54 Fun Facts About Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic ranks where among the world's five oceans by size?

Second largest behind the Pacific, the Atlantic still drains the most land of any ocean, because the continents on both sides slope toward it.

The Atlantic takes its name from which figure in Greek mythology?

Atlas gave the ocean its name: myth placed the Titan at the western edge of the world, holding up the sky, and the Greeks called the waters there the 'Sea of Atlas'.

British and American speakers jokingly call the North Atlantic what?

The pond has been a joking understatement since the 1600s, when sailing across the Atlantic could take months.

Which US president set out the Atlantic Charter with Winston Churchill?

Roosevelt set out war aims with Churchill months before the US entered the war, which only happened after Pearl Harbor.

Which bay on North America's Atlantic coast has the highest tides in the world?

The Bay of Fundy's water rocks back and forth at nearly the same rhythm as the Atlantic tide, so each tide pushes it higher, like a swing.

Which narrow passage links the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea?

Gibraltar's strait keeps the Mediterranean a sea: Atlantic water pours in at the surface, and without it evaporation would shrink the sea into a salt lake.

The Atlantic–Indian Ocean dividing line runs south to Antarctica from which African headland?

Cape Agulhas, not the more famous Cape of Good Hope, is Africa's southernmost point, and its rocky coast has wrecked many ships.

Who became the first person to reach the deepest point of the Atlantic, in December 2018?

Victor Vescovo piloted the submersible himself, on the opening leg of his bid to reach the deepest point of all five oceans.

Which explorer sailed from Morocco across the Atlantic in papyrus reed boats modelled on ancient Egyptian designs?

Thor Heyerdahl made the voyages to show that ancient Egyptian-style reed boats could have crossed the ocean long before Columbus.

Which country sits directly on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?

Iceland sits on the ridge and over a hotspot, and in 2010 one of its volcanoes, Eyjafjallajökull, shut much of Europe's airspace.

The Atlantic Ocean began to open when which supercontinent broke apart?

Pangaea's break-up left a rift that is still growing: new seafloor at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge widens the Atlantic by a few centimetres a year.

Which British liner was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland in 1915?

RMS Lusitania's sinking killed Americans aboard, yet President Wilson worked to keep the US out of the war for two more years.

Which way does water in the North Atlantic gyre turn?

The Coriolis effect flips it: the South Atlantic gyre turns counter-clockwise.

Off which point on the US coast does the Gulf Stream veer north-east into open ocean?

Cape Hatteras is where the current leaves the coast, and from there its path starts to twist as huge swirls of warm water break away.

Which American statesman had the Gulf Stream charted and printed in the 18th century?

Benjamin Franklin made the chart with Timothy Folger's help, to show mail ships how to stop sailing against the current.

Which Spanish explorer's 1513 expedition led to the European discovery of the Gulf Stream?

Juan Ponce de León met the current on the voyage that reached Florida, which he took for an island rather than part of a continent.

The Sargasso Sea is unique among named seas for what reason?

It has no land boundaries: four currents enclose it, and in the calm water inside, floating seaweed shelters shrimp, crabs and fish.

Which creatures travel thousands of kilometres to spawn in the Sargasso Sea?

European and American eels spawn there and die, and their larvae drift on ocean currents back to rivers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Why are tropical cyclones rare in the South Atlantic?

Strong wind shear tears storms apart and few weather systems exist to seed them, yet in March 2004 a hurricane did form there and made landfall in South America.

Which cold current carries icebergs south past the Grand Banks of Newfoundland?

The Labrador Current brings the icebergs, and after the Titanic sank in 1912, US Navy cruisers were sent to patrol the Grand Banks for ice.

Which Norse explorer is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America?

Leif Erikson's Vinland comes from the sagas, and a Norse camp found in Newfoundland in 1960 proved Europeans had reached North America around the year 1000.

Which explorer rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India by sea in 1498?

Vasco da Gama followed the route Bartolomeu Dias had opened in 1488, and Dias later died in a storm off that same cape in 1500.

Which country was the last in the Americas to abolish slavery, in 1888?

Brazil's Golden Law ended slavery in two short articles, with no payment to slave owners and no support for the people it freed.

Which fish drew European fishing fleets to Newfoundland for almost five centuries?

Cod stocks crashed from overfishing, and in 1992 Canada shut the fishery, putting tens of thousands of people out of work.

In 1901, which inventor reported receiving the first radio signal sent across the Atlantic?

Guglielmo Marconi listened at Signal Hill in Newfoundland through an antenna held up by a kite, and heard the Morse letter S sent from Cornwall.

The Battle of the Atlantic holds what distinction in World War II?

Longest continuous campaign of the war, it saw German U-boats hunt in wolf packs, converging on Allied convoys to attack together at night.

Which American businessman drove the effort to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable?

