Atlantic Ocean- this is a “plot” of the water area of the World Ocean, which is limited on the southern side by Europe and Africa, on the western side by South and North America. A huge mass of salt water, beautiful views, rich flora and fauna, hundreds of beautiful islands - this is all called the Atlantic Ocean.
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean is considered the second largest component of our planet (in first place is ). The coastline is clearly divided into water areas: seas, bays. total area Atlantic Ocean , the river basins that flow into it are about 329.7 million km³ (this is 25% of the waters of the World Ocean).
The name of the ocean - Atlantis - was first found in the works of Herodotus (5th century BC). Then the prototype modern name recorded in the works of Pliny the Elder (1st century AD). It sounds like Oceanus Atlanticus, translated from ancient Greek language- Atlantic Ocean.
There are several versions of the etymology of the name of the ocean:
- in honor of the mythological titan Atlas (Atlas, which holds the entire vault of heaven);
- from the name of the Atlas Mountains (they are located in northern Africa);
- in honor of the mysterious and legendary continent of Atlantis. I immediately offer you the most interesting video - the film “Battle of Civilizations - Find Atlantis”
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These are the versions and assumptions put forward about Atlantis and the mysterious Atlantean race.
As for the history of the formation of the ocean, scientists are sure that it arose due to the breakup of the missing supercontinent Pangea. It included 90% of the continental crust of our planet.
Atlantic Ocean on the world map
Every 600 million years, continental blocks unite, only to split apart again over time. It was as a result of this process that 160 thousand years ago arose Atlantic Ocean. Map currents shows that ocean waters move under the influence of cold and warm currents. 
These are all the main currents of the Atlantic Ocean.
Atlantic Ocean Islands
The largest islands in the Atlantic Ocean are Ireland, Great Britain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Newfoundland. They are located in the northern sector of the ocean. Their total area is 700 t. km 2. Several groups of smaller islands are located in the eastern part of the ocean: the Canary Islands, . On the western side there are groups, Small Antilles. Their archipelago creates a unique arc of land that surrounds the eastern sector of waters.
One cannot fail to mention one of the most beautiful islands of the Atlantic -.
Atlantic Ocean water temperature
The waters of the Atlantic Ocean are colder than the Pacific Ocean (due to the large extent of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). The average surface water temperature is +16.9, but it varies depending on the season. In February in the northern part of the water area and in August in the southern part the highest low temperature, and the highest is observed in other months.
Atlantic ocean depth
What is the depth of the Atlantic Ocean? Maximum depth Atlantic Ocean reaches 8742 m (recorded in the Puerto Rico Trench at 8742 m), and average depth is 3736 m. The Puerto Rico Trench is located on the border of the ocean waters and the Caribbean Sea. Its length along the slopes of the Antilles range is 1200 km.
The area of the Atlantic Ocean is 91.66 million km². And a quarter of this territory falls on its seas. Here .
Atlantic Ocean: sharks and more
The underwater world of the Atlantic Ocean will amaze the imagination of any person with its richness and diversity. It is a unique ecosystem that unites many species of plants and animals.
The flora of the Atlantic Ocean is represented mainly by bottom vegetation (phytobenthos): green, red, brown algae, kelp, flowering plants such as poseidonia, philospadix.
Without exaggeration, the Sargasso Sea, located in the Atlantic Ocean between 20° and 40° north latitude and 60° west longitude, can be called a unique natural miracle. On the surface of 70% of its water surface there are always brown algae - sargassum.
And here most of The surface of the Atlantic Ocean is covered with phytoplankton (this is unicellular algae). Its mass, depending on the area, varies from 1 to 100 mg/m3.
Inhabitants of the Atlantic Ocean beautiful and mysterious, because many of their species have not been fully studied. Lives in cold and temperate waters a large number of different representatives underwater fauna. For example, pinnipeds, whales, perch, flounder, cod, herring, shrimp, crustaceans, mollusks. Many animals are bipolar, that is, they have adapted to a comfortable existence in both cold and temperate zones (turtles, crabs, jellyfish, fur seals, whales, seals, mussels).
A special class consists of the inhabitants of the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Corals, sponges, and echinoderm fish species amaze and impress the human eye.
What sharks are in the Atlantic Ocean Can they pay a visit to an unwary tourist? The number of species that live in the Atlantic exceeds a dozen. The most common are white, soup, blue, reef, basking, and sand sharks. But cases of attacks on people do not happen very often, and if they do happen, it is more often due to the provocations of the people themselves.
