The Atlantic Ocean provides 2/5 of the world's catch and its share has been decreasing over the years. In subantarctic and Antarctic waters, notothenia, whiting and others are of commercial importance, in the tropical zone - mackerel, tuna, sardine, in areas of cold currents - anchovies, in temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere - herring, cod, haddock, halibut, sea bass. In the 1970s, due to overfishing of some fish species, fishing volumes declined sharply, but after the introduction of strict limits, fish stocks are gradually recovering. There are several international fisheries conventions in force in the Atlantic Ocean basin, which aim at the effective and rational use of biological resources, based on the application of scientifically based measures to regulate fishing. The Atlantic Ocean shelves are rich in oil and other mineral deposits. Thousands of wells have been drilled offshore the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. Phosphorite deposits were discovered in the area of rising deep waters off the coast of North Africa in tropical latitudes. Placer deposits of tin off the coast of Great Britain and Florida, as well as diamond deposits off the coast of South-West Africa, have been identified on the shelf in sediments of ancient and modern rivers. Ferromanganese nodules were found in bottom basins off the coasts of Florida and Newfoundland.
Due to the growth of cities, the development of shipping in many seas and in the ocean itself, a deterioration in natural conditions has recently been observed. The waters and air are polluted, and conditions for recreation on the shores of the ocean and its seas have deteriorated. For example, the North Sea is covered with many kilometers of oil slicks. Off the coast of North America, the oil film is hundreds of kilometers wide. The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most polluted on Earth. The Atlantic is no longer able to clean itself of waste on its own.
124.Physico-geographical zoning of the Atlantic Ocean. At the level of physical-geographical zones, the following divisions are distinguished: 1. Northern subpolar belt (northwest part of the ocean adjacent to Labrador and Greenland). Despite the low water and air temperatures, these areas are distinguished by their high productivity and have always had important commercial importance.2. Northern temperate zone (extends far beyond the Arctic Circle into the Arctic Ocean). The coastal regions of this belt have a particularly rich organic world and have long been famous for the productivity of fishing regions.3. Northern subtropical zone (narrow). It stands out primarily for its high salinity and high water temperature. Life here is much poorer than in higher latitudes. The commercial significance is small, except for the Mediterranean (the pearl of the entire belt =)4. Northern tropical zone. It is characterized by a rich organic world within the neritic zone of the Caribbean Sea and very sparse within the open water area.5. Equatorial belt. It is distinguished by the constancy of temperature conditions, the abundance of precipitation and the general richness of the organic world.6. The southern tropical, subtropical and temperate zones, generally similar to those of the same name in the northern hemisphere, only the boundaries of the southern tropical and southern subtropical pass in the western part of approx. to the south (the influence of the Brazilian Current), and in the east - to the north (the influence of the cold Benguela Current).7. Southern subpolar – important commercial value.8. South polar! (it is absent in the north), are distinguished by the most severe natural conditions, ice cover and are significantly less populated.
125.Geographical location, size, boundaries, configuration of the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Ocean - greatest Earth's ocean. It accounts for about half (49%) of the area and more than half (53%) of the volume of the waters of the World Ocean, and its surface area is equal to almost a third of the entire surface of the Earth as a whole. In terms of the number (about 10 thousand) and total area (more than 3.5 million km 2) of islands, it ranks first among the other oceans of the Earth. In the northwest and west the Pacific Ocean limited the shores of Eurasia and Australia, in the northeast and east - the shores of North and South America. The border with the Arctic Ocean is drawn through the Bering Strait along the Arctic Circle. The southern border of the Pacific Ocean (as well as the Atlantic and Indian) is considered to be the northern coast of Antarctica. When distinguishing the Southern (Antarctic) Ocean, its northern boundary is drawn along the waters of the World Ocean, depending on the change in the regime of surface waters from temperate latitudes to Antarctic latitudes. Square The Pacific Ocean from the Bering Strait to the shores of Antarctica is 178 million km 2, the volume of water is 710 million km 3. The boundaries with other oceans south of Australia and South America are also drawn conditionally along the water surface: with the Indian Ocean - from Cape South East Point at approximately 147° E, with the Atlantic Ocean - from Cape Horn to the Antarctic Peninsula. In addition to wide connections with other oceans in the south, there is communication between the Pacific and northern Indian Oceans through the interisland seas and the straits of the Sunda archipelago. Northern and western (Eurasian) shores of the Pacific Ocean dismembered seas (there are more than 20 of them), bays and straits separating large peninsulas, islands and entire archipelagos of continental and volcanic origin. The coasts of Eastern Australia, southern North America, and especially South America are generally straightforward and inaccessible from the ocean. With a huge surface area and linear dimensions (more than 19 thousand km from west to east and about 16 thousand km from north to south), the Pacific Ocean is characterized by weak development of the continental margins (only 10% of the bottom area) and a relatively small number of shelf seas. Within the intertropical space, the Pacific Ocean is characterized by clusters of volcanic and coral islands.
