A message about the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Ocean: interesting facts Interesting facts about the Atlantic Ocean

11.12.2023

Do you know something interesting about the Atlantic Ocean? In this article we have collected interesting information about the Atlantic Ocean that will expand your knowledge of geography.

Atlantic Ocean interesting facts

Why was the Atlantic Ocean called the Atlantic Ocean?

The modern name of the ocean comes from the name of the Titan - Atlas, the hero of Greek mythology, who held the sky on his shoulders. Previously, this ocean was called the Western Ocean. The first navigator to cross the Atlantic Ocean was Columbus.

Atlantis is a continent that, according to legend, existed in ancient times on the territory of the Atlantic Ocean. According to legend, as a result of changes on the planet, he went under water along with all the inhabitants. Officially, Atlantis is considered to be invented by Plato as an image of the depravity of people.

The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest ocean on the planet by area and depth. The deepest place in the Atlantic is the South Sandwich Trench, which is 8,500 meters deep.

But in terms of water salinity, the Atlantic Ocean is in first place.

The warm Gulf Stream flows through it, giving a mild and warm climate to European countries with access to the open ocean. You can compare the numbers: the amount of heat that is transferred by this current can only be generated by power plants taken together in the amount 1,000,000 stations.

The Atlantic Ocean crosses all of the earth's climate zones. This is a kind of border that separates the Old and New Worlds.

In the Atlantic, on the territory of the Belize Natural Reef, there is an unusual object - blue hole. This is an underwater cave 120 meters deep. Here the boundaries of dark and light waters have a strictly defined contour. And the observer who looks at the surface of the ocean from above sees a blue and large hole.

In the Atlantic Ocean there is Sargasso Sea, which has no coastal boundaries. Its boundaries are delineated only by ocean currents.

The Atlantic Ocean is full of mysteries. One of them - Bermuda Triangle, an area located in Bermuda, in which many ships and aircraft have gone missing.

Giant Island Greenland located in the north of the Atlantic, which has no equal in size on our planet.

Despite the difference in area between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the amount of fish caught annually in the Atlantic is no less. Herring, sardine, flounder and cod are especially popular among fishermen. The Atlantic Ocean is also home to a variety of delicacies: oysters, squid, mussels, cuttlefish, etc.

The most distant island on Earth is also located in the Atlantic Ocean. This Bouvet Island, which is separated from the Cape of Good Hope by 1600 km.

Mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is fraught with many secrets. Navigators and scientists have been exploring it for several centuries, but have not found answers to many questions.

Did Atlantis exist? Why are ships and planes disappearing in the Bermuda area? These questions concern us to this day.

Here we have collected all the most interesting things about the features of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Atlantic Ocean is the saltiest, with an average annual salinity of 35‰. It ranks second in size after the Pacific Ocean and passes through all climatic zones.

Story

Where did the modern name come from?

Previously, the Atlantic Ocean did not have a permanent name; it was called the Western Ocean, the Sea of Darkness, and the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules. And the modern name for the ocean was given by the cartographer Waldseemüller in honor of the hero of Greek mythology Atlas, who held the sky on his shoulders.

As everyone knows, the first navigator to cross the Atlantic Ocean was Christopher Columbus. Since then, the Atlantic has been the border separating the Old and New Worlds.

Many sailors followed Columbus to the New World to discover and explore new lands, and communication between the continents quickly improved.

Now planes can easily cross the Atlantic Ocean, but imagine how brave the first pilots were who decided to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. The heroes of this event were John Alcock and Arthur Brown. In 1919, they completed a 3,168-meter flight from Newfoundland to Clifden, for which they were knighted and awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Atlantis - fiction or reality?

There are many theories about the ancient civilization that, according to legend, existed on the territory of the Atlantic Ocean. According to legend, Atlantis sank under water, and for many centuries travelers have been going in search of this lost state.

Bermuda

One of the mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean is generated by the Bermuda Triangle, the “Devil's Sea”, where ships and aircraft disappear for unknown reasons. There are many versions explaining this. Some believe in aliens stealing ships here, others explain this by unusual weather conditions. And in fact, this area is very difficult to navigate; storms and cyclones often originate here.

In the north of the Atlantic Ocean there is a giant island - Greenland, the largest on the planet. And the most distant island is also located in the Atlantic - Bouvet Island, located 1600 km from the Cape of Good Hope.