The first officially recorded shark attack on a human occurred on July 1, 1916, to Charles Van Sant on a New Jersey beach. But even then, residents of the resort town perceived this incident as an accident. Such tragedies began to be registered only in 1935. But shark scientists Nichols, Murphy and Lucas did not take the attacks lightly and began to intensively search for their specific causes. As a result, they created their “Year of the Shark” theory. She claimed that the attacks were motivated by a large migration of sharks. Since the beginning of 2013, according to the International Register of Shark Attacks, 55 cases of predator attacks on humans have been recorded in the world, 10 of which were fatal.
Bermuda Triangle
Covers an area of 92 million km It collects fresh waters from the most significant part of the land and stands out among other oceans in that both polar regions of the Earth are connected in the form of a wide strait. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs through the center of the Atlantic. This is a belt of instability. Individual peaks of this ridge rise above the water in the form. Among them, the largest is .
The southern tropical part of the ocean is influenced by the southeast trade wind. The sky above this part is slightly clouded with cumulus clouds that look like cotton wool. This is the only place in the Atlantic where there is no. The color of the water in this part of the ocean ranges from dark blue to bright green (approx). The waters turn green as they approach, and also southern shores. Tropical part the south Atlantic is very rich in life: the density of plankton there is 16 thousand individuals per liter; There is an abundance of flying fish, sharks and other predatory fish. There are no builder corals in the southern Atlantic: they have been driven out. Many researchers notice that cold currents in this part of the ocean are richer in life than warm ones.
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Additional Information : the Atlantic Ocean received its name from the Atlas Mountains, located in northwest Africa, according to another version - from the mythical continent of Atlantis, according to thirds - from the name of the titan Atlas (Atlanta); The Atlantic Ocean is conventionally divided into the North and Southern region, the border between which runs along the equator.
Secrets of the Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is famous human civilization from time immemorial. It was here, according to ancient legends, that Mysterious Island Atlantis, which sank seventeen thousand years ago. A warlike and courageous people (the Atlanteans) lived on it, and the god Poseidon reigned over it along with his wife Cleito. Their eldest son's name was Atlan. In his honor, the boundless sea washing this land was named Atlantic.
Atlantic Ocean
The mysterious civilization sank into oblivion, the sea was renamed the ocean, but the name remained the same. The secrets of the Atlantic Ocean have not disappeared anywhere. Over the centuries, there have been no fewer of them. But before you get acquainted with everything unusual and mysterious, you need to get a general idea of the majestic waters that simultaneously wash the shores of hot Africa, the lands of old Europe, and the distant rocky coast of the American continent, covered in the haze of fairy tales.
Nowadays, the Atlantic Ocean is the name given to a huge body of water on planet Earth, which accounts for 25% of the volume of the World Ocean. Its area is almost 92 million km², together with the adjacent seas and Atlantic part Southern Ocean. From north to south, the waters of the Atlantic stretch for 15.5 thousand km, and from west to east, in the narrowest part (from Brazil to Liberia), they have a width of 2.8 thousand km.
If we take the distance of Atlantic waters from the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico to east coast Black Sea, then there will be a completely different figure - 13.5 thousand km. The depth of the ocean is also a big difference. Her average value is 3600 m, and the maximum was recorded in the Puerto Rico trench and corresponds to 8742 meters.
The floor of the Atlantic is divided lengthwise into two parts by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It exactly follows the contours of a huge reservoir and stretches in a wide, winding mountainous chain: from the north - from the Reykjanes Ridge (Iceland), to the African-Antarctic Ridge in the south (Bouvet Island), going beyond the distribution of Arctic ice.
To the right and left of the ridge there are scattered basins, trenches, faults, and small ridges that make up the relief ocean floor very complex and confusing. Coastline (especially in northern latitudes) also has a complex structure. It is heavily indented by small bays and has vast water areas that extend deep into the land and form seas. An integral part are the numerous straits in the coastal zone of the continents, as well as straits and channels connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean washes the shores 96 state entities. Its property includes 14 seas and 4 large bays. Rich in diversity of climate in these geographical and geological parts earth's surface provide numerous surface currents. They flow freely in all directions and are divided into warm and cold.
In the northern latitudes, up to the equator, the Northern Trade Wind, Gulf Stream and Northern Atlantic current. They carry warm waters and delight the surrounding world with a mild climate and high temperatures. This cannot be said about the Labrador and Canary currents. The latter are classified as cold and create frosty and slushy weather in the adjacent lands.
South of the equator the picture is the same. The warm South Trade Wind, Guinea and Brazilian currents rule here. Cold ones Western Winds and Bengal are trying to be in no way inferior to their more humane colleagues and also make their feasible negative contribution to the formation of the climate of the southern hemisphere. In general, average temperature on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean is equal to plus 16° Celsius. At the equator it can reach up to 28° Celsius. But in the northern latitudes it is very cold - here the water freezes.
