Oceanography

The Atlantic Ocean

          The atlantic ocean was named after the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. These mountains marked the limit of the then known world, the Mediterranean Sea. “Atlantic”probably designated their belief that the ocean lay beyond the Atlas Range. (The Atlantic Ocean is divided from the Indian Ocean by 20°E, which crosses Cape Agulhas and from the Pacific Ocean by 67°w, which runs through Cape Horn to the South Shetland Islands. The Atlantic Ocean is oblong from north to south and is irregularly shaped. It is approximately one-half the size of the Pacific and narrows considerably between the landmasses of western Africa and eastern Brazil. These protruding continental bulges on both of its sides separate the ocean into the North and South Atlantic.

          The North Atlantic is surrounded by several marginal seas and bays including the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Black Sea, the Bay of Biscay, Baffin Bay, Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The South Atlantic is bounded by west Africa, eastern South America, and the north Antarctic Ocean. The Mississippi, the Amazon.