Sea without borders

There is an unusual sea in the Atlantic Ocean - the Sargasso. This sea has no coastal boundaries, it is limited only by ocean currents: the Gulf Stream, North Atlantic, Canary and Northern Trade Wind Currents.

This relatively still water provided excellent conditions for algae growth, resulting in almost the entire sea being covered with Sargassum algae.

Great Blue Hole

Another feature of the Atlantic Ocean is the Great Blue Hole of Belize, which is a circular chasm that goes down 120 meters. They called this place the Blue Hole because of the sharp boundary between light and dark water. It was presumably formed during the Ice Age, when the water level was 100-120 meters lower.

The famous French diver Jacques-Yves Cousteau included the Blue Hole in the list of the 10 best dive sites in the world. However, visiting this place is dangerous. During high tides, water cycles sometimes form here, which suck in everything that floats on the surface. And during low tides, powerful fountains of water erupt. But despite the danger and distance from the coast (96 km from Belize City), divers mastered this dive and the Great Blue Hole became a popular diving site.

Gulf Stream

Probably the most famous current in Europe is the Gulf Stream, since this current determines the climate of all European countries with access to the ocean. The Gulf Stream gives them warmth and a mild climate. It is even called the largest "heating system" in the world.

The Atlantic Ocean has been known to human civilization since time immemorial. It was here, according to ancient legends, that the mysterious island of Atlantis was located, which sank under the water seventeen thousand years ago. A warlike and courageous people (the Atlanteans) lived on it, and the god Poseidon reigned over it along with his wife Cleito. Their eldest son's name was Atlan. In his honor, the boundless sea washing this land was named Atlantic.

The mysterious civilization sank into oblivion, the sea was renamed the ocean, but the name remained the same. Don't go anywhere and mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean. Over the centuries, there have been no fewer of them. But before you get acquainted with everything unusual and mysterious, you need to get a general idea of the majestic waters that simultaneously wash the shores of hot Africa, the lands of old Europe, and the distant rocky coast of the American continent, covered in the haze of fairy tales.

Nowadays, the Atlantic Ocean is the name given to a huge body of water on planet Earth, which accounts for 25% of the volume of the World Ocean. Its area is almost 92 million km², together with the adjacent seas and the Atlantic part of the Southern Ocean. From north to south, the waters of the Atlantic stretch for 15.5 thousand km, and from west to east, in the narrowest part (from Brazil to Liberia), they have a width of 2.8 thousand km.

If we take the distance of the Atlantic waters from the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the eastern coast of the Black Sea, then there will be a completely different figure - 13.5 thousand km. Ocean depth great difference too. Its average value is 3600 m, and the maximum was recorded in the Puerto Rico trench and corresponds to 8742 meters.

The bottom of the Atlantic is divided lengthwise into two parts Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It exactly follows the contours of a huge reservoir and stretches in a wide, winding mountainous chain: from the north - from the Reykjanes Ridge (Iceland), to the African-Antarctic Ridge in the south (Bouvet Island), going beyond the distribution of Arctic ice.

To the right and left of the ridge there are scattered basins, trenches, faults, and small ridges that make the topography of the ocean floor very complex and confusing. The coastline (especially in northern latitudes) also has a complex structure. It is heavily indented by small bays and has vast water areas that extend deep into the land and form seas. An integral part are the numerous straits in the coastal zone of the continents, as well as straits and channels connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean.

The Atlantic Ocean washes the shores of 96 state entities. Its property includes 14 seas and 4 large bays. The richly diverse climate in these geographical and geological parts of the earth's surface is provided by numerous surface currents. They flow freely in all directions and are divided into warm and cold.

In northern latitudes, up to the equator, they dominate Northern Passatnoe, Gulf Stream And North Atlantic currents. They carry warm waters and delight the surrounding world with a mild climate and high temperatures. The same cannot be said about currents. Labrador And Canary. The latter are classified as cold and create frosty and slushy weather in the adjacent lands.

South of the equator the picture is the same. Warm people rule the roost here South Passatnoye, Guinean And Brazilian currents. Cold ones Western Winds And Bengal they try to be in no way inferior to their more humane colleagues and also make their feasible negative contribution to the formation of the climate of the southern hemisphere. In general, average surface temperature of the Atlantic Ocean equal to plus 16° Celsius. At the equator it can reach up to 28° Celsius. But in the northern latitudes it is very cold - here the water freezes.