Icebergs of the Atlantic
From what has been said, it is not difficult to guess that the waters of the Atlantic are squeezed from the north and south by eternal giant ice crusts. True, regarding eternity, it’s a little overkill, since very large blocks of ice often break off from them and begin to slowly drift towards the equator. These blocks are called icebergs, and they move north of Greenland up to 40° N. sh, and in the south from Antarctica to 40° S. w. Their remains are also observed closer to the equator, reaching 31-35° southern and northern latitudes.
Very large sizes are a loose concept. More specifically, there are icebergs whose length is tens of kilometers, and whose area sometimes exceeds 1000 km². These ice floes can travel across the ocean for years, hiding their true size under the water surface.
The fact is that a mountain of ice shines blue above the water, which corresponds to only 10% of the total volume of the iceberg. The remaining 90% of this block is hidden in the ocean depths due to the fact that the density of ice does not exceed 940 kg/m³, and the density sea water on the surface ranges from 1000 to 1028 kg/m³. Regular, average height An iceberg, as a rule, corresponds to 28-30 meters, while its underwater part is slightly more than 100-120 meters.
Meeting with such sea traveler it has never been a joy for the courts. It poses the greatest danger already in mature age. By this time, the iceberg has melted significantly, its center of gravity has shifted, and the huge ice block turns over. Its underwater part is above the water. It does not shine blue, but is a dark blue ice cap, which, especially in poor visibility conditions, is very difficult to distinguish on the surface of the ocean.
The sinking of the Titanic
A typical example of the treachery of floating ice blocks is the sinking of the Titanic, which occurred on the night of April 14-15, 1912. It sank 2 hours 40 minutes after colliding with an iceberg in northern waters Atlantic Ocean (41° 43′ 55″ N, 49° 56′ 45″ E). This resulted in the death of 1,496 passengers and crew members.
True, we must immediately make a reservation: attributing everything to a “lost” iceberg is rather imprudent. This shipwreck is still one of the greatest mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean today. There is still no clue to the reasons for the tragedy, although there are a great many different theories and assumptions.
Supposedly the largest passenger ship world (length 269 m, width 28.2 m, displacement 46,300 tons) collided with an iceberg, which was of venerable age and had apparently capsized more than once in the water. Its dark surface gave no reflections, it merged with the water surface of the ocean, so it was timely to notice a huge floating ice block it was very difficult. The culprit of the tragedy was recognized only when he was 450 meters from the ship, and not 4-6 km away, as usually happens in such situations.
The sinking of the Titanic caused a lot of noise. It was a world sensation at the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century. The main thing that amazed everyone was how such a huge and reliable ship could sink so quickly, dragging hundreds and hundreds of unfortunate people with it to the bottom. Nowadays, many researchers tend to see the true causes of the terrible tragedy not in the ill-fated iceberg (although few deny its indirect role), but in completely other factors, which for some reason, at one time, were hidden from the general public.
Versions, guesses, assumptions
The official conclusion of the commission investigating the disaster was unequivocal - the ice of the Atlantic turned out to be stronger than steel. He ripped open the underwater hull of the Titanic like a tin can. The wound was terrible: its length reached 100 meters, and out of sixteen waterproof compartments, six were damaged. This was enough for the proud Briton to sink to the bottom and fall silent forever at enormous depths, taking him with him to the seabed human lives and colossal material values.
The sinking of the Titanic
The sinking of the Titanic
Such a verdict is not convincing for a specialist, and even a person far from shipbuilding understands that the supporting hull of a huge liner plowing the oceans cannot in any way resemble a tin can. The melted ice of the old iceberg also does not have sufficient hardness, which, judging by the conclusion, should have exceeded the strength of a diamond, in order to pierce the steel plating of a multi-ton passenger ship for tens of meters.
You can build as long as you like various assumptions and hypotheses, but only practical research can provide answers to all questions. In this situation, given the depth at which the Titanic lay, exploration work became possible no earlier than the 80s of the 20th century. It was by this time that deep-sea vehicles capable of for a long time located at a depth of 4 kilometers.
The first such sign was the expedition of the American oceanographer Robert Ballard, which arrived at the site of the tragedy on the ship Knor in September 1985. It was armed with the Argo deep-sea towed complex. It was he who determined the depth of the remains of the Titanic. The water thickness in this place was 3,750 meters. The ship lay on the seabed, split into two parts, the distance between them was approximately 600 meters.
