Talk:Atlantic Ocean

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[edit] Coriolis Force

I just noticed it, but the article states that water flows clockwise in the North Atlantic due to the coriolis force. The coriolis force article claims that air is induced to flow counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere. Why is water different? Is either article wrong? -Lommer | talk 02:39, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Air & water are deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere - this gives rise to clockwise gyres seen in the oceans and around high air pressure cells. The counterclockwise flow around a low pressure system is due to being deflected to the right from a straight streamline into the center of a low. That sounds confusing - keep that to the right in mind and study the diagram of flow around a low pressure system in the coriolis discussion. Does that help? Vsmith 23:07, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
That all makes sense, but it would seem to indicate a "high pressure system" in the centre of the ocean. What causes this? -Lommer | talk 02:11, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
OK. Don't think there's a high pressure system there. Let's try it this way, water near the equator is heated more by absorbed radiation and thus expands. This piled up water tends to flow downhill to the north & south. As it begins to flow the coriolis effect deflects it to the right in the northern and to the left in the southern hemispheres aided by the prevailing wind systems. This deflection, along with continents blocking the way, sets up large rotating surface gyres in each ocean basin. This results in west flowing currents both north & south of the equator (with an east flowing counter-current between - but, that just confuses the issue). Confused yet? :-) Vsmith 18:13, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
Not totally. What you've said makes sense, but would seem to generate a counter-clockwise flow: east-flowing currents in the south-north-atlantic and west-flowing currents in the north-north-atlantic. This would agree with the coriolis force article, but disagree with this article. I'm just visualizing water flowing due north from the equator, where it's heated, and being deflected to the right... -Lommer | talk 03:41, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Archive 2004 made

The archive contains mainly the loooong Suggest 25 possible wiki links and 317 possible backlinks for Atlantic Ocean. by linkbot. In case anyone wants to look over the suggested links. Vsmith 23:07, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Surface Area

There are three (different) values given for the surface area of the Atlantic, two at the top (explained) and another later on - can anyone confirm the (sourced) correct figures, please? Thanks, Ian Cairns 13:12, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Needs to be consistent. Not sure that there is an accurate value considering the rather poorly defined boundaries w/ the Southern (Antarctic) and Indian oceans. Or the Arctic for that matter. The value at the bottom, 76.762 million km², is from the CIA factbook. The one at the top, 41,100,000 square miles or 106,400,000 km², is from US Navy Ocean talk. Both say they include adjacent seas. Both are now sourced :-). The difference may be in the arbitrary boundaries between the Indian & Antarctic? Which do we go with for consistency? I'd vote for the CIA value. Also don't know about the volume value. Vsmith 18:13, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

One explanation for the difference in surface area may be the Southern Ocean which acccording to Wikipedia was adopted officially in 2000. The 60th paralel forms the boundary for the Southern and Atlantic Ocean. If one doesn't recognize this ocena than the coast of Antartica would be the Southern Boundary. I came here looking the boundary dividing atlantic and pacific but it's not here or in the pacific ocean article (at least not as of June 2006). Also, the northern boundary is presented incompletely (nothing between Greenland and North America). If anyone could add these facts to the article that would be a nice improvement. Just to clarify, I'm looking for the merridian or other boundary that separates the pacific from the atlantic in the area between South America and Antartica. Is it the Merridian (somewhere around 65° or is it a line from the tip of Tierra del Feugo and the Pen of Antartica? Or something else entirely?. --Cplot 22:26, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alternative Names

Should it be mentioned that the Atlantic is sometimes called the Pond (disambiguation), in the sense of "across the pond"? Martin Rudat(T|@|C) 15:10, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Name meaning

"Of Atlas" or "of Atlantis"? I suspect it's the latter. TCC (talk) (contribs) 02:31, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Or does Atlantis come from Atlantic ? -- Beardo 17:54, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Both come from Atlas. 74.38.35.171 02:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Link broken

The http://oceanographer.navy.mil/atlantic.html site is gone (but may be back later at a changed location). I gather that provided a lot of the content for this article. If so, that leaves a hole in the documentation. -- Dalbury(Talk) 14:13, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Per your posting, I've done two things:
  • I moved the two oceanographer.navy.mil links to a new "References" sections, because they are references, not simple external links.
  • I've just pointed to archival copies of these page at the Internet Archive.
I hope that helps
— DLJessup (talk) 18:01, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
Great! I didn't want to mess with it right off, as I've previously had nothing to do with this article, and thought I would let the contributors figure out how to handle it. -- Dalbury(Talk) 18:19, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure what information this link had, but I found something | here.--Cplot 23:57, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Failed GA

Lack of sources (three in all). There's a weird "fact sheet" at the end of the History and economy section, which seems out of context - it's more of an introductory data sheet, perhaps it would best be presented in a template on the right in the lead paragraph? Also, the lists "bays, gulfs, and seas" in the lead, and "Ports and harbours" might be better indexed according to continent - it's pretty chaotically presented as is. Poulsen 17:50, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed from "Ports and harbours" section

I just removed the following subsection from the bottom of the "Ports and harbours" section of this article:

[edit] Note on transportation

The Saint Lawrence Seaway is an important waterway.

True, but I don't see what that has to do with a Wikipedia article on the Atlantic Ocean. Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a third-grade social studies project. Consider the information removed to the Saint Lawrence Seaway article, I suppose. --Quuxplusone 07:41, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History and economy - ocean rowing

The Tori Murden entry is a bit spurious here, as she wasn't the first person to row the Atlantic (by a long shot!), only the first solo woman. If there is going to be an ocean rowing reference, surely it should be something earlier?

Kert01 14:22, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More history please?

I'm really curious about pre-Columian ideas about the Atlantic Ocean, from both New and Old World perspectives, particularly from Roman sources. If anyone is knowledgable in this field I think this article would benefit greatly from your additions.

Minor Vandalism "This ocean smells like crap and occupies an elongated" I am guessing somebody messed with it.

[edit] Titanic

"The Atlantic is famous for many different historic events, one of them being the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 14, 1912 after hitting an iceberg."

Obviously it is beyond comprehensiveness what makes this event so historical?! It is neither the first ship sunk, nor the last. Quite famous in popular culture but not historical for sure. -- Goldie (tell me) 02:57, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

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