Some areas of the Atlantic shelf are rich in coal. The largest underwater coal mining is carried out by Great Britain. The largest exploited Nor Tumberland-Derham field with reserves of about 550 million tons is located on the north-east coast of England. Coal deposits have been explored in the shelf zone northeast of Cape Breton Island. However, in the economy, underwater coal is of less importance than offshore oil and gas fields. The main supplier of monazite to the world market is Brazil. The USA is also a leading producer of concentrates of ilmenite, rutile and zircon (placers of these metals are almost universally distributed on the North American shelf - from California to Alaska). Of significant interest are the cassiterite placers off the coast of Australia, off the Cornwall peninsula (Great Britain), and in Brittany (France). The largest accumulations of ferruginous sands in terms of reserves are located in Canada. Ferrous sands are also mined in New Zealand. Placer gold in coastal-marine sediments has been discovered on the western shores of the United States and Canada.
The main deposits of coastal-marine diamondiferous sands are concentrated on the southwestern coast of Africa, where they are confined to deposits of terraces, beaches and shelves to depths of 120 m. Significant marine terrace diamond placers are located in Namibia. African coastal-sea placers are promising. In the coastal zone of the shelf there are underwater deposits of iron ore. The most significant development of offshore iron ore deposits is carried out in Canada, on the east coast of Newfoundland (Wabana deposit). In addition, Canada mines iron ore in Hudson Bay.
Fig.1. Atlantic Ocean
Copper and nickel are extracted in small quantities from underwater mines (Canada - in the Hudson Bay). Tin mining is carried out on the Cornwall peninsula (England). In Turkey, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, mercury ores are mined. Sweden mines iron, copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver in the Gulf of Bothnia. Large salt sedimentary basins in the form of salt domes or strata deposits are often found on the shelf, slope, foot of continents and in deep-sea depressions (Gulf of Mexico, shelves and slopes of Western Africa, Europe). The minerals of these basins are represented by sodium, potassium and magnesite salts, and gypsum. Calculating these reserves is difficult: the volume of potassium salts alone is estimated to range from hundreds of millions of tons to 2 billion tons. There are two salt domes in operation in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.
More than 2 million tons of sulfur are extracted from underwater deposits. The largest accumulation of sulfur, Grand Isle, located 10 miles off the coast of Louisiana, is exploited. Industrial reserves of phosphorites have been found near the Californian and Mexican coasts, along the coastal zones of South Africa, Argentina, and off the coast of New Zealand. Phosphorites are mined in the California region from depths of 80-330 m, where the concentration averages 75 kg/m3.
A large number of offshore oil and gas fields have been identified in the Atlantic Ocean and its seas, including some of the highest levels of production of these fuels in the world. They are located in different areas of the ocean shelf zone. In its western part, the subsoil of the Maracaibo lagoon is distinguished by very large reserves and production volumes. Oil is extracted here from more than 4,500 wells, from which 93 million tons of “black gold” were obtained in 2006. The Gulf of Mexico is considered one of the richest offshore oil and gas regions in the world, believing that only a small portion of potential oil and gas reserves have been identified in it at present. 14,500 wells have been drilled at the bottom of the bay. In 2011, 60 million tons of oil and 120 billion m3 of gas were produced from 270 offshore fields, and in total, 590 million tons of oil and 679 billion m3 of gas were extracted here during development. The most significant of them are located off the coast of the Paraguano Peninsula, in the Gulf of Paria and off the island of Trinidad. Oil reserves here amount to tens of millions of tons.
In addition to the above-mentioned areas, three large oil and gas provinces can be traced in the western Atlantic. One of them stretches from Davis Strait to the latitude of New York. Within its boundaries, industrial oil reserves have so far been identified in Labrador and south of Newfoundland. The second oil and gas province stretches along the coast of Brazil from Cape Calcañar in the north to Rio de Janeiro in the south. 25 deposits have already been discovered here. The third province occupies the coastal areas of Argentina from the Gulf of San Jorge to the Strait of Magellan. Only small deposits have been discovered in it, which are not yet profitable for offshore development.
