"Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It separates the ""Old World"" from the ""New World"". The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast,"
"the Caucasus), and on to the Black Sea. The Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles conclude the Asian boundary. The Mediterranean Sea to the south separates Europe from Africa. The western boundary is the Atlantic Ocean. Iceland, though on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and nearer to Greenland (North America) than mainland Europe, is generally included in Europe for cultural reasons and because it is over twice as close to mainland Europe than to mainland North America. There is ongoing debate on where the geographical centre of Europe falls. Some geographical texts refer to a Eurasian continent given that Europe"
"Geography of Europe Europe is traditionally defined as one of seven continents. Physiographically, it is the northwestern peninsula of the larger landmass known as Eurasia (or the larger Afro-Eurasia); Asia occupies the eastern bulk of this continuous landmass and all share a common continental shelf. Europe's eastern frontier is delineated by the Ural Mountains in Russia. The southeast boundary with Asia is not universally defined, but the modern definition is generally the Ural River or, less commonly, the Emba River. The boundary continues to the Caspian Sea, the crest of the Caucasus Mountains (or, less commonly, the river Kura in"
"Ocean, located in the deep sea surrounding Madagascar. The boundary between Europe and Asia is unusual among continental boundaries because of its largely mountain-and-river-based characteristics north and east of the Black Sea. The reason is historical, the division of Europe and Asia going back to the early Greek geographers. In the modern sense of the term ""continent"", Eurasia is more readily identifiable as a ""continent"", and Europe has occasionally been described as a subcontinent of Eurasia. The threefold division of the Old World into Europe, Asia and Africa has been in use since the 6th century BC, due to Greek"
"Climate of Europe Western Europe has an Oceanic climate, far southern Europe has a Mediterranean climate, and eastern Europe is classified as having a Continental climate. The climate of western Europe is strongly conditioned by the Gulf Stream, which keeps mild air (for the latitude) over Northwestern Europe in the winter months, especially in Ireland, the UK and coastal Norway. Parts of the central European plains have a hybrid oceanic/continental climate. Four seasons occur in most of Europe away from the Mediterranean. The coastal lowlands near and on the Mediterranean Sea, have more of a wet and dry season pattern,"
"European watershed The main European watershed is the drainage divide (""watershed"") which separates the basins of the rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea from those that feed the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. It stretches from the tip of the Iberian Peninsula at Gibraltar in the southwest to the endorheic basin of the Caspian Sea in Russia in the northeast. The Watershed runs northwards through Spain in the Iberian Peninsula towards the Bay of Biscay along the basins of Guadalquivir, Guadiana, Tagus and Douro in the west to"
"is not surrounded by sea and its southeastern border has always been variously defined for centuries. In terms of shape, Europe is a collection of connected peninsulas and nearby islands. The two largest peninsulas are mainland Europe and Scandinavia to the north, divided from each other by the Baltic Sea. Three smaller peninsulas—Iberia, Italy and the Balkans—emerge from the southern margin of the mainland. The Balkan peninsula is separated from Asia by the Black and Aegean Seas. Italy is separated from the Balkans by the Adriatic Sea, and from Iberia by the Mediterranean Sea, which also separates Europe from Africa."
"overfishing, industrial and agricultural runoff, dredging, and dumping among others — have led to a number of efforts to prevent degradation of the sea while still making use of its economic potential. The North Sea is bounded by the Orkney Islands and east coast of Great Britain to the west and the northern and central European mainland to the east and south, including Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea"
"Denmark bordering to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria to the southeast, Switzerland to the south-southwest, France, Luxembourg and Belgium lie to the west, and the Netherlands to the northwest. It lies mostly between latitudes 47° and 55° N and longitudes 5° and 16° E. Germany is also bordered by the North Sea and, at the north-northeast, by the Baltic Sea. With Switzerland and Austria, Germany also shares a border on the fresh-water Lake Constance, the third largest lake in Central Europe. German territory covers , consisting of of land and of water. It is"
"and ""Southern"" () Seas near the Antarctic. Europe is marked phonetically as ( ""Ōuluóbā"", ""Oulapa""). Europe is surrounded by the ""Greater Western Ocean"" (, ""Dà Xī Yáng"", a body of water formerly located east of Rome and conflated with the Indian Ocean but now appropriately placed in the Atlantic), the Mediterranean (, ""Dìzhōng Hǎi""), and the Black Sea (, ""Tài Hǎi"", ""Great Sea""). North America is marked as """" ( ""Běi Yàmèilìjiā"", ""Pok Amoklika""). The only location is marked phonetically and is unknown: Another two unknown locations are located on an island to America's northeast, possibly the inhabited southwest coast"