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Saturday 1 October 2011

Atlantic Ocean

With a surface area of about 82 million square kilometers (about 31,660,000 square mi), the Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the Earth’s four oceans (it is approximately half the size of the Pacific) and the most heavily traveled.

The Atlantic Ocean extents from the Arctic Ocean in the North to the Antarctic continent in the South. It situates between the east coast of the American continents and the west coast of Europe and Africa

The Ancient Greeks thought the Atlantic Ocean was a vast river encircling the world. It is named after the god Atlas who carried the Earth on his shoulders

The SS Savannah left port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on May 22, 1819 on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England, on June 20th. In fact, only a fraction of the distance was covered with the ship under steam power; the rest was sailed by wind power. In spite of her historic voyage, Savannah was not a commercial success as a steamship and was converted back into a sailing ship shortly after returning from Europe.

SS Savannah

The first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean occurred in 1854 when the steamship SS Arctic sunk with 300 people on board.

Norwegian-born American clam diggers Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo were the first men to row across the Atlantic in 1896. It took them 55 days to row the 3,000 miles from New York to the Scilly Isles. Their time record for rowing the North Atlantic Ocean was not broken for 114 years, and then by four rowers instead of two.


Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo lived off tinned meat, biscuits and eggs boiled in their coffee on their open 18 foot boat.

The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began in 1951. They were between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, and were operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

TAT-1, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable went into service on September 25, 1956 with an exchange of greetings between London, Ottawa and New York. The new $42 million cable consisted of two lines laid 18 and a half miles (30 kms) apart on the ocean floor.

Joe Kittinger became the first person to fly a hot air balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean in 1984.

The Sargasso Sea is a region in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by ocean currents, It is the only sea that has no coast.

The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.



Its greatest depth is at the Milwaukee Depth in the Puerto Rico Trench, which descends 28,374 ft.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the longest mountain chain on Earth (at 40 thousand kilometers).

Every year, thanks to the movement of the tectonic plates, the Atlantic gets 5cm (2 inches) wider.

In Newfoundland, Canada, the Atlantic Ocean sometimes freezes so people play hockey on it.

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