In the shelf zone of the eastern coast of the Atlantic, oil shows were discovered south of Scotland and Ireland, off the coast of Portugal, in the Bay of Biscay. A large oil and gas bearing area is located near the African continent. About 8 million tons come from oil fields concentrated near Angola.
Very significant oil and gas resources are concentrated in the depths of some seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Among them, the most important place is occupied by the North Sea, which has no equal in the pace of development of underwater oil and gas fields. Significant underwater oil and gas deposits have been explored in the Mediterranean Sea, where 10 oil and 17 offshore gas fields are currently operating. Significant volumes of oil are extracted from fields located off the coasts of Greece and Tunisia. Gas is being developed in the Gulf of Sidra (Bol. Sirte, Libya), off the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea. In the future, the subsoil of the Mediterranean Sea should produce at least 20 million tons of oil per year.
To the question: Resources of the ATLANTIC OCEAN? given by the author Nasopharynx the best answer is Mineral Resources. Among the mineral resources of the Atlantic Ocean, the most important are oil and gas (map to the station. World Ocean). North America has oil and gas shelves in the Labrador Sea, the bays of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, and Georges Bank. Oil reserves on the eastern shelf of Canada are estimated at 2.5 billion tons, gas reserves at 3.3 trillion. m3, on the eastern shelf and continental slope of the USA - up to 0.54 billion tons of oil and 0.39 trillion. m3 of gas. More than 280 fields have been discovered on the southern shelf of the United States, and more than 20 fields off the coast of Mexico (see Gulf of Mexico oil and gas basin). More than 60% of Venezuela's oil is produced in the Maracaibo Lagoon (see Maracaiba oil and gas basin). The deposits of the Gulf of Paria (Trinidad Island) are actively exploited. The total reserves of the Caribbean Sea shelves amount to 13 billion tons of oil and 8.5 trillion. m3 of gas. Oil and gas bearing areas have been identified on the shelves of Brazil (Toduz-yc-Santos Bay) and Argentina (San Xopxe Bay). Oil fields have been discovered in the North (114 fields) and Irish Seas, the Gulf of Guinea (50 on the Nigerian shelf, 37 off Gabon, 3 off Congo, etc.).
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Mineral resources. Among the mineral resources of the Atlantic Ocean, the most important are oil and gas (map to the station. World Ocean). North America has oil and gas shelves in the Labrador Sea, the bays of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, and Georges Bank. Oil reserves on the eastern shelf of Canada are estimated at 2.5 billion tons, gas reserves at 3.3 trillion. m3, on the eastern shelf and continental slope of the USA - up to 0.54 billion tons of oil and 0.39 trillion. m3 of gas. More than 280 fields have been discovered on the southern shelf of the United States, and more than 20 fields off the coast of Mexico (see Gulf of Mexico oil and gas basin). More than 60% of Venezuela's oil is produced in the Maracaibo Lagoon (see Maracaiba oil and gas basin). The deposits of the Gulf of Paria (Trinidad Island) are actively exploited. The total reserves of the Caribbean Sea shelves amount to 13 billion tons of oil and 8.5 trillion. m3 of gas. Oil and gas bearing areas have been identified on the shelves of Brazil (Toduz-yc-Santos Bay) and Argentina (San Xopxe Bay). Oil fields have been discovered in the North (114 fields) and Irish Seas, the Gulf of Guinea (50 on the Nigerian shelf, 37 off Gabon, 3 off Congo, etc.).
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Valentin Bibik Student (193) 1 year ago
Natural resources: oil and gas deposits, fish, marine mammals (pinnipeds and whales), sand and gravel mixtures, placer deposits, ferromanganese nodules, precious stones
Definition: This indicator contains information about natural resources, reserves of minerals, raw materials, energy, fisheries and forest resources.
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Andrey Zelenin Student (140) 1 month ago
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Maxim Surmin Student (197) 3 weeks ago
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The organic world of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has much in common (Fig. 37). Life in the Atlantic Ocean is also distributed zonally and is concentrated mainly along the coasts of continents and in surface waters.
