The Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean

1. The second-largest ocean on Earth

2. the Atlantic drives our weather patterns, including hurricanes

3. Stretching from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica

4. the Atlantic Ocean is bordered by the Americas to the west and Europe and Africa to the east.

5. It's more than 41 million square miles

6. the second-largest ocean on Earth after the Pacific Ocean.

7. Scientists and geographers broadly separate the Atlantic in terms of north and south.

8. The North Atlantic and South Atlantic each have distinct ocean currents that influence weather around the world.

9. The ocean doesn't sit still like water in a sink. It moves more like a conveyer belt

   • driven by changes in temperature and salinity over large areas. Both quick-moving surface currents and slower-moving deep ocean currents circulate water around the globe.

10. Warm water is less dense than cold water, so as water cools, it sinks, and warm water replaces it.

    • Water with high salinity—more salt—also moves into waters with lower salinity.
      • Those factors drive the conveyer belt, a process also called thermohaline circulation.

11. Warm water is heated by the Gulf Stream, a warm air current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico.

    • The warm water then moves north, where it forces cooler water to sink and move south.
      • As the current moves toward Antarctica, upwelling pushes cold water back to the surface, pushing the watery conveyer belt around the world.
        • Scientists estimate that it takes the conveyer belt about 500 years to make one trip.

12. Many well-known species live in the Atlantic, from dolphins to sea turtles.

13. Scientists are quickly trying to understand how our warming atmosphere is changing the Atlantic Ocean.

14. Some scientists are concerned that if cold Arctic waters become warmer, the temperature difference will not be enough to drive ocean circulation at the same rate it has been moving.

15. a change to the rate of circulation could affect summers, winters, and natural disasters, from the U.S. to Europe.

16. Research published in the midst of last year's active Atlantic hurricane season suggests that storms will become more intense, wetter, and slower as the atmosphere continues to warm.

17. Warm temperatures mean the atmosphere can carry more water, and so the hurricanes that strike the East Coast will dump more rain and cause more flooding in a warmer climate.

18. As oceans suck up more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they're also becoming more acidic thanks to the resulting chemical reactions.

    • Acidic waters can slow the growth of or even potentially kill corals, mollusks, and some species of plankton. Critical food chains can thus be disrupted by this so-called ocean acidification.