No visible damage was found that caused the death of the ocean liner. Robert Ballard believed that they were hidden by the soil in which the multi-ton structure was stuck. The laceration on the Titanic’s hull was not found during the second expedition organized by the American scientist in 1986.
French and American specialists followed the beaten path. In the summer of 1987, they arrived in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and spent two long months at the scene of the disaster. Using the deep-sea submersible Nautilus, researchers recovered from the bottom more than 900 objects on board the sunken ship. These were samples of ship utensils, some of which ended up in museums, and some were distributed to private collections.
Survey of the Titanic
Submersible explores the sunken Titanic
Finally, in 1991, the ship Akademik Mstislav Keldysh arrived at the site of the sinking of the Titanic. On board was an international research expedition led by Canadian geologist-oceanographer Steve Blask. The expedition had at its disposal two autonomous underwater vehicles, Mir-1 and Mir-2. The researchers made 38 dives on them. The ship's hull was examined, a sample of the side plating was taken, film, video and photography were taken.
Despite all efforts, a ragged hole several tens of meters long was not found. But we managed to find a hole, the size of which did not exceed square meter, and numerous cracks were observed along the rivet lines.
A steel fragment that broke off from the Titanic's hull was sent for testing. It was tested for metal fragility - the conclusion was not reassuring: the prototype was amazingly fragile. This could be attributed to the long 80 years on the seabed, which significantly affected the properties of the steel. Therefore, for the objectivity of the picture, a similar piece of metal, preserved at the shipyard since 1911, was tested. The result was almost the same.
It's hard to believe, but the Titanic's hull did not meet regulatory requirements. It was made from a material high in sulfur compounds. The latter gave the steel structure high fragility, which, in combination with ice water made her very fragile.
If the hull were made of steel that met all standards and requirements, then after contact with an iceberg, it would bend, but retain its integrity. In this situation, the ship hit an iceberg on its starboard side - and the impact was of little force, but the fragile hull of the Titanic could not withstand it either. It split along the rivet lines below the waterline. Ice water poured into the resulting holes, which instantly filled the lower compartments and, most likely, caused the explosion of the hot steam boilers.
The huge ship began to rapidly plunge into the waters of the Atlantic. According to eyewitnesses, at first the Titanic sank on an even keel, which indicates that the lower compartments filled with water evenly. Then the bow trim appeared. The stern began to rise upward, reached a vertical position, and the multi-ton colossus very quickly sank to the bottom. Already on great depth, due to high pressure, the Titanic split into two parts, which were dragged along the ocean floor for more than 500 meters.
Who benefited from the sinking of the Titanic?
It turns out that this disaster has nothing to do with the mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean: everything seems to be clear. No, there is no need to rush to conclusions. As already mentioned, there are many versions of the death of the ocean liner, and among them there is not one that can be called the ultimate truth. There are many other assumptions, opinions of very authoritative people considering the cause terrible disaster from a completely different angle.
So to this day there is a version that the culprit of the accident was the White Star Line company itself, the owner of the ship. It was its leaders who initially planned the construction of the Titanic with gross violations of all possible norms and rules. The purpose of this grandiose fraud was to obtain huge insurance that could improve the company's precarious financial position and save it from complete collapse.
That is why the ocean liner, despite warnings about icebergs from ships in the same area, sailed with maximum possible speed(20.5 mph). The captain of the ship had one task - to provoke a collision of the Titanic with a huge floating ice floe.
Most likely, no one could even imagine such a number of dead people, since according to all calculations it turned out that the ship would sink for a long time. The main focus was on rescue ships, which had to have enough time to get to the scene of the tragedy and have time to save all the passengers and valuables on board. However, unpredictable fate made its own adjustments to the original scenario.
In addition to this rather dubious and unsteady version, there is another. This is a fire in a coal bunker. During long-term storage, the lower layers of coal begin to smolder, releasing explosive gas. The temperature gradually increases, and the concentration of gas vapor increases. In such a situation, an explosion can occur from a normal shock. The collision with the iceberg was the detonator that caused a huge surge of energy that tore and destroyed the entire lower part of the ship.
In a word, even today there is no consensus on the causes of the terrible tragedy. Only the remains of a ship resting on the Atlantic Ocean can reveal this secret of the Atlantic Ocean. enormous depth. Their scrupulous study by dozens of specialists is possible only under normal earthly conditions. To do this, you need to raise the Titanic from the bottom of a huge reservoir.
