The Atlantic Ocean is the world’s second largest body of water. It makes up about a quarter of the Earth’s water surface. It has been a major route for exploration and trade over the past centuries.
The Atlantic Ocean lies between the Americas in the west and the continents of Europe and Africa in the east.

The North Atlantic has many smaller seas that are a part of it: the Gulf of Mexico between North and Central America and the North Sea between the British Isles and the European mainland are the largest. The Atlantic Ocean is connected with the Mediterranean Sea through the 14 km wide Strait of Gibraltar.

Geology
The Atlantic Ocean was formed when the supercontinent Pangaea broke up about 200 million years ago. Europe and Africa started to drift away from today’s Americas.
The ocean is divided into three areas.  The continental shelf extends up to a few hundred kilometers into the open ocean and is about 100 to 200 meters deep. Beyond the shelf the continental slope drops slowly to a depth of about 4,000 meters, where the ocean floor spreads across most of the Atlantic.
There are many islands that are located in the Atlantic Ocean. The biggest - Cuba, Great Britain, Ireland and Newfoundland - lie near the coastal regions.
A giant mountain range, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, rises in north-south direction along the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  It is the borderline between the European and the American plates. New seafloor is constantly created in this area by magma which rises up through the crust of the Earth. Sea floor spreads in an outward direction and pushes the Americas on one side and Europe and Africa on the other away from each other.  The plates move at a speed of about 3 cm a year.
The area around the ridge is dominated by volcanic activity and earthquakes. When the mountain range emerges above the ocean’s surface it forms islands. Iceland, the largest of these volcanic islands, was created only 20,000 years ago.

 

Climate
Most of the Atlantic Ocean has a mild and moderate climate because ocean water has a balancing effect on temperatures.  When cold air mixes with warm water it causes fog, which sometimes poses a big problem for ships. In the Northern Atlantic icebergs break away from ice sheets and drift southwards.