The Atlantic Ocean is poorer than the Pacific Ocean biological resources. This is due to his relative youth. But the ocean still provides 20% of the world's fish and seafood catch. This is first of all herring, cod, sea bass, hake, tuna.
In temperate and polar latitudes there are many whales, in particular sperm whales and killer whales. Characteristic sea crayfish - lobster, lobsters.
Economic development of the ocean is also associated with mineral resources(Fig. 38). A significant part of them is mined on the shelf. In the North Sea alone, more than 100 oil and gas fields have been discovered, hundreds of boreholes have been constructed, and oil and gas pipelines have been laid along the bottom. More than 3,000 special platforms from which oil and gas are produced operate on the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. Coal is mined in the coastal waters of Canada and Great Britain, and diamonds are mined off the southwestern coast of Africa. Table salt has long been extracted from sea water.
Recently, huge reserves of oil and natural gas have been discovered not only on the shelf, but also at considerable depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The coastal zones of Africa, in particular, turned out to be rich in fuel resources. Other areas of the Atlantic floor are also extremely rich in oil and gas - off the northeastern coast of North America, not far from the eastern coast of South America.
The Atlantic Ocean is crossed in different directions by important sea routes. It is no coincidence that the largest ports in the world are located here, among them the Ukrainian one - Odessa. Material from the site http://worldofschool.ru
Active human economic activity in the Atlantic Ocean has caused significant pollution his water. It is especially noticeable in some seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, the Mediterranean Sea is often called a “sewage” because industrial waste is dumped here. A large amount of pollutants also comes with river runoff. In addition, about hundreds of thousands of tons of oil and petroleum products enter its waters every year as a result of accidents and other reasons.
World Ocean, area with seas 91.6 million km 2; average depth 3926 m; water volume 337 million m3. Includes: Mediterranean seas (Baltic, North, Mediterranean, Black, Azov, Caribbean with the Gulf of Mexico), less isolated seas (in the North - Baffin, Labrador; near Antarctica - Scotia, Weddell, Lazarev, Rieser-Larsen), large bays (Guinea , Biscay, Hudson, Above Lawrence). Islands of the Atlantic Ocean: Greenland (2176 thousand km 2), Iceland (103 thousand km 2), (230 thousand km 2), Greater and Lesser Antilles (220 thousand km 2), Ireland (84 thousand km 2), Cape Verde (4 thousand km 2), Faroe (1.4 thousand km 2), Shetland (1.4 thousand km 2), Azores (2.3 thousand km 2), Madeira (797 km 2), Bermuda (53.3 km 2) and others (See map).
Historical sketch. The Atlantic Ocean has been an object of navigation since the 2nd millennium BC. In the 6th century BC. Phoenician ships sailed around Africa. Ancient Greek navigator Pytheas in the 4th century BC. sailed to the North Atlantic. In the 10th century AD Norman navigator Eric the Red explored the coast of Greenland. During the Age of Great Geographical Discovery (15-16 centuries), the Portuguese explored the route to the Indian Ocean along the coast of Africa (Vasco da Gama, 1497-98). The Genoese H. Columbus (1492, 1493-96, 1498-1500, 1502-1504) discovered the islands of the Caribbean Sea and. In these and subsequent voyages, the outlines and nature of the coasts were established for the first time, coastal depths, directions and speeds of currents, and climatic characteristics of the Atlantic Ocean were determined. The first soil samples were obtained by the English scientist J. Ross in the Baffin Sea (1817-1818 and others). Determinations of temperature, transparency and other measurements were carried out by expeditions of Russian navigators Yu. F. Lisyansky and I. F. Krusenstern (1803-06), O. E. Kotzebue (1817-18). In 1820, Antarctica was discovered by the Russian expedition of F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev. Interest in studying the relief and soils of the Atlantic Ocean increased in the mid-19th century due to the need to lay transoceanic telegraph cables. Dozens of vessels measured depths and took soil samples (American vessels "Arctic", "Cyclops"; English - "Lighting", "Porcupine"; German - "Gazelle", "Valdivia", "Gauss"; French - "Travaeur", " Talisman", etc.).