Technically this is extremely difficult to achieve. As for the financial side of the issue, the picture is different. Although such work will cost crazy amounts of money, it will more than pay off. After all, we must not forget that the ship contains gold bars worth 10 million pounds sterling. Jewelry, diamonds, jewelry are also stored here richest people of the world who sailed on this ship. Fragments of the Titanic's hull, the remains of the interior, and dishes will go out of auction with a bang at incredible prices.
If we consider the unfortunate Titanic as a source material goods, then he is by no means alone. The bottom of the Atlantic Ocean is the Klondike, Eldorado. Here lies a huge number of ships that are simply filled with precious metals, diamonds, and other valuables that can make anyone who gets their hands rich. This is precisely the whole question: to break through the thickness ocean waters- an impossible task not only for individual adventurers, but also for serious companies and reputable financial structures.
Underwater ship graveyards
At the beginning of the 21st century, there are many companies specializing in the search for sunken ships. The game is worth the candle, since according to experts, at least 80,000 ships from all countries and peoples that have been shipwrecked over the past 400 years rest on the bottom of the Atlantic alone, with valuables worth $600 billion on board.
One of these companies, the American company Odyssey, discovered a Spanish sailing ship in the Canary Islands in 2007. On board there were 500 thousand ancient gold and silver coins. Their total weight reached 17 tons, and the cost was 500 million dollars. This is 100 million dollars more than the wealth that was recovered in 1985 from a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast of Florida in the twenties of the 17th century.
The lion's share of all the valuables that sank to the bottom of the ocean in the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries rests precisely on Spanish ships, which in a continuous caravan carried gold, silver, plunder from the Indian peoples to Europe from America. gems and products made from them.
In theory, goods obtained in this way cannot be the property of the state. The Spanish government thought differently. IN beginning of XXI century, it declared 800 Spanish ships that sank in the 16th-18th centuries, transporting illegally acquired utensils, - national treasure. The monetary equivalent of all this wealth is estimated at 130 billion dollars.
Underwater treasures are available to search teams in coastal areas Atlantic Ocean. Here, as a rule, ships sank after hitting shoals or reefs. In the vast expanses of water, where at least 3000 meters lie under the keel, galleons, brigantines, frigates carrying cargo, and then steamships, motor ships, yachts, battleships sank to the bottom, experiencing all the power and force of ocean storms (the height of the waves in the Atlantic often reaches 10-15 meters) or deceit and cruelty pirate ships And submarines enemy during the years of hostilities.
The ratio of ships that have sunk in coastal areas and in the open ocean over the past 400 years is 85 to 15. That is, it turns out that the closer to the shore, the more dangerous. Only every seventh ship perished in the vast and majestic expanses of the Atlantic Ocean, the rest of the floating craft sank in the sight of native or foreign shores, which, as they say, were just a stone's throw away.
One of the largest underwater cemeteries is the English Channel. Its length is 560 km, its width in the west is 240 km, in the east 32 km, and the average depth is 63 m. Only in some places the depth exceeds this mark and reaches 170 m. There are many shallows and fogs are frequent. Countless ships rest at the bottom of the strait, especially in its western part.
The waters around Cape Hatteras (North Carolina, USA) are not far behind in the number of shipwrecks. Here there is a long narrow spit, the eastern ledge of which is actually the ill-fated cape. This place is characterized by countless shoals, constant storms, fogs, and strong currents. Vessels that dare to approach these shores expose themselves to very real danger - the manifestation of carelessness, frivolity and ignoring the directions almost always leads to tragic consequences.
Bermuda Triangle
Perhaps the most intriguing secret of the Atlantic Ocean can be called the Bermuda Triangle. Its peaks lie on the southern tip of Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. It is part of the so-called Devil's Belt, of which the Devil's Triangle, located in the Pacific waters around Miyake Island (Japan), is also a part.
The excitement around this seemingly unremarkable place arose in the second half of the 20th century. Previously, for hundreds of years, everything seemed to be normal. The ships decorously crossed this expanse of ocean, and the crews on them had no idea what mortal danger they were exposing themselves to.
The year 1950 put an end to such outrageous frivolity. It was then that a short article by Associated Press correspondent Edward Johnson was published. It was not even an article, but a thin brochure published in Florida in a small circulation. It was called the “Bermuda Triangle”, and the facts presented in it told about the mysterious disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda area.
Bermuda Triangle
It did not attract the attention of the public in any way, but apparently forced the attention of certain people who feed on sensations and bestsellers. However, it took almost 15 years before Vincent Gladdis’s article entitled “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” saw the light of day. It was published in 1964 in a spiritualist magazine. With a short break, a book by the same author, “Invisible Horizons,” was published. In it, a whole chapter was already devoted to the mysterious section of the ocean.
