Talk:Atlantic Ocean/Archive 2

Pre-Viking exploration
Perhaps some reference or section about the pre-Viking exploration of the Atlantic by the Celts would be interesting? In particular dealing with the the Navigation of Saint Brendan. Velkyal (talk) 10:22, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

"The Pond".
The article suggests that Americans refer to Brits as being from "across the Pond". This is obviously incorrect, as "the Pond" is a cutesy term only used by Brits (and the occasional fat 19 year old American girl who loves Jude Law and desperately hopes to study abroad in London). I threw up a "fact" tag but I leave it up to other editors to sort out this mess. Wormwoodpoppies (talk) 05:46, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

this is not anoffe information help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.62.228.169 (talk) 23:33, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

People say "across the pond" all the time in America... and no, not just fat Jude Law fans. And please, get over yourself, you´re not half the goddamn genius you think you are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.78.1.41 (talk) 17:00, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Merger proposal
The Ethiopic Ocean article just seems like a sub section of the Atlantic Ocean which has been given its own wee article. Would be better placed in this article with a redirect on the Ethiopic Ocean article. Alan16 (talk) 20:25, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

History Section Pangaea animation
The animation provides old and false information and should be revised or deleted. The errors are the attachments of South America to South Western Africa. The East Coast of Australia coincides exactly with the west coast (mid south west of the shoreline). The Eastern Arabian coastline corresponds exactly to the West North West Coastline of Africa. The Northern coastline of South America corresponds to the North East coast of Africa, such that the Isthmus of Panama contacts the tip of the Horn of Africa and the mouths of the Nile and the Amazon are close to each other. The Indian Himalayan ridgeline\coastline corresponds well to the southern tip of south Africa.

Sorry if I just blew 60 years worth of tectonics out of the Atlantic, but somebody had to show the facts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.52.212.244 (talk) 03:18, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I would think that the community of geographers might have noticed this, in which case you would need to cite a reliable source for this. My impression is that it isn't likely to happen unless you can do this, otherwise it's impermissible original research. Rodhull  andemu  03:21, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

St. Brendan and the List of People to Cross the Atlantic
I put St. Brendan in the list of people to cross the Atlantic Ocean. I said "it is believed by some" that St. Brendan crossed the ocean, or something like that, in order that it wouldn't offend anybody and so that it wouldn't be "incorrect". Somebody messed up edit using improper English and incorrect grammar, then someone took it completely off. I'm not sure if the list should be there in the first place (we should probably just put on "the first person to cross the Atlantic was..."), but if it is there, St. Brendan should be on it. Any comments are appreciated --Germpolice (talk) 17:11, 15 December 2009 (UTC)Germpolice

I just fixed it. If anyone doesn't like it, please talk about it here, first. Please don't let you personal beliefs or your dislike of the beliefs of others get in the way. I believe that my edit is neutral. --Germpolice (talk) 17:11, 15 December 2009 (UTC)Germpolice

To make the article consistent, it should also include all the other people who are believed by some to have crossed the Atlantic before Columbus, such as the Andalusian Musilms Khashkhash_Ibn_Saeed_Ibn_Aswad and Ibn Farrukh, the Mali king Abubakari_II, some unknown ancient egyptians traveling in a papirus boat, the Lost Tribes of Israel etc 194.224.111.165 (talk) 15:28, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Name
I've lone assumed that the Atlantic ocean was at least in part named after the mythical city of Atlantis, which was believed in ancient times to be in what we now call the Atlantic ocean. It seems very similar too; Atlantis and Atlantic. I've tried to edit something about this in several times and it had been each time taken out. Ptolemaios I (talk) 02:52, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I've noticed on the 1741 map http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_new_and_correct_map_of_the_trading_part_of_the_West_Indies.png says "The Western or Atlantic Ocean". I wonder if this ocean was called the Western Ocean for a period. I don't see any mention of this in the article. 174.0.251.171 (talk) 12:27, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid I have no actual proof, but it does seem to me obvious that at least in some way it came from Atlantis. Maybe Atlantis has something to do with Atlas and that would explain what is in the article, but I doubt it. I just don't know where to look for proof. As to the Western Ocean I think it should be looked into as well. Ptolemaios I (talk) 02:28, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

This Titanic survivor refers to it as the Western Ocean: http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/titanic/5047.shtml (first couple of minutes of the recording). 62.189.165.18 (talk) 13:20, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

20% vs 26% vs 67%
"it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area". About 2/3 of the planet's surface is covered by oceans, yes? How does the arithmetic work here? Tony  (talk)  04:15, 3 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Let me crunch the numbers:


 * Earth Surface Area: 510,072,000 sq.km2
 * Water Surface Area of Earth: 361,132,000 km2
 * Atlantic Ocean Area: 106,400,000 km2