Cyrus West Field's 1858 cable soon failed, but he refused to give up, and a lasting cable finally went into service in 1866.

Which giant ship laid the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable, in 1866?

SS Great Eastern was the world's largest ship but lost money carrying passengers, so its owners put it to work laying cable instead.

Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic by air in 1919 in which aircraft?

Their Vickers Vimy came down in a bog near Clifden, Ireland, and within months Alcock was killed while delivering a new plane to Paris.

What was the name of the plane Charles Lindbergh flew solo from America to Paris in 1927?

Built to carry extra fuel, the Spirit of St. Louis had no front windshield, so Lindbergh could see directly out only through its side windows.

Who became the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic, in 1932?

Amelia Earhart had first crossed in 1928 only as a passenger while others did the flying, and four years later she flew it alone.

Which ship set a transatlantic speed record in 1952 that no ocean liner has beaten since?

SS United States kept its record, but not its passengers: the rise of air travel soon ended the reign of the great transatlantic liners.

Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage between which two ports?

Titanic was sailing between Southampton and New York, but its survivors only reached New York aboard the rescue ship Carpathia.

Titanic was built by Harland and Wolff in which city?

Belfast's Harland and Wolff built Titanic for White Star, whose chairman chose to compete with rivals on size and comfort rather than speed.

Which ship was found drifting near the Azores in 1872, still seaworthy but with no one aboard?

The Mary Celeste's crew was never seen again, and an 1884 story by Arthur Conan Doyle made the mystery famous under the name Marie Celeste.

Which group of five US Navy torpedo bombers vanished off Florida in December 1945, later linked to the Bermuda Triangle?

Flight 19 was lost on a training flight, and one of the flying boats sent to search for it was lost too, with all 13 of its crew.

The wreck of which ship on Bermuda's reef in 1609 led to Bermuda's settlement?

The Sea Venture's survivors built two new ships to reach Jamestown, and news of the wreck is thought to have inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Napoleon spent his final exile, from 1815 until his death, on which South Atlantic island?

Napoleon was first buried on Saint Helena, but in 1840 France brought his remains back to Paris, where they lie in Les Invalides.

Which South Atlantic island is considered the remotest inhabited place on Earth?

In 1961 a volcanic eruption forced Tristan da Cunha's whole population to evacuate to England, yet most of the islanders went home in 1963.

Which European country settled the uninhabited Cape Verde islands in the 15th century?

Portugal's first settlers on Cape Verde brought enslaved people from the African coast, and the islands took on a major role in the Atlantic slave trade.

What is the capital of Bermuda?

Hamilton only became Bermuda's capital in 1815, when it took over from the older town of St George's.

Which African river pours into the Atlantic with the continent's largest flow?

The Congo pours out so much water that its brown current can be seen far out at sea, where sailors could meet it before sighting the coast.

The closure of which ocean passage cut the Atlantic off from the Pacific and split their sea life apart?

When the Central American Seaway closed, the new Isthmus of Panama let land animals cross between the Americas, which is how porcupines reached North America.

North of the Azores, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge's rift valley separates which two tectonic plates?

The American and Eurasian plates pull apart along the ridge as new seafloor forms, and over millions of years that spreading has widened the Atlantic.

Which islands were Columbus's last stop before crossing the Atlantic in 1492?

Columbus sailed south to the Canary Islands first because from there his ships could catch the northeast trade winds blowing west.

Which Irish saint is said to have sailed the Atlantic with monks seeking a promised land?

Saint Brendan's promised land was long drawn on maps as a real island, and people kept searching for it into the 1700s.

Which rich fishing shoal lies off Cape Cod?

Other rich Atlantic grounds include the Bahama Banks, the waters around Iceland and the Irish Sea.

Where does the Atlantic Ocean reach its greatest depth?

The Puerto Rico Trench lies on the active boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates, so nearby islands face a real risk of earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Skeleton Coast stretches along the Atlantic shore of which African country?

Namibia's Skeleton Coast is often shrouded in fog, because a cold ocean current flows just offshore.

Which North Atlantic seabird digs nesting burrows in clifftop colonies?

A puffin can catch several small fish one after another, holding them in its beak while it hunts for more to carry back to the nest.

Which German battleship was sunk in May 1941, days after HMS Hood was destroyed in battle with it?

Bismarck's fate was sealed when a single torpedo hit crippled its steering gear, and British battleships closed in and pounded it the next morning.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs from near the North Pole south to which subantarctic outcrop at 54°S?

Its northern end sits at 87°N, only 300 km from the pole.

Which Norse leader named Greenland to attract settlers?

The sagas say Erik the Red first reached Greenland while banished for a string of killings, and a few years later he led a fleet of settlers there.

Which English explorer's mutinous crew cast him adrift in 1611 in the vast bay that now bears his name?

Henry Hudson was set adrift in a small open boat with his son and several others, and none of them was ever heard from again.