It is the ocean that separates Europe and Africa, to East, of America, to West. He/she has an area of (106.200.000 km², including the local seas as the Mar Mediterrâneo, the Sea of the North and the Sea of Caraíbas, what corresponds the approximately a third of the world oceanic waters).
Geography THE ocean Atlantic, the second of the world in surface is located in the western hemisphere and alonga-if in the sense North-south. With a format that reminds a S, it communicates with the Oceano Ártico for the strait of Iceland; with the Oceano Pacífico and with Indian Ocean for the wide passage that opens up among America, Africa and Antártida, in the high southern latitudes. In Northern Hemisphere, the continental, very cut out backs, they define numerous enclosed seas (Sea of the Stain, Sea of the North, Baltic Sea, Mar Mediterrâneo, Sea of Antilhas). To the South, to the opposite, the backs are well retilíneas oceanic Fund THE oceanic fund it presents a regular disposition: the continental platform, wide to the plaza of the backs of Europe, of North America and of the southern portion of South America, it is narrowed in the backs of Africa and of Brazil; an enormous chain of submarine mountains, the number meso-Atlantic, he/she extends along the ocean; between her and the continents he/she opens up a series of basins of 6.000 to 7.000 m of depth (American, Brazilian and Argentinean basins, to THE; Scandinavian basins, of Europa Ocidental, of Guinea, of Angola and of the Cable, the AND). The number crest is furrow in all its extension by a great tectonic fossa (rift), that secciona in the longitudinal sense. Area of constant instabilidade geológica, provoked by the continuous emission of material ígneo,é object of studies geológicos that you/they analyze the formation processes and evolution of the tectonic plates, that is to say, of the terrestrial crust. The meso-Atlantic crest of the number generally locates between -3.000 and -1.500 m, but it emerges in some points, forming islands: Jan Mayen, Iceland, Açores, Ascension, Tristão of Cunha. In the latitudes equatoriais, the number is cut by traverse flaws that determine fossas abissais (fossa of Romanche. -7.758 m). In the other portions of Atlantic the fossas is rare: they locate in Antilhas (Caimans and Porto Rico - the deepest with -9.218 m) and in the islands Sandwich of the South (-8.264 m) THE origin of the meso-oceanic mountain range (or Number Atlantic) it is related to the dynamics of the tectonic of plates. The removal among the South American and African plates, in consequence of the currents of convection of the existent magma in the mantle, determines the formation of an extensive modern dobramento that extends of north to south along the Oceano Atlântico Origem of the waters In the facade western, big basins hidrográficas they empty considerable amount of sediments on the continental platform, defining cones alunionais, like the one of the rivers São Lourenço and Mississippi, in Atlântico Norte, and the one of Amazonas, in the strip equatorial. The waters of Atlantic are the salted of all the oceans (37,5 for thousand of medium salinity) and encouraged by currents that assure intense circulation between the cold waters of the high latitudes and the waters hot equatoriais. The cold currents of Labrador and of Falkland they go down respectively along the northern and southern encostas of America. Of Benguela it travels the African south-western coast, in direction to the equator. They are compensated by the hot currents of Brazil and Atlantic Equatorial, in its branches N and S, for the current of the Golf, that has great influence on the climates of north-western Europe, turning them less rigorous. That circulation of the waters favors its oxigenação and the plankton proliferation, defining important fishing zones, as the backs of southern Brazil, the North American facade around the New Earth, the backs of Escandinávia and of Iceland, besides southern Africa. The continental platforms contain, sometimes, lied petrolíferas (Sea of the North, backs of Venezuela and of Brazil, Golf of Guinea). Ladeado in Northern Hemisphere for the two industrialized areas of the globe (NE of the USA and Europa Ocidental), Atlântico Norte presents the most intense transoceanic marine and aerial traffic of the world History The old ones, that they called Dark Sea or Mar Oceano, they just knew the located backs between the north of the British islands and Canárias. Of the centuries VIII to XI, the Norman frequented the beaches of Norway, of Iceland, of Gronelândia, of Spitsbergen and of New Scotland, in the actual Canada. Until the end of the Medium Age, they were only made coastal sailings, going to the Cabo Bojador (reached by the Portuguese navigator Gil Eanes in 1434). In the century XV the Portuguese intensified the exploration of the African coast and, at the same time, they developed sailing techniques that allowed trips for high sea. The sailing for latitudes (determined by the observation of the Polar star's height or of the Sun at noon, technique developed about 1485) it was facilitated by the use of instruments as the compass and the astrolabe. Another decisive factor was the study of the regime of the winds in Atlantic: in 1439, the existent information already allowed an assiduous sailing and it holds. Those techniques, formed an alliance with the new ships developed by the Portuguese (the caravels, of larger load, quiet higher and common system of candles that allowed the use of the winds, even in having felt contrary) they would allow the recognition of the coast of Africa and the first incursions in high sea; there are still information that in the séc. XV the Portuguese would also have explored Atlântico Norte, joining knowledge that later facilitated Christopher Columbus trip in the first documented crossing of the Ocean. With the obtained technical development, the Portuguese trips became more daring and frequent through Atlantic, in such a way that up to 1488 the whole coast west of Africa was explored, recognized and, in the first 20 years of the séc. XVI, the whole Atlantic coast of the American continent (found in 1492 by Columbus) it had been visited by Portuguese, Spanish or Italian navigators to service of Spain. The kings from Portugal sought, since the beginning, to guarantee discoveries of its navigators and since 1443, several laws demanded the right of exclusive sailing in the seas recognized by its naus. In 1454, the papa Nicolau V ratified the pretense of the Portuguese, reserving them the exclusive right of sailing and trade. In 1474, D. Afonso V ordered that those that violated those determinations were died and its goods confiscated by the crown. The Agreement of peace of Toledo, between Spain and Portugal, ratified those rights, that were reaffirmed in the orderings Manuelinas (1514). Up to 1580, there was little international reply to those pretenses, except small diplomatic conflicts caused by the corsairs' action protected by the kings from France and Grã-Britain. After 1580, however, the reply grew, also involving the Dutchmen in war with Spain for its independence. They extended the warlike actions against Portugal, after the union of the two Crowns and they passed to the freedom of the seas; in the truce signed with Felipe III (III of Spain and II of Portugal), they obtained the right of navigating for those seas, although under royal license. That agreement marked the beginning of the end of the exclusive domain for the Portuguese of the seas that had discovered and, after 1640, the beginning of the freedom of the seas was established solidly. Starting from the century XVII, the exploration hidrográfica of Atlantic began, made at the beginning by the Dutchmen, later for English and French in the century XVIII. In the century XIX, was organized numerous cruzeiros oceanográficos that allowed the elaboration of a detailed letter batimétrica of Atlantic.