Saturday 26 July 2014
The Atlantic Ocean
is the world's second largest ocean, behind the Pacific Ocean. With a total area
of about 106,400,000 square kilometres, it covers approximately 20 percent of
the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. Before
Europeans discovered other oceans, their term "ocean" was synonymous
with the waters beyond the Strait of Gibraltar that are now known as the
Atlantic. The early Greeks believed this ocean to be a gigantic river
encircling the world. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin
extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas
to the west. Source