Icebergs of the Atlantic

From what has been said, it is not difficult to guess that the waters of the Atlantic are squeezed from the north and south by eternal giant ice crusts. True, regarding eternity, it’s a little overkill, since very large blocks of ice often break off from them and begin to slowly drift towards the equator. These are called lumps icebergs, and they move north of Greenland up to 40° N. sh, and in the south from Antarctica to 40° S. w. Their remains are also observed closer to the equator, reaching 31-35° southern and northern latitudes.

Very large sizes are a loose concept. More specifically, there are icebergs whose length is tens of kilometers, and whose area sometimes exceeds 1000 km². These ice floes can travel across the ocean for years, hiding their true size under the water surface.

The fact is that a mountain of ice shines blue above the water, which corresponds to only 10% of the total volume of the iceberg. The remaining 90% of this block is hidden in the ocean depths due to the fact that the density of ice does not exceed 940 kg/m³, and the density of sea water on the surface ranges from 1000 to 1028 kg/m³. The usual, average height of an iceberg, as a rule, corresponds to 28-30 meters, while its underwater part is slightly more than 100-120 meters.

Meeting such a sea traveler was never a joy for ships. It poses the greatest danger already in adulthood. By this time, the iceberg has melted significantly, its center of gravity has shifted, and the huge ice block turns over. Its underwater part is above the water. It does not shine blue, but is a dark blue ice cap, which, especially in poor visibility conditions, is very difficult to distinguish on the surface of the ocean.

The sinking of the Titanic

A typical example of the treachery of floating ice blocks can be the sinking of the Titanic, which occurred on the night of April 14-15, 1912. It sank 2 hours 40 minutes after colliding with an iceberg in the northern waters of the Atlantic Ocean (41° 43′ 55″ N, 49° 56′ 45″ E). This resulted in the death of 1,496 passengers and crew members.

True, we must immediately make a reservation: attributing everything to a “lost” iceberg is rather imprudent. This shipwreck is still one of the greatest mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean today. There is still no clue to the reasons for the tragedy, although there are a great many different theories and assumptions.

It is assumed that the largest passenger ship in the world (length 269 m, width 28.2 m, displacement 46,300 tons) collided with an iceberg, which was of venerable age and had apparently capsized more than once in the water. Its dark surface did not give any reflections; it merged with the water surface of the ocean, so it was very difficult to notice the huge floating ice block in a timely manner. The culprit of the tragedy was recognized only when he was 450 meters from the ship, and not 4-6 km away, as usually happens in such situations.

The sinking of the Titanic caused a lot of noise. It was a world sensation at the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century. The main thing that amazed everyone was how such a huge and reliable ship could sink so quickly, dragging hundreds and hundreds of unfortunate people with it to the bottom. Nowadays, many researchers tend to see the true causes of the terrible tragedy not in the ill-fated iceberg (although few deny its indirect role), but in completely other factors, which for some reason, at one time, were hidden from the general public.

Versions, guesses, assumptions

The official conclusion of the commission investigating the disaster was unequivocal - the ice of the Atlantic turned out to be stronger than steel. He ripped open the underwater hull of the Titanic like a tin can. The wound was terrible: its length reached 100 meters, and out of sixteen waterproof compartments, six were damaged. This turned out to be enough for the proud Briton to sink to the bottom and become silent forever at enormous depths, taking with him human lives and colossal material values to the sea soil.

Such a verdict is not convincing for a specialist, and even a person far from shipbuilding understands that the supporting hull of a huge liner plowing the oceans cannot in any way resemble a tin can. The melted ice of the old iceberg also does not have sufficient hardness, which, judging by the conclusion, should have exceeded the strength of a diamond, in order to pierce the steel plating of a multi-ton passenger ship for tens of meters.

You can build various assumptions and hypotheses for as long as you like, but only practical research can give answers to all questions. In this situation, given the depth at which the Titanic lay, exploration work became possible no earlier than the 80s of the 20th century. It was by this time that deep-sea vehicles appeared, capable of staying at a depth of 4 kilometers for a long time.

The first such swallow was the expedition of the American oceanographer Robert Ballard, which in September 1985 arrived at the site of the tragedy on the ship Knor. It was armed with the Argo deep-sea towed complex. It was he who determined the depth of the remains of the Titanic. The water thickness in this place was 3,750 meters. The ship lay on the seabed, split into two parts, the distance between them was approximately 600 meters.