By my calculation that makes the Atlantic ocean Area 20.86% of the Earth surface, and 29.46% of the water surface area. Mediatech492 (talk) 20:14, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
 * In which case, the 20% is correct, and the 26% is wrong. Bazonka (talk) 20:46, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Are the correct boundaries given?
According to the info in the "Geography" section, the Atlantic stretches from Georgia to Georgia. This may be a difference of opinion - see the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas and compare it to the CIA The World Factbook. You can check this page: []. It would probably be a good idea to use the diagram there to show the differences as it doesn't make sense for one wikipedia page to disagree with another.209.179.21.14 (talk) 01:53, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

The Mediterranean Sea is not part of the Atlantic Ocean.
The article implies that the Mediterranean Sea is part of the Atlantic Ocean, referring to the Mediterranean as "one of its marginal seas", or more to the point, it includes it in the area of the ocean shown in the map. Bizarrely, the Black Sea is also included in the map as part of the Atlantic. While there is a point of communication between the Med and the Atlantic at the Strait of Gibraltar, including the Med and the Black Seas within the definition of the Atlantic is an unacceptable twisting of well established traditional defitions. Maps of the ocean floors show that the Atlantic and the Mediterranean are entirely differenty basins of water. Britannica rightly excludes the Mediterranean and Black seas from the definition of the Atlantic Ocean, and National Geographic appears to do so as well. JD — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.76.96.144 (talk) 15:08, 19 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 130.76.96.144 ok, what are your sources? Fix it.--Wuerzele (talk) 01:12, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Shortest crossing?
I'm curious about the unsourced statement about the short distance across the Atlantic:

The Atlantic's width varies from 1,538 nautical miles (2,848 km; 1,770 mi) between Brazil and Sierra Leone to over 3,450 nautical miles (6,400 km; 4,000 mi) in the south

Playing around with Google Maps, the shortest crossing I could find was 2891 km from Touros, Brazil to Shenge, mainland Sierra Leone or 2878 km from Tourous to Matakana on Sherbro Island, Sierra Leone.

And the page for Touros cites a distance of 2865 km to Sierra Leone, for what it's worth.

Is there a reliable source for the minimal distance between the mainlands of Brazil and Africa? —Moxfyre (ǝɹʎℲxoɯ &#124; contrib) 19:23, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Finland and Russia?
Hey, Aren't Finland and Russia and the rest of countries facing the Baltic sea a part of countries those touch the Atlantic Ocean? Isn't the Baltic sea a part of the ocean like the Mediterranean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.4.249.226 (talk) 06:14, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Good point. But the Baltic and Med countries are only really Atlantic seas from a hydrological point of view, and so I don't think it's really sensible to include them in the list - they'll just look wrong. I'll add some words in the article that covers this. Bazonka (talk) 16:28, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I disagree! According to WorldAtlas.com many experts and encyclopedias will list the modern Seven Seas as the: I see no reason to exclude the Baltic and the Mediterranean Seas, when we include the Gulf of Mexico. IMPOV the Baltic and Med sea should be included. Hogne (talk) 15:24, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Arctic
 * Antarctic
 * North and South Atlantic
 * North and the South Pacific
 * and the Indian Ocean
 * And yet the article sees no problem in lopping off a natural part of the Atlantic Ocean that happens to be below 60 degress South latitude, while including in the area of the Atlantic two entirely distinct basins of water, the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Talk about double standards. JD  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.76.96.154 (talk) 22:26, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

I agree, the Mediterranean should be included. Barjimoa (talk) 07:56, 5 November 2015 (UTC)

Hidden statistics
Cleaning up the article, I temporarily dump this hidden content here for now. --Fama Clamosa (talk) 16:58, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

This would be good if it were in an infobox Location: body of water between Africa, Europe, the Southern Ocean, and the Americas

Geographic coordinates: °N, -30°W

Map references: World

Area:
 * total: 76.762 million km² (29.637 million mi²)
 * note: includes the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, part of the Drake Passage, Gulf of Mexico, Labrador Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, almost all of the Scotia Sea, and other tributary water bodies

Area – comparative: slightly less than 6.5 times the size of the United States

Coastline: 111 866 km (69,510 mi)

Climate: Tropical cyclones (hurricanes) develop anywhere from off the coast of Africa near Cape Verde to the Windward Islands and move westward into the Caribbean Sea or up the east coast of North America; hurricanes can occur from May to December but are most frequent from late July to early November. Storms are common in the North Atlantic during northern winters, making ocean crossings more difficult and dangerous.

Off-topic sediments
The information below was interesting but fails to mention the Atlantic. --Fama Clamosa (talk) 14:15, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

Ocean sediments are composed of:
 * Terrigenous deposits with land origins, consisting of sand, mud, and rock particles formed by erosion, weathering, and volcanic activity on land washed to sea. These materials are found mostly on the continental shelves and are thickest near large river mouths or off desert coasts.
 * Pelagic deposits, which contain the remains of organisms that sink to the ocean floor, include red clays and Globigerina, pteropod, and siliceous oozes. Covering most of the ocean floor and ranging in thickness from 60 - 3300 m they are thickest in the convergence belts and in upwelling zones.
 * Authigenic deposits consist of such materials as manganese nodules. They occur where sedimentation proceeds slowly or where currents sort the deposits.