A more detailed, solid and capacious work was presented to readers ten years later. The author of this bestseller, simply and succinctly called “The Bermuda Triangle,” was Charles Berlitz. It contained a lot of data about the mysterious disappearances of marine and aircraft, and also described incomprehensible phenomena associated with changes in the properties of time and space. Reputable publishing houses from different countries reprinted this book, and in a short time, tens of millions of citizens living in different ends planets.
In any business, there will always be corrosive skeptics, whom don’t feed with bread, but let the fly in the ointment spoil the barrel of honey. A blow to such a successfully and dynamically spreading sensation was dealt already in the next 1975 by the American journalist Lawrence David Kusche. This gentleman left no stone unturned from all the arguments and statements of Charles Berlitz on the pages of his book “The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle Solved.”
To the credit of the author, the content of the book is by no means unsubstantiated criticism, which would be based on envy of a more successful and cunning colleague, but a serious study based on a painstaking study of documents and eyewitness accounts. It was on the basis of factual material that many errors, inaccuracies, and sometimes outright hoaxes in the work of Charles Berlitz were identified.
The conclusion of Lawrence David Kushe's book is clear: nothing mysterious, supernatural, or inexplicable is happening in the Bermuda Triangle. The statistics of tragedies in this part of the Atlantic Ocean correspond to similar data in any other place of the huge body of water. The mysterious disappearances of material objects are fictitious, and stories about ships abandoned by crews, about lost time, about instant movement in space for hundreds of kilometers - a myth.
Critics of anomalous phenomena are sober-minded people. In order to convince them of something, you need to provide ironclad evidence of this phenomenon. But in Everyday life It is not that simple. What lies beyond the real cannot be explained from the point of view of the laws of physics, mechanics or chemistry. Rather, human imagination and belief in the mysterious and unusual dominate here.
By the way, many paranormal phenomena occurring in the Bermuda Triangle can be interpreted as a direct consequence of ordinary banal processes occurring in the waters of the Atlantic. For example, the mysterious disappearance sea vessels has a simple explanation related to methane emissions. This gas escapes from deposits on the seabed. gas hydrates and saturates the water. The density of the latter drops sharply. A ship caught in such a section of the ocean instantly sinks.
The methane released is not limited to aquatic environment. It rises into the air and also reduces its density. This can lead to the loss of aircraft, which is almost impossible to explain to people on the ground. We must not forget that the gas dissipates very quickly in both water and air. That is, he is a killer who leaves no traces behind.
Anomalies over time can be explained increased activity magnetic field in the Bermuda Triangle area. Caught in a clot magnetic forces Airplane passengers can verify their impact by looking at the hands of their watches that have stopped or slowed down. After some time, the negative factor disappears, the clocks begin to run normally again, but everyone, without exception, is behind by the same number of minutes. This gives rise to the false belief that the plane disappeared into another dimension.
If we talk about ships found in the ocean, on which there was not a single crew member, then the blame can be laid on infrasound, which occurs on water surface under certain conditions. The human brain, heart, and other organs of his body - they all have their own vibration frequency. If some of them coincide with the frequency of infrasound, then the resulting resonance can mercilessly hit people’s psyches, plunge them into horror and panic, force them to jump overboard and die in the water.
All the arguments presented look quite convincing and realistic. But we must not forget that this is not evidence, but only speculation. Supporters of the paranormal version can also present to the public their vision of the problem, which will be no less convincing and will find many adherents.
Where is the truth? Probably, as always, in the middle. A sober look, combined with faith in the unusual and supernatural, will be more productive in solving the mysteries of not only the Bermuda Triangle, but also other mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean, of which there are a great many both on its surface and in the dark depths.
Based on factruz material
The Atlantic Ocean is second in size only to the Pacific Ocean, its area is approximately 91.56 million km². It is distinguished from other oceans by its highly rugged coastline, forming numerous seas and bays, especially in the northern part. In addition, the total area of river basins flowing into this ocean or its marginal seas, significantly more than that of rivers flowing into any other ocean. Another difference of the Atlantic Ocean is the relatively small number of islands and the complex bottom topography, which, thanks to underwater ridges and rises, forms many separate basins.