No visible damage was found that caused the death of the ocean liner. Robert Ballard believed that they were hidden by the soil in which the multi-ton structure was stuck. The laceration on the Titanic’s hull was not found during the second expedition organized by the American scientist in 1986.

French and American specialists followed the beaten path. In the summer of 1987, they arrived in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and spent two long months at the disaster site. Using the deep-sea submersible Nautilus, researchers recovered more than 900 objects from the bottom that were on board the sunken ship. These were samples of ship utensils, some of which ended up in museums, and some were distributed to private collections.

Submersible explores the sunken Titanic

Finally, in 1991, the ship Akademik Mstislav Keldysh arrived at the site of the sinking of the Titanic.. On board was an international research expedition led by Canadian geologist-oceanographer Steve Blask. The expedition had at its disposal two autonomous underwater vehicles, Mir-1 and Mir-2. The researchers made 38 dives on them. The ship's hull was examined, a sample of the side plating was taken, film, video and photography were taken.

Despite all efforts, a ragged hole several tens of meters long was not found. But we managed to find a hole, the size of which did not exceed a square meter, and numerous cracks were noticed along the lines of the rivets.

A steel fragment that broke off from the Titanic's hull was sent for testing. It was tested for metal fragility - the conclusion was not reassuring: the prototype was strikingly fragile. This could be attributed to the long 80 years on the seabed, which significantly affected the properties of the steel. Therefore, for the objectivity of the picture, a similar piece of metal, preserved at the shipyard since 1911, was tested. The result was almost the same.

It's hard to believe, but the Titanic's hull did not meet regulatory requirements.. It was made from a material high in sulfur compounds. The latter gave the steel structure high fragility, which, in combination with ice water, made it very fragile.

If the hull were made of steel that met all standards and requirements, then after contact with an iceberg, it would bend, but retain its integrity. In this situation, the ship hit an iceberg on its starboard side - and the impact was of little force, but the fragile hull of the Titanic could not withstand it either. It split along the rivet lines below the waterline. Ice water poured into the resulting holes, which instantly filled the lower compartments and, most likely, caused the explosion of the hot steam boilers.

The huge ship began to rapidly plunge into the waters of the Atlantic. According to eyewitnesses, at first the Titanic sank on an even keel, which indicates that the lower compartments filled with water evenly. Then the bow trim appeared. The stern began to rise upward, reached a vertical position, and the multi-ton colossus very quickly sank to the bottom. Already at great depths, due to high pressure, the Titanic split into two parts, which were pulled along the ocean floor for more than 500 meters.

Who benefited from the sinking of the Titanic?

It turns out that this disaster has nothing to do with the mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean: everything seems to be clear. No, there is no need to rush to conclusions. As already mentioned, there are many versions of the death of the ocean liner, and among them there is not one that can be called the ultimate truth. There are many other assumptions, opinions of very authoritative people who consider the cause of the terrible catastrophe from a completely different angle.

So to this day there is a version that The culprit of the accident was the White Star Line company itself - the owner of the ship. It was its leaders who initially planned the construction of the Titanic with gross violations of all possible norms and rules. The purpose of this grandiose fraud was to obtain huge insurance that could improve the company's precarious financial position and save it from complete collapse.

That is why the ocean liner, despite warnings about icebergs from ships in the same area, was traveling at the maximum possible speed (20.5 miles per hour). The captain of the ship had one task - to provoke a collision of the Titanic with a huge floating ice floe.

Most likely, no one could even imagine such a number of dead people, since according to all calculations it turned out that the ship would sink for a long time. The main focus was on rescue ships, which had to have enough time to get to the scene of the tragedy and have time to save all the passengers and valuables on board. However, unpredictable fate made its own adjustments to the original scenario.

In addition to this rather dubious and unsteady version, there is another. This is a fire in a coal bunker. During long-term storage, the lower layers of coal begin to smolder, releasing explosive gas. The temperature gradually increases, and the concentration of gas vapor increases. In such a situation, an explosion can occur from a normal shock. The collision with the iceberg was the detonator that caused a huge surge of energy that tore apart and destroyed the entire lower part of the ship.

In a word, even today there is no consensus on the causes of the terrible tragedy. Only the remains of a ship resting at great depths can reveal this secret of the Atlantic Ocean. Their scrupulous study by dozens of specialists is possible only under normal earthly conditions. To do this, you need to raise the Titanic from the bottom of a huge reservoir.

