Atlantic Ocean

The atlantic ocean forms a broad s-shape from the Arctic Sea to the north and from Antarctica to the south. North America and South America are to the west; Europe and Africa are to the east. It is about half the size of the Pacific Ocean and slightly larger than the Indian Ocean. It covers 31,800,000 square miles (36,000,000 square kilometers) or 16 percent of the Earth's surface. If marginal seas are included, the coverage is nearly 20 percent. The ocean's principle marginal seas are the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Hudson and Baffin bays to the west; the Arctic, Greenland, and Norwegian seas to the North; the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Black Seas to the east; and the Weddell Sea to ...