A major role in the study of the Atlantic Ocean was played by the British expedition on the ship "Challenger" (1872-76), based on the materials of which, using other data, the first relief and soils of the World Ocean were compiled. The most important expeditions of the 1st half of the 20th century: German on the Meteor (1925-38), American on the Atlantis (30s), Swedish on the Albatross (1947-48). In the early 50s, a number of countries, primarily and, launched extensive research into the geological structure of the Atlantic Ocean floor using precision echo sounders, the latest geophysical methods, and automatic and controlled underwater vehicles. Extensive work has been carried out by modern expeditions on the ships “Mikhail Lomonosov”, “Vityaz”, “Zarya”, “Sedov”, “Ekvator”, “Ob”, “Akademik Kurchatov”, “Akademik Vernadsky”, “Dmitry Mendeleev”, etc. 1968 Deep-sea drilling began on board the American vessel Glomar Challenger.
Hydrological regime. In the upper thickness of the Atlantic Ocean, 4 large-scale gyres are distinguished: the Northern Cyclonic Gyre (north of 45° north latitude), the anticyclonic gyre of the Northern Hemisphere (45° north latitude - 5° south latitude), the anticyclonic gyre of the Southern Hemisphere (5° south latitude - 45° south latitude), Antarctic circumpolar current of cyclonic rotation (45° south latitude - Antarctica). On the western periphery of the gyres there are narrow but powerful currents (2-6 km/h): Labrador - Northern Cyclonic Gyre; Gulf Stream (the most powerful current in the Atlantic Ocean), Guiana Current - Northern Anticyclonic Gyre; Brazilian - Southern Anticyclonic Gyre. In the central and eastern regions of the ocean, currents are relatively weak, with the exception of the equatorial zone.
Bottom waters are formed when surface waters sink in polar latitudes (their average temperature is 1.6°C). In some places they move at high speeds (up to 1.6 km/h) and are capable of eroding sediments and transporting suspended material, creating underwater valleys and large bottom accumulative landforms. Cold and low-salinity bottom Antarctic waters penetrate along the bottoms of basins in the western regions of the Atlantic Ocean to 42° north latitude. The average surface temperature of the Atlantic Ocean is 16.53°C (the South Atlantic is 6°C colder than the North). The warmest waters with an average temperature of 26.7°C are observed at 5-10° northern latitude (thermal equator). Toward Greenland and Antarctica, the water temperature drops to 0°C. The salinity of the waters of the Atlantic Ocean is 34.0-37.3 0/00, the highest water density is over 1027 kg/m 3 in the northeast and south, decreasing to 1022.5 kg/m 3 towards the equator. Tides are predominantly semidiurnal (maximum 18 m in the Bay of Fundy); in some areas mixed and daily tides of 0.5-2.2 m are observed.
Ice. In the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean, ice forms only in the inland seas of temperate latitudes (the Baltic, North and Azov seas, the Gulf of St. Lawrence); a large amount of ice and icebergs are carried out from the Arctic Ocean (Greenland and Baffin seas). In the South Atlantic Ocean, ice and icebergs form off the coast of Antarctica and in the Weddell Sea.
Relief and geological structure. Within the Atlantic Ocean, there is a powerful mountain system stretching from north to south - the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is an element of the global system of Mid-Ocean Ridges, as well as deep-sea basins and (map). The Mid-Atlantic Ridge extends over 17 thousand km at a latitude of up to 1000 km. Its ridge in many areas is dissected by longitudinal gorges - rift valleys, as well as transverse depressions - transform faults, which break it into separate blocks with a latitudinal displacement relative to the ridge axis. The relief of the ridge, highly dissected in the axial zone, levels out towards the periphery due to the burial of sediments. Shallow-focus epicenters are localized in the axial zone along the ridge crest and in areas. Along the outskirts of the ridge there are deep-sea basins: in the west - Labrador, Newfoundland, North American, Brazilian, Argentine; in the east - European (including Icelandic, Iberian and Irish Trench), North African (including Canary and Cape Verde), Sierra Leone, Guinea, Angolan and Cape. Within the ocean floor, abyssal plains, hill zones, uplifts and seamounts are distinguished (map). Abyssal plains stretch in two intermittent stripes in the continental parts of deep-sea basins. These are the flattest areas of the earth's surface, the primary relief of which is leveled by sediments with a thickness of 3-3.5 km. Closer to the axis of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, at a depth of 5.5-6 km, there are zones of abyssal hills. Oceanic rises are located between the continents and the mid-ocean ridge and separate the basins. The largest uplifts: Bermuda, Rio Grande, Rockall, Sierra Leone, Whale Ridge, Canary, Madeira, Cape Verde, etc.