North Atlantic Ocean
Borders and coastline. The Atlantic Ocean is divided into northern and southern parts, the border between which is conventionally drawn along the equator. From an oceanographic point of view, however, the southern part of the ocean should include the equatorial countercurrent, located at 5-8° N latitude. The northern border is usually drawn along the Arctic Circle. In some places this boundary is marked by underwater ridges.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Atlantic Ocean has a highly indented coastline. Its relatively narrow Northern part connects with North Arctic Ocean three narrow straits. In the northeast, the Davis Strait is 360 km wide (at the latitude of the Northern Arctic Circle) connects it to the Baffin Sea, which belongs to the Arctic Ocean. In the central part, between Greenland and Iceland, there is the Denmark Strait, at its narrowest point only 287 km wide. Finally, in the northeast, between Iceland and Norway, there is the Norwegian Sea, approx. 1220 km. In the east, two water areas protruding deeply into the land are separated from the Atlantic Ocean. The more northern one begins North Sea, which to the east passes into the Baltic Sea with the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland. To the south there is a system of inland seas - the Mediterranean and the Black - total length OK. 4000 km. In the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the ocean with the Mediterranean Sea, there are two oppositely directed currents, one below the other. The lower position is occupied by the current coming from Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, since Mediterranean waters, due to more intense evaporation from the surface, are characterized by greater salinity and, consequently, greater density.
IN tropical zone in the southwest of the North Atlantic are the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, connected to the ocean by the Strait of Florida. Coast North America indented by small bays (Pamlico, Barnegat, Chesapeake, Delaware and Long Island Sound); to the northwest are the Bays of Fundy and St. Lawrence, the Strait of Belle Isle, Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay.
The largest islands are concentrated in the northern part of the ocean; these are the British Isles, Iceland, Newfoundland, Cuba, Haiti (Hispaniola) and Puerto Rico. On the eastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean there are several groups of small islands - the Azores, Canary Islands, and Cape Verde. Similar groups exist in the western part of the ocean. Examples include the Bahamas, Florida Keys and Lesser Antilles. The Greater and Lesser Antilles archipelagos form an island arc surrounding the eastern Caribbean Sea. In the Pacific Ocean, such island arcs are characteristic of deformation areas earth's crust. Deep-sea trenches are located along the convex side of the arc.
The Atlantic Ocean basin is bordered by a shelf, the width of which varies. The shelf is cut through by deep gorges - the so-called. underwater canyons. Their origin is still controversial. One theory is that the canyons were cut by rivers when sea levels were lower than they are today. Another theory connects their formation with the activity of turbidity currents. It has been suggested that turbidity currents are the main agent responsible for the deposition of sediment on the ocean floor and that they are the ones that cut submarine canyons.
The bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean has a complex rugged topography, formed by combination underwater ridges, hills, basins and gorges. Most of the ocean floor, from depths of about 60 m to several kilometers, is covered with thin, dark blue or bluish-green muddy sediments. A relatively small area is occupied by rocky outcrops and areas of gravel, pebble and sandy deposits, as well as deep-sea red clays.
Telephone and telegraph cables were laid on the shelf in the North Atlantic Ocean to connect North America with Northwestern Europe. Here, the area of the North Atlantic shelf is home to industrial fishing areas that are among the most productive in the world.
In the central part of the Atlantic Ocean, almost repeating the contours of the coastlines, there is a huge underwater mountain range approx. 16 thousand km, known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This ridge divides the ocean into two approximately equal parts. Most of the peaks of this underwater ridge do not reach the ocean surface and are located at a depth of at least 1.5 km. Some of the highest peaks rise above ocean level and form the islands - the Azores in North Atlantic and Tristan da Cunha - in the South. In the south, the ridge skirts the coast of Africa and continues further north into the Indian Ocean. A rift zone stretches along the axis of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Surface currents in the North Atlantic Ocean move clockwise. The main elements of this big system are the northward warm Gulf Stream, as well as the North Atlantic, Canary and Northern Trade Wind (Equatorial) Currents. The Gulf Stream follows from the Strait of Florida and Cuba in a northerly direction along the coast of the United States and approximately 40° N. w. deviates to the northeast, changing its name to the North Atlantic Current. This current is divided into two branches, one of which follows northeast along the coast of Norway and further into the Arctic Ocean. It is thanks to her that the climate of Norway and all northwestern Europe significantly warmer than would be expected at latitudes corresponding to the area extending from Nova Scotia to southern Greenland. The second branch turns south and further southwest along the coast of Africa, forming the cold Canary Current. This current moves southwest and joins the North Trade Wind Current, which heads west towards the West Indies, where it merges with the Gulf Stream. To the north of the North Trade Wind Current there is an area of stagnant waters, teeming with algae, known as the Sargasso Sea. The cold Labrador Current runs along the North Atlantic coast of North America from north to south, coming from Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea and cooling the shores of New England.