Technically this is extremely difficult to achieve. As for the financial side of the issue, the picture is different. Although such work will cost crazy amounts of money, it will more than pay off. After all, we must not forget that there are gold bars worth 10 million pounds sterling on the ship. Jewelry, diamonds, and jewelry of the richest people in the world who sailed on this ship are also kept here. Fragments of the Titanic's hull, the remains of the interior, and dishes will go out of auction with a bang at incredible prices.

If we consider the unfortunate Titanic as a source of material wealth, then he is by no means alone. The bottom of the Atlantic Ocean is the Klondike, Eldorado. Here lies a huge number of ships that are simply filled with precious metals, diamonds, and other valuables that can make anyone who gets their hands rich. This is precisely the whole question: breaking through the thickness of the ocean waters is an impossible task not only for individual adventurers, but also for serious companies and reputable financial structures.

Underwater ship graveyards

At the beginning of the 21st century, there are many companies specializing in the search for sunken ships. The game is worth the candle, since according to experts, at least 80,000 ships from all countries and peoples that have been shipwrecked over the past 400 years rest on the bottom of the Atlantic alone, with valuables worth $600 billion on board.

One of these companies, the American company Odyssey, discovered a Spanish sailing ship in the Canary Islands in 2007. On board there were 500 thousand ancient gold and silver coins. Their total weight reached 17 tons, and the cost was 500 million dollars. This is 100 million dollars more than the wealth that was recovered in 1985 from a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast of Florida in the twenties of the 17th century.

The lion's share of all the valuables that sank to the bottom of the ocean in the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries rested precisely on Spanish ships, which in a continuous caravan carried gold, silver, precious stones and products made from them to Europe from America from the Indian peoples.

In theory, goods obtained in this way cannot be the property of the state. The Spanish government thought differently. At the beginning of the 21st century, it declared 800 Spanish ships that sank in the 16th-18th centuries, carrying illegally acquired utensils, a national treasure. The monetary equivalent of all this wealth is estimated at 130 billion dollars.

Underwater treasures are available to search teams in the coastal areas of the Atlantic Ocean. Here, as a rule, ships sank after hitting shoals or reefs. In the vast expanses of water, where at least 3000 meters lie under the keel, galleons, brigantines, frigates carrying cargo, and then steamships, motor ships, yachts, battleships sank to the bottom, experiencing all the power and force of ocean storms (the height of the waves in the Atlantic often reaches 10-15 meters) or the treachery and cruelty of pirate ships and enemy submarines during the years of hostilities.

The ratio of ships that have sunk in coastal areas and in the open ocean over the past 400 years is 85 to 15. That is, it turns out that the closer to the shore, the more dangerous. Only every seventh ship perished in the vast and majestic expanses of the Atlantic Ocean, the rest of the floating craft sank in the sight of native or foreign shores, which, as they say, were just a stone's throw away.

One of the largest underwater cemeteries is strait of the English Channel . Its length is 560 km, its width in the west is 240 km, in the east 32 km, and the average depth is 63 m. Only in some places the depth exceeds this mark and reaches 170 m. There are many shallows and fogs are frequent. Countless ships rest at the bottom of the strait, especially in its western part.

The waters in the area are not far behind in the number of shipwrecks. Cape Hatteras(North Carolina, USA). Here there is a long narrow spit, the eastern ledge of which is actually the ill-fated cape. This place is characterized by countless shoals, constant storms, fogs, and strong currents. Vessels that dare to approach these shores expose themselves to very real danger - the manifestation of carelessness, frivolity and ignoring the directions almost always leads to tragic consequences.

Perhaps the most intriguing secret of the Atlantic Ocean can be called. Its peaks lie on the southern tip of Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. It is part of the so-called Devil's Triangle, part of which is also the Devil's Triangle, located in the Pacific waters around Miyake Island (Japan).

The excitement around this seemingly unremarkable place arose in the second half of the 20th century. Previously, for hundreds of years, everything seemed to be normal. The ships decorously crossed this expanse of ocean, and the crews on them had no idea what mortal danger they were exposing themselves to.

The year 1950 put an end to such outrageous frivolity. It was then that a short article by Associated Press correspondent Edward Johnson was published. It was not even an article, but a thin brochure published in Florida in a small edition. Its name was “Bermuda Triangle”, and the facts presented in it told about the mysterious disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda area.

