Atlantic Ocean

The second-largest ocean, the S-shaped highway of European, African and American contact for five centuries.

Specifications & Metrics

area

~106 million km²

Core Principles & Analysis

• Its name comes from Greek myth: the sea of Atlas, who held up the sky.
• The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs down its centre, where new seafloor is born as plates spread apart.
• It widened by roughly two to four centimetres a year — about the speed fingernails grow.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Atlantic Ocean