Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Sea of Darkness, or Ocean ;;;
The world's second ocean by area after the Pacific Ocean.
Its area is about 106,400,000 square kilometers (41,100,000 sq mi), covering approximately 20% of the Earth's surface. And 26% of the total water area on earth.
It is bordered to the east by the continents of Africa and Europe, and to the west by the Americas.
Its name, Atlas, came from Greek mythology (in Greek it means: Sea of Atlas) approximately in the year 450 BC, that is, before the discovery of the oceans by Europeans, and the term ocean was given to the waters beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, which is now the Atlantic Ocean.
The Greeks believed that this ocean was a giant river that encircled the whole world.
The oldest definition of the word “Atlantic” in the history of Herodotus, approximately in the year 450 BC: Atlantis thalassa, before the discovery of other oceans by Europeans, the term “ocean” itself was applied to the waters beyond the Strait of Gibraltar other than what we now know as the Atlantic And the Arabs in the Middle Ages called it the Sea of Darkness.
The Atlantic Ocean forms an S-shaped basin that extends longitudinally between the Americas to the west, and Eurasia and Africa to the east. As one of the interconnected global oceans, it is connected in the north with the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered to be part of the Atlantic Ocean), the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Antarctic Ocean in the south. (Other information describes the Atlantic Ocean as extending south to Antarctica.) The equator divides the ocean into the North Atlantic Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean.