South Atlantic Ocean
Some experts refer to the Atlantic Ocean in the south all the water space up to the Antarctic ice sheet; others take the southern limit of the Atlantic to be an imaginary line connecting Cape Horn in South America with the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. The coastline in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean is much less indented than in the northern part; there are also no inland seas through which the influence of the ocean could penetrate deep into the continents of Africa and South America. The only large bay on the African coast is the Gulf of Guinea. On the coast of South America large bays also few in number. The southernmost tip of this continent - Tierra del Fuego - has an indented coastline bordered by numerous small islands.
There are no large islands in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, but there are isolated isolated islands, such as Fernando de Noronha, Ascension, Sao Paulo, St. Helena, the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, and extreme south- Bouvet, South Georgia, South Sandwich, South Orkney, Falkland Islands.
In addition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, South Atlantic there are two main underwater mountain ranges. The whale ridge extends from the southwestern tip of Angola to the island. Tristan da Cunha, where it joins the Mid-Atlantic. The Rio de Janeiro Ridge stretches from the Tristan da Cunha Islands to the city of Rio de Janeiro and consists of groups of individual underwater hills.
The major current systems in the South Atlantic Ocean move counterclockwise. The South Trade Wind Current is directed to the west. At the protrusion of the eastern coast of Brazil, it divides into two branches: the northern one carries water along northern shore South America to the Caribbean, and the southern one, the warm Brazil Current, moves south along the coast of Brazil and joins the West Wind Current, or Antarctic Current, which heads east and then northeast. Part of this cold current separates and carries its waters north along the African coast, forming the cold Benguela Current; the latter eventually joins the South Trade Wind Current. The warm Guinea Current moves south along the coast North West Africa to the Gulf of Guinea.
Atlantic Ocean- second largest ocean after Pacific Ocean. It contains 25% of all the planet's water. The average depth is 3,600 m. The maximum is in the Puerto Rico trench - 8,742 m. The ocean area is 91 million square meters. km.
general information
The ocean arose as a result of the splitting of a supercontinent. Pangea"into two large parts, which subsequently formed into modern continents.
The Atlantic Ocean has been known to man since ancient times. Mentioning the ocean, which " called Atlantic“, can be found in records of the 3rd century. BC. The name probably arose from the legendary missing continent " Atlantis«.
True, it is not clear what territory it designated, because in ancient times people had limited means of transportation by sea.
Relief and islands
A distinctive feature of the Atlantic Ocean is the very small number of islands, as well as the complex bottom topography, which forms many pits and gutters. The deepest among them are the Puerto Rico and South Sandwich trench, whose depth exceeds 8 km.
Earthquakes and volcanoes have a great impact on the structure of the bottom. greatest activity tectonic processes are observed in the equatorial zone.
Volcanic activity in the ocean has been going on for 90 million years. The height of many underwater volcanoes exceeds 5 km. The largest and most famous are found in the Puerto Rico and South Sandwich trenches, as well as on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Climate
The large meridional extent of the ocean from north to south explains the diversity of climatic conditions on the ocean surface. In the equatorial zone there are slight temperature fluctuations throughout the year and an average of +27 degrees. The exchange of water with the Arctic Ocean also has a huge impact on ocean temperature. Tens of thousands of icebergs drift from the north into the Atlantic Ocean, reaching almost tropical waters.
The Gulf Stream, the largest current on the planet, originates off the southeastern coast of North America. Water consumption per day is 82 million cubic meters, which is 60 times higher than the consumption of all rivers. The width of the current reaches 75 km. wide and depth 700 m. Current speed ranges from 6-30 km/h. The Gulf Stream carries warm waters; the temperature of the upper layer of the current is 26 degrees.
In the area of The Newfoundland Gulf Stream meets the "cold wall" of the Labrador Current. Mixing of waters is created ideal conditions for the proliferation of microorganisms in the upper layers. Best known in this regard Large Newfoundland barrel, which is a source of fish such as cod, herring and salmon.
Flora and fauna
The Atlantic Ocean is characterized by an abundance of biomass with relatively poor species composition in the northern and southern outskirts. Greatest species diversity observed in the equatorial zone.
Of the fish, the most common families are nanothenia and white-blooded pike. Large mammals are most widely represented: cetaceans, seals, fur seals, etc. The amount of plankton is insignificant, which causes migration of whales to feeding fields to the north or to temperate latitudes, where there is more of it.
Many places in the Atlantic Ocean have been and continue to be intense places fishing. Previous development of the ocean led to the fact that hunting for mammals has been widespread here for a long time. This has reduced the numbers of some animal species compared to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 
Plants include a wide range of green, brown and red algae. The famous sargassum forms a popular book and interesting stories Sargasso Sea.
