The Individual Research Projects

Course: Geography of sea routes

Group 208 İ
Student: Novruzov Aliagha
Lecturer: Elchin Osmanov

2020

The main directions of international roads in the Atlantic

Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceans, with an area
of about 106,460,000 km2 (41,100,000 sq mi). It covers approximately 20
percent of Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It is
known to separate the "Old World" from the "New World" in the European
perception of the World.
The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending
longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the
west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is connected in
the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian
Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south (other definitions
describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica). The Atlantic Ocean
is divided into two parts, by the Equatorial Counter Current, with the North(ern)
Atlantic Ocean and the South(ern) Atlantic Ocean at about 8°N.
Surface water temperatures, which vary with latitude, current systems, and
season and reflect the latitudinal distribution of solar energy, range from below
−2 °C (28 °F) to over 30 °C (86 °F). Maximum temperatures occur north of the
equator, and minimum values are found in the polar regions. In the middle
latitudes, the area of maximum temperature variations, values may vary by 7–8
°C (13–14 °F).
From October to June the surface is usually covered with sea ice in the
Labrador Sea, Denmark Strait, and Baltic Sea.
The Coriolis effect circulates North Atlantic water in a clockwise direction,
whereas South Atlantic water circulates counter-clockwise. The south tides in
the Atlantic Ocean are semi-diurnal; that is, two high tides occur every 24 lunar
hours. In latitudes above 40° North some east–west oscillation, known as the
North Atlantic oscillation, occurs.
On average, the Atlantic is the saltiest major ocean; surface water salinity in
the open ocean ranges from 33 to 37 parts per thousand (3.3–3.7%) by mass and
varies with latitude and season. Evaporation, precipitation, river inflow and sea
ice melting influence surface salinity values. Although the lowest salinity values
are just north of the equator (because of heavy tropical rainfall), in general, the
lowest values are in the high latitudes and along coasts where large rivers enter.
Maximum salinity values occur at about 25° north and south, in subtropical
regions with low rainfall and high evaporation.
 Although not the largest of the world’s oceans, the Atlantic has by far the
largest drainage area. The continents on both sides of the Atlantic tend to slope
toward it, so that it receives the waters of a great proportion of the major rivers
of the world; these include the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the Orinoco, the
Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Niger, the Loire, the Rhine, the
Elbe, and the great rivers draining into the Mediterranean, Black, and Baltic
seas. In contrast to the South Atlantic, the North Atlantic is rich in islands, in the
variety of its coastline, and in tributary seas. The latter include the Caribbean
Sea, the Gulfs of Mexico and St. Lawrence, and Hudson and Baffin bays on the
west and the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Black seas on the east.
Relief of the ocean floor
The outstanding feature of the Atlantic floor is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an
immense median mountain range extending throughout the length of the
Atlantic, claiming the centre third of the ocean bed, and reaching roughly 1,000
miles (1,600 km) in breadth. This feature, though of tremendous proportions, is
but the Atlantic portion of the world-encircling oceanic ridge.
In some places the Mid-Atlantic Ridge reaches above sea level to form
islands. Iceland, which rises from its crest, is rent by an extension of the median
rift valley. East and west of the ridge, about 12,000 to 18,000 feet (3,700 to
5,500 metres) below sea level, lie basins that seem to present a relatively even
profile, but parts of the basin floor are as mountainous as the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge, while other parts are extremely smooth. The former are rocky abyssal
hills; the latter are the abyssal plains that form the upper surface of great ponds
of mud that fill many of the broad depressions. Large ancient volcanoes are
found singly or in rows in the basins; these rise to form seamounts and,
occasionally, islands.
As the continents are approached and the rugged Mid-Atlantic Ridge is left
behind, an abyssal plain first is encountered, followed by the smooth, undulating
surface of the continental rise. These broad embankments, which lie at depths of
some 8,000 to 15,000 feet (2,400 to 4,500 metres) at the foot of continents,
reach more than 300 miles (500 km) in width off northwestern Africa, Angola,
Argentina, and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. In other areas they are
exceedingly narrow. Millions of years of weathering, erosion, and riverine
sediment deposition have contributed to creating the sloping continental rises
that are characteristic of the Atlantic basin. It is beneath these slopes—in
accumulations 10,000 to 50,000 feet (3,000 to 15,000 metres) thick—that some
of the largest potential reserves on Earth of petroleum, natural gas, and coal are
found.
 The Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands form large unstable
island arcs, where the greatest depths of the Atlantic are found in steep-sided,
narrow gashes that drop to more than 25,000 feet (7,600 metres) below sea level
and more than 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) below the floors of adjacent basins.
Depths greater than 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) occur in the Caribbean basin,
which has numerous shallow and several deep connections with the open ocean,
and in a few parts of the Mediterranean Sea, which communicates with the
Atlantic only through the Strait of Gibraltar. The strait is about 8 miles (13 km)
wide at its narrowest point, and the maximum depth on its sill (submarine ridge
between basins) is only a little more than 1,000 feet (300 metres). The partial
isolation of the large seas adjacent to the Mediterranean has a profound effect on
the conditions in the seas themselves as well as in the open ocean.
Islands of the Atlantic Ocean
Among purely oceanic islands (i.e., those without any foundation of
continental rock, usually formed as the result of volcanic action) are Iceland, the
Azores, Ascension, St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha, Bouvet, and Gough, which all
rise from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; and the Canary, Madeira, and Cape Verde
islands and Fernando de Noronha (near Cape São Roque), which rise from the
continental margins of Africa and South America. Volcanic islands of a different
sort are those of the two great arcs: the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich
Islands. Partly continental and partly oceanic are the Greater Antilles in the
Caribbean and South Georgia and the South Orkney Islands in the Scotia Sea.
Purely continental are the British Isles, Newfoundland, the Falkland Islands
(Islas Malvinas), and Greenland, which is an extension of the Canadian Shield.