What is Atlantic Ocean?
{{Five Oceans|Atlantic Ocean}} [[Image:Clouds over the Atlantic Ocean.jpg|thumb|right|250px|View from [[Nantucket]], [[Massachusetts]]]] The '''Atlantic Ocean''' is the world's second largest [[ocean]]. It covers a total [[area]] of about {{convert|106400000|km2|sqmi|abbr=off}}.<ref name=nos>{{cite web |url=http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/atlantic.html |title=How Big is the Atlantic Ocean? |website=National Ocean Service |publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce |date=May 15, 2014 |access-date=November 29, 2016 |archive-date=December 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202225808/http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/atlantic.html |url-status=live }}</ref> It covers about 20 percent of the [[Earth]]'s surface.<ref name=nos/> It is named after the [[Deity|god]] [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] from [[Greek mythology|Greek past]] == Geologic history == The Atlantic formed when the [[Americas]] moved west from [[Eurasia]] and [[Africa]]. This began sometime in the [[Cretaceous period]], roughly 135 million years ago. It was part of the break-up of the [[supercontinent]] [[Pangaea]].<ref name=brit/> The east coast of [[South America]] is shaped somewhat like the west coast of Africa, and this gave a clue that continents moved over long periods of time ([[continental drift]]). The Atlantic Ocean is still growing now, because of sea-floor spreading from the [[mid-Atlantic Ridge]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Seafloor Spreading |website=National Geographic |date=8 June 2015 |publisher=National Geographic Society |url=http://nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/seafloor-spreading/ |access-date=29 November 2016 |archive-date=21 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161121103125/http://nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/seafloor-spreading/ |url-status=live }}</ref> while the [[Pacific Ocean]] is said to be shrinking because the sea floor is [[Subduction|folding under itself]] or subducting into the mantle. ==Geography== The Atlantic Ocean is bounde