It did not attract the attention of the public in any way, but apparently forced the attention of certain people who feed on sensations and bestsellers. However, it took almost 15 years before Vincent Gladdis’s article entitled “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” saw the light of day. It was published in 1964 in a spiritualist magazine. With a short break, a book by the same author, “Invisible Horizons,” was published. In it, a whole chapter was already devoted to the mysterious section of the ocean.

A more detailed, solid and capacious work was presented to readers ten years later. The author of this bestseller, simply and succinctly called “The Bermuda Triangle,” was Charles Berlitz. It provided a lot of data about the mysterious disappearances of ships and aircraft, and also described incomprehensible phenomena associated with changes in the properties of time and space. Reputable publishing houses from different countries reprinted this book, and in a short time, tens of millions of citizens living in different parts of the planet learned about the Bermuda Triangle.

In any business, there will always be corrosive skeptics, whom don’t feed with bread, but let the fly in the ointment spoil the barrel of honey. A blow to such a successfully and dynamically spreading sensation was dealt already in the next 1975 by the American journalist Lawrence David Kusche. This gentleman left no stone unturned from all the arguments and statements of Charles Berlitz on the pages of his book “The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle Solved.”

To the credit of the author, the content of the book is by no means unsubstantiated criticism, which would be based on envy of a more successful and cunning colleague, but a serious study based on a painstaking study of documents and eyewitness accounts. It was on the basis of factual material that many errors, inaccuracies, and sometimes outright hoaxes in the work of Charles Berlitz were identified.

The conclusion of Lawrence David Kusche's book is clear: nothing mysterious, supernatural, or inexplicable happens in the Bermuda Triangle. The statistics of tragedies in this part of the Atlantic Ocean correspond to similar data in any other place of the huge body of water. Mysterious disappearances of material objects are fictitious, and stories about ships abandoned by crews, about lost time, about instantaneous movement in space for hundreds of kilometers are a myth.

Critics of anomalous phenomena are sober-minded people. In order to convince them of something, you need to provide ironclad evidence of this phenomenon. But in everyday life everything is not so simple. What lies beyond the real cannot be explained from the point of view of the laws of physics, mechanics or chemistry. Rather, human imagination and belief in the mysterious and unusual dominate here.

By the way, many paranormal phenomena occurring in the Bermuda Triangle can be interpreted as a direct consequence of ordinary banal processes occurring in the waters of the Atlantic. For example, the mysterious disappearance of sea vessels has a simple explanation related to methane emissions. This gas escapes from gas hydrate deposits on the seabed and saturates the water. The density of the latter drops sharply. A ship caught in such a section of the ocean instantly sinks.

The methane released is not limited to the aquatic environment. It rises into the air and also reduces its density. This can lead to the loss of aircraft, which is almost impossible to explain to people on the ground. We must not forget that the gas dissipates very quickly in both water and air. That is, he is a killer who leaves no traces behind.

Anomalies over time can be explained by increased magnetic field activity in the Bermuda Triangle area. Airplane passengers caught in a cluster of magnetic forces can verify their influence by looking at the hands of their watches that have stopped or slowed down. After some time, the negative factor disappears, the clocks begin to run normally again, but everyone, without exception, is behind by the same number of minutes. This gives rise to the false belief that the plane disappeared into another dimension.

If we talk about ships found in the ocean that did not have a single crew member, then the blame can be laid on the ship, which appears on the water surface under certain conditions. The human brain, heart, and other organs of his body - they all have their own vibration frequency. If some of them coincide with the frequency of infrasound, then the resulting resonance can mercilessly hit people’s psyches, plunge them into horror and panic, force them to jump overboard and die in the water.

All the arguments presented look quite convincing and realistic. But we must not forget that this is not evidence, but only speculation. Supporters of the paranormal version can also present to the public their vision of the problem, which will be no less convincing and will find many adherents.

Where is the truth? Probably, as always, in the middle. A sober look, combined with faith in the unusual and supernatural, will be more productive in solving the mysteries of not only the Bermuda Triangle, but also other mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean, of which there are a great many both on its surface and in the dark depths.

The article was written by ridar-shakin

Based on materials from foreign and Russian publications

The Atlantic Ocean did not appear on our planet right away. Hundreds of millions of years ago, Europe, the Americas, Antarctica and Africa were a single landmass. Over the past 40 million years, a process such as the opening of the ocean basin has taken place on Earth and, accordingly, the land has been divided into the continents that currently exist. This trend continues today.

