75 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
75 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
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ATLANTIC OCEAN
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GEOGRAPHY
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Total area: 82,217,000 km2; includes Baltic Sea, Black Sea,
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Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, Drake Passage, Gulf of
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Mexico, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Weddell Sea, and
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other tributary water bodies
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Comparative area: slightly less than nine times the size of the US;
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second-largest of the world's four oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, but
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larger than Indian Ocean or Arctic Ocean)
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Coastline: 111,866 km
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Climate: tropical cyclones (hurricanes) develop off the coast of
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Africa near Cape Verde and move westward into the Caribbean Sea;
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hurricanes can occur from May to December, but are most frequent from
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August to November
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Terrain: surface usually covered with sea ice in Labrador Sea,
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Denmark Strait, and Baltic Sea from October to June; clockwise warm
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water gyre (broad, circular system of currents) in the north Atlantic,
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counterclockwise warm water gyre in the south Atlantic; the ocean floor
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is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline
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for the entire Atlantic basin; maximum depth is 8,605 meters in the
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Puerto Rico Trench
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Natural resources: oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals
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and whales), sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic
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nodules, precious stones
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Environment: endangered marine species include the manatee, seals,
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sea lions, turtles, and whales; municipal sludge pollution off eastern
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US, southern Brazil, and eastern Argentina; oil pollution in Caribbean
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Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea;
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industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in Baltic Sea, North Sea,
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and Mediterranean Sea; icebergs common in Davis Strait, Denmark Strait,
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and the northwestern Atlantic from February to August and have been
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spotted as far south as Bermuda and the Madeira Islands; icebergs from
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Antarctica occur in the extreme southern Atlantic
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Note: ships subject to superstructure icing in extreme north
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Atlantic from October to May and extreme south Atlantic from May to
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October; persistent fog can be a hazard to shipping from May to
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September; major choke points include the Dardanelles, Strait of
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Gibraltar, access to the Panama and Suez Canals; strategic straits
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include the Dover Strait, Straits of Florida, Mona Passage, The Sound
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(Oresund), and Windward Passage; north Atlantic shipping lanes subject
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to icebergs from February to August; the Equator divides the Atlantic
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Ocean into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean
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ECONOMY
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Overview: Economic activity is limited to exploitation of natural
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resources, especially fish, dredging aragonite sands (The Bahamas), and
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crude oil and natural gas production (Caribbean Sea and North Sea).
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COMMUNICATIONS
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Ports: Alexandria (Egypt), Algiers (Algeria), Antwerp (Belgium),
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Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Casablanca (Morocco),
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Colon (Panama), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dakar (Senegal), Gdansk (Poland),
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Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain),
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Le Havre (France), Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad; USSR),
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Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK), Marseille (France), Montevideo (Uruguay),
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Montreal (Canada), Naples (Italy), New Orleans (US), New York (US),
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Oran (Algeria), Oslo (Norway), Piraeus (Greece), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil),
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Rotterdam (Netherlands), Stockholm (Sweden)
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Telecommunications: numerous submarine cables with most between
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continental Europe and the UK, North America and the UK, and in the
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Mediterranean; numerous direct links across Atlantic via INTELSAT
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satellite network
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Note: Kiel Canal and Saint Lawrence Seaway are two important
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waterways
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