There are thousands of seamounts known in the Atlantic Ocean; almost all of them are probably volcanic structures. The Atlantic Ocean is characterized by unconformable cutting of the geological structures of the continents by the coastline. The depth of the edge is 100-200 m, in the subpolar regions 200-350 m, the width is from several kilometers to several hundred kilometers. The most extensive shelf areas are off the island of Newfoundland, in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Argentina. The shelf topography is characterized by longitudinal grooves along the outer edge. The continental slope of the Atlantic Ocean has a slope of several degrees, a height of 2-4 km, and is characterized by terrace-like ledges and transverse canyons. Within the sloping plain (continental foot) the “granite” layer of the continental crust is pinched out. The transition zone with a special crustal structure includes the marginal deep-sea trenches: Puerto Rico (maximum depth 8742 m), South Sandwich (8325 m), Cayman (7090 m), Oriente (up to 6795 m), within which they are observed as shallow-focus, and deep-focus earthquakes (map).
The similarity of the contours and geological structure of the continents surrounding the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the increase in the age of the basalt bed, the thickness and age of sediments with distance from the axis of the mid-ocean ridge, served as the basis for explaining the origin of the ocean within the framework of the concept of Mobilism. It is assumed that the North Atlantic formed in the Triassic (200 million years ago) during the separation of North America from North-West Africa, the South - 120-105 million years ago during the separation of Africa and South America. The connection of the basins occurred about 90 million years ago (the youngest age of the bottom - about 60 million years - was found in the Northeast of the southern tip of Greenland). Subsequently, the Atlantic Ocean expanded with constant new formation of the crust due to outpourings and intrusions of basalts in the axial zone of the mid-ocean ridge and its partial subsidence into the mantle in the marginal trenches.
Mineral resources. Among the mineral resources of the Atlantic Ocean, gas is also of great importance (map to the station of the World Ocean). North America has oil and gas reserves in the Labrador Sea, the bays of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, and Georges Bank. Oil reserves on the eastern shelf of Canada are estimated at 2.5 billion tons, gas reserves at 3.3 trillion. m 3, on the eastern shelf and continental slope of the USA - up to 0.54 billion tons of oil and 0.39 trillion. m 3 gas. More than 280 fields have been discovered on the southern shelf of the United States, and more than 20 fields off the coast (see). More than 60% of Venezuela's oil is produced in the Maracaibo Lagoon (see). The deposits of the Gulf of Paria (Trinidad Island) are actively exploited. The total reserves of the Caribbean Sea shelves amount to 13 billion tons of oil and 8.5 trillion. m 3 gas. Oil and gas bearing areas have been identified on the shelves (Toduz-yc-Santos Bay) and (San Xopxe Bay). Oil fields have been discovered in the North (114 fields) and Irish Seas, the Gulf of Guinea (50 on the Nigerian shelf, 37 off Gabon, 3 off Congo, etc.).
The forecast oil reserves on the Mediterranean shelf are estimated at 110-120 billion tons. There are known deposits in the Aegean, Adriatic, Ionian seas, off the coast of Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, etc. Sulfur is mined in the salt dome structures of the Gulf of Mexico. With the help of horizontal underground workings, coal is extracted from coastal mines in the offshore extensions of continental basins - in the UK (up to 10% of national production) and Canada. Off the eastern coast of the island of Newfoundland is the largest iron ore deposit of Waubana (total reserves of about 2 billion tons). Tin deposits are being developed off the coast of Great Britain (Cornwall peninsula). Heavy minerals (,) are mined off the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico. off the coast of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, the Scandinavian and Iberian Peninsulas, Senegal, and South Africa. The shelf of South-West Africa is an area of industrial diamond mining (reserves 12 million). Gold placers have been discovered off the Nova Scotia Peninsula. found on the US shelves, on the Agulhas Bank. The largest fields of ferromanganese nodules in the Atlantic Ocean are located in the North American Basin and on the Blake Plateau near Florida; their extraction is not yet profitable. The main sea routes in the Atlantic Ocean, along which mineral raw materials are transported, mainly developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1960s, the Atlantic Ocean accounted for 69% of all maritime traffic, except for floating vessels; pipelines are used to transport oil and gas from offshore fields to the shore. The Atlantic Ocean is increasingly being polluted by petroleum products, industrial wastewater from enterprises, containing toxic chemicals, radioactive and other substances that harm marine flora and fauna, are concentrated in marine food products, posing a great danger to humanity, which requires taking effective measures to preventing further pollution of the ocean environment.