Whatever they called the Atlantic Ocean in the old days! The ancient Greeks called it “the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules.” Later names such as Atlantic, Sea of Darkness and Western Ocean appeared. The current name for the ocean was given only at the beginning of the 16th century by the cartographer Wald-Semuller.

There is still debate about why the Atlantic Ocean is called the Atlantic Ocean. According to one version, the name was given to it by the ancient sunken continent - Atlantis. Some historians believe that the prototype of the ocean was the titan Atlas, who, according to the ancient Greeks, lived in the far west and held the vault of heaven on his shoulders.

Compared to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean holds an honorable second place in many areas. This is the second largest ocean on the planet, and also in depth. The South Sandwich Trench is considered the most “bottomless” place in the Atlantic, the depth of which from the surface is almost 8500 km. But in terms of salinity, the Atlantic Ocean holds the undisputed lead.

The warm Gulf Stream flows through it, giving a warm and mild climate to European countries that have access to oceanic expanses. For comparison, the amount of heat carried by this current can only be generated by 1,000,000 nuclear power plants combined.

The Atlantic passes through all the earth's climate zones. In addition, this is a kind of border separating two worlds - Old and New.

Atlantis, at one time considered a mythological land, actually existed. And she really went under water in a very short period of time. The cause of the tragedy, which claimed the lives of many people, was a natural disaster. The philosopher Plato believed that the death of Atlantis was sent to her by the gods as punishment for her too vicious lifestyle.

On the territory of the Belize Reef in the Atlantic there is an unusual natural object - a blue hole. It is an underwater cave 120 meters deep. In this place, the boundaries of dark and light waters have a strictly defined contour. And an observer looking at the surface of the ocean from above actually sees a large blue hole.

Today, direct non-stop flights across the Atlantic will not surprise anyone. And at the dawn of aviation, such a flight was associated with great risk and was almost equivalent to a feat. The first to dare to do it was the American Charles Lindbergh in 1927.

The first navigator to risk sailing across the Atlantic Ocean was Columbus.

In the north of the Atlantic there is the giant island of Greenland, which has no equal in size on the planet.

The most distant island on Earth is also located in the Atlantic Ocean. This is Bouvet Island, which is separated from the Cape of Good Hope by 1600 km.

The amount of ocean water in the Atlantic is equal to the amount of ice in Antarctica if that ice were melted.

In the Atlantic Ocean there is a sea that has no coastal boundaries - the Sargasso. Its boundaries are delineated only by ocean currents.

There are many mysteries associated with the Atlantic Ocean. One of them is generated by the so-called Bermuda Triangle - an area in the Bermuda region where many planes and ships have gone missing.

Georges Blond

Great Mysteries of the Oceans: The Atlantic Ocean. Pacific Ocean. Indian Ocean

LLC "Publishing Group "Azbuka-Atticus"", 2016

Publishing house AZBUKA®

Atlantic Ocean

Chapter first

The beginning remains a mystery

The Atlantic Ocean appeared five or six billion years ago. “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate water from water. (...) And God said: let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” The figurative and poetic language of the Book of Genesis, oddly enough, coincides with the modern conclusions of geologists.

Most scientists believe that water, which was an integral part of the planet's original hot matter, was released in the form of steam. The steam returned to the earth in the form of rain, and upon contact with the hot surface, the water evaporated again. The thick layer of clouds that formed thereby blocked the sun's rays, accelerating the cooling of the planet. As soon as the temperature of the earth's crust dropped below 100 °C, rainwater stopped evaporating and oceans began to form.

Today it is impossible to say that one or another water basin was formed earlier or later than another. The relief and boundaries of the oceans changed in different geological eras. This geological history was accompanied by rapid changes - approximately two billion years before the appearance of life on Earth.

It can almost certainly be said that the first people, seeing the restless vastness of water in front of them, filling the surroundings with a furious roar, were frightened as if they had met a ferocious monster. For thousands of years, people have tried to stay away from the ocean. But one day some daredevil decided to ride a fallen tree and moved a little away from the shore. And from that moment the story of adventure began.

The Atlantic Ocean was the first to receive a name in ancient legends and written monuments. Were the Atlanteans the first travelers to its expanses? Did Atlantis, the cradle of a unique ancient civilization, exist? More than five thousand scientific works have been written about Atlantis, but the mystery remains unsolved. Accumulating with more and more new details, it continues to excite minds.

The whole thing is reminiscent of a detective novel set in prehistoric times, but the main lines of intrigue are quite simple. Let's return to Plato's famous Dialogues, which retell the teachings of Socrates. At the end of his life (he died in 348 BC), Plato wrote a dialogue called “Critius” with the subtitle “Or Atlantis”.

Critias, Plato's uncle, was one of Socrates' students. One day he told his teacher a story that he had heard from his grandfather as a child:

“My ancestor heard this story from Solon. When Solon was traveling through Egypt, a priest from Sans, a city in the Nile Delta, told him about people who came from a large island called Atlantis. These people attacked Greece and captured it. But the city of Athens, which led the union of Greek cities, managed to repel the attack of foreigners.

(Solon is a famous Athenian politician and legislator who lived from 640 to 558 BC.)

“As far as I know, neither in Athens nor in the rest of Greece does anyone know about this war,” Solon was surprised.

– Because almost immediately after the victory of the Greeks, an earthquake, accompanied by huge waves, destroyed the Greek army. This catastrophe simultaneously destroyed Atlantis, which was swallowed up by the waters. This happened nine thousand years ago. The catastrophe spared our country, and we can read about the Atlanteans in ancient manuscripts describing the history of Egypt. Atlantis was as vast as a continent - like Libya (modern North Africa) and Asia Minor combined. Atlantis was located in the Sea of Total near the passage that you Greeks call the Pillars of Hercules.

The Greeks, Solon's contemporaries, called the current Strait of Gibraltar the Pillars of Hercules. And the Sea Total is the Atlantic Ocean. The Egyptian priest gave other details. The climate of Atlantis was extremely mild, the sky always remained blue, and winter never came. The shores were made up of white, black and red cliffs, plunging towards the sea, since the island was mountainous; surrounded by mountains stretched huge fertile plains.

The capital of Poseidonis, named after the god of the seas and earthquakes Poseidon, was surrounded by walls covered with sparkling copper. Inside there were three more walls, enclosing vast public squares, from which streets and canals branched off. The last wall was covered with orichalcum, a mysterious metal that glittered like gold (perhaps they were talking about bronze?). This wall surrounded the temple of Poseidon, built on the mountain and surpassing all other monuments in its splendor. Inside the temple, against the gilded walls, there were sculptures of ivory and gold, and the most colossal was the statue of Poseidon, who ruled six winged horses. No one, under pain of death, was allowed to enter the temple without the permission of the priests who guarded it day and night.

But the most impressive place in Poseidonis was the port.

Atlantis, a great maritime power, had trading colonies along the entire coast of North Africa, as well as on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea. There were port cities there, but the port of Poseidonis surpassed all others in size. Sea ships could enter it. The inlet channel and port were “full of ships carrying goods from all over the world. The port was crowded day and night, there was a hum of voices and life never stopped.”

Plato, referring to the stories of Critias, described the political structure of Atlantis in his Dialogues. It was a theocracy. For a long time, management was wise. But power turned into proud vanity, and the gods cruelly punished the Atlanteans. Horrific floods and earthquakes destroyed cities and monuments in one day, killing thousands of people. And on the last “night of horror” those who survived went with their island into the abyss of the ocean.

Critias remained unfinished. Death overtook Plato before he could explain the reasons that prompted him to describe Atlantis in such detail.

Not all ancient Greek commentators agreed to accept Plato's story as plausible. This is what Aristotle wrote: “The author’s cunning plan was to present ancient Athens, which defeated the Atlanteans, as a city with an ideal political system!” Others believed that it was impossible to question the words of such outstanding and respectable people as Plato and Socrates.

Plutarch believes that Atlantis really existed, but the story about it is distorted and embellished by three generations of storytellers. In addition, we must take into account the poetic imagination of Solon, who was not only a scholar-legislator, but also a poet who planned to turn the history of Atlantis into an epic narrative in the spirit of the Iliad.

Most modern supporters of the existence of Atlantis (led by Colonel A. Bragin) are inclined to think that the Azores, Canary Islands and Madeira Island are the remnants of a disappeared continent. The location of these islands coincides with the geographical data in Plato's text: in the Atlantic Ocean, after the passage of the Pillars of Hercules. The climate is mild and even, there is no winter, the soil of the islands is volcanic, black and red. There are also white sandstone cliffs, hot and cold springs, like in the legendary Atlantis.