Atlantic Ocean

Social

Tweet

 The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest ocean of the world. It is also known as the "Sea of Atlas".  The equator subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean. Its total area is 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. 

It is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast and the Southern Ocean in the south. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. 
The Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. To the east, the boundaries of the ocean are Europe and Africa.

The average depth of the Atlantic is 3,339 metres. The greatest depth is called Milwaukee Deep with 8,380 metres, is in the Puerto Rico Trench. The Atlantic's width varies from 1,538 nautical miles between Brazil and Sierra Leone to over 3,450 nautical miles in the south.


Marine pollution is so much due to of potentially hazardous chemicals or particles. The biggest culprits are rivers and with them many agriculture fertilizer chemicals as well as livestock and human waste. The excess of oxygen-depleting chemicals leads to hypoxia and the creation of a dead zone.

In 2005, there was some concern that warm northern European currents were slowing down. 
Marine debris also known as marine litter describes human created waste floating in a body of water. Endangered marine species include the manatee, seals, sea lions, turtles, and whales. Drift net fishing can kill dolphins, albatrosses and other sea birds including petrels and auks. 

Pollution usually comes from the eastern United States, southern Brazil, and eastern Argentina and oil pollution in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea and industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.