The Atlantic Ocean covers twenty-two percent (or more than one-fifth) of the Earth’s total area.
- Ancient peoples were afraid of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. The prevailing thought back then was that the world was flat and what is now known as the Strait of Gibraltar is the end of the world.
- The South Atlantic Ocean was once known as the Aethiopian Sea up until the mid-1800s.
- The Atlantic is both a polar and equatorial ocean. It is bisected by the Equator, and it spans from the North Polar region to the South Polar region.
- There is a curious marine stream is located in the Atlantic. Called the Gulf Stream, this current has a different salinity and temperature from the waters surrounding it. It resembles an underwater river running beneath the ocean.
- The word “Atlantikos” and “Atlantic Ocean” used to refer to just the North Atlantic Ocean alone, up until the middle of the 19th century.
- With a salinity level that ranges from anywhere between 33 to 37 parts per thousand, the Atlantic Ocean is the world’s saltiest sea.
- The Atlantic Ocean’s average depth is 10,000 feet.
- Aside from rich fishing resources, the Atlantic Ocean also has an abundant number of natural petroleum deposits and gas fields.
- There are four trenches in the Atlantic that go way beyond the ocean’s depth average of 10,000 feet. These are the Puerto Rico trench, the Laurentian Abyss, the Romanche Trench, and the South Sandwich Trench.
- Tropical cyclones that originate in the Atlantic Ocean are responsible for the yearly hurricane season that affects Central America, eastern USA, and some parts of the Carribean.
- The Atlantic Ocean is bordered in the north by the Arctic Ocean, Southern Ocean in the south, and Indian Ocean in the southeast.
- The man-made Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Its entrance can be found in the Carribean Sea.
- Known as the world’s only sea without a shore, the Sargasso Sea is located completely within the Atlantic.
- The Atlantic Ocean borders a total of 91 countries, the majority of them located in the Carribean (27 countries) and Africa (also 27 countries).
- The Atlantic is so deep that scientists have to use sonar waves to map its ocean floor.
- Amelia Earhart is celebrated as the first woman to have crossed the Atlantic, or any ocean for that matter, using an airplane. She accomplished this feat in 1928.
- To give a rough estimate of its size, the Atlantic Ocean is six times the total area of the whole United States.
- One of the most memorable tragedies in the history of sea freighting happened in the Atlantic. This is the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
- One of the world’s largest mountain ranges is located in the Atlantic Ocean. Called the Atlantic Ridge, this underwater mountain range is almost twice as large as the Andes Mountains.
- The Atlantic Ocean played a huge role in the history of intercontinental communications. The first telegraph cables were laid here in 1866, thereby linking Europe and North America together. Telegraph was the fastest form of communication during that period.
- The highest tides in the world are experienced in the Atlantic Ocean, more specifically near the Bay of Fundy in Canada. The tides can reach up to a height of fifty feet.
- The first cultures to have first explored the Atlantic Ocean include the Spanish, their historical rivals the Portuguese, and the Norsemen.
- The Great Maya Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, is located in the Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of Mexico.
- The first supersonic flight was carried out by the Concorde across the Atlantic Ocean in 1969.
- The Atlantic Ocean is home to the Walvis Ridge, a giant volcanic underwater mountain range. This stretches from West Africa near the coast of Namibia, to the Tristan da Cunha island in the South Atlantic ocean.