The Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americas from being discovered by the people of Europe.

It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) wide. This narrowest place is between the bulge of south America and the bulge of Africa.

Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands. Also, it is the world's saltiest ocean.

There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2 km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This "deep" measures 30,246 feet-almost six miles (9.6 km).

One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises from the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands. The Azores are the tops of peaks in the mid-Atlantic mountain range.

Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels the crew were afraid they would be becalmed here. Sometimes they were.

Ocean currents are sometimes called "rivers in the sea." One of these "rivers" in the Atlantic is called the Gulf Stream. It is a current of warm water. Another is at he Labrador Current - cold water coming down from the Arctic. Ocean currents affect the climates of the lands near which they flow.

The Atlantic furnishes much food for the people on its shores. One of its most famous fishing regions, the Grand Banks, is near New-foundland.

Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.

We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!

大西洋

大西洋是把亞、歐、非這個舊世界與南北美洲這個新發(fā)現(xiàn)的世界相隔開的一片大灃。若干世紀以來由于有大西洋相隔，使歐洲人一直沒能發(fā)現(xiàn)南北美洲。

在哥倫布橫渡大西洋的地方，洋面寬達4000多英里（6000公里）。即使在洋面最窄的地方寬度也約有2000英里（3200公里）。這洋面最窄的地方就是介于南美洲的突出點和非洲的突出點之間。

有兩點使大西洋非同一般。一是，這么大的一片汪洋，里面幾乎沒有島嶼。二是，這里是世界上海水最咸的大洋。

大西洋里有很多很多的海水，以致很難讓人想像出來到底有多少海水。倡假如現(xiàn)在就不再有雨水落進大西洋，假如一切河流的水現(xiàn)在也都不往大西洋里面流，那么大西洋大約再過4000年就會干涸。大西洋平均水深稍微超過兩英里（合3.2公里），不過有些地方卻更深得多，最深的地方是在波多黎各附近。這里水深達30246英尺--，幾乎是6英里（9.6公里）。

世界上最長的山脈之一就是從大西洋的洋底升起來的。這條山脈在大洋中間，是南北走向的。山脈的幾處頂峰向上突出了海平面就形成了島嶼。亞速爾群島就是中部大西洋山脈的幾座山峰的尖端。

從佛羅里達半島往東幾百英里，大洋的那一小部分水域被稱為馬尾藻海。這里海面平靜，因為幾乎沒有風(fēng)。在使用帆船的那些年代里，船員們都害怕船走到那里就會原地不能動了。有時也真的是這樣。

大洋里的海水流動有時被稱為"海洋中的洋流"。大西洋中這些潮流之一稱為墨西哥灣流。這是一股暖水流。另一股是拉布拉多灣流--從北冰洋下來的一股寒水流。這些海洋潮流影響著所流經(jīng)過的附近的陸地的氣候。

大西洋為岸邊的居民提供了豐富的食物。可是，它并不總是平穩(wěn)安全的航道。暴風(fēng)雨會橫掃過大西洋向上掀起層層巨浪。像冰山一樣巨型浮冰塊會從北冰洋向南漂浮下來橫著阻擋住海船的條條航道。

現(xiàn)在我們有很多非常快速的方法到國外旅行，以致這個大西洋使我們覺得比以前小多了。哥倫布用了兩個多月才橫渡了大西洋。現(xiàn)在用現(xiàn)代的快輪用不了四天就能完成這段航程。飛機從紐約飛到倫敦只用八個小時，而從南美洲飛到非洲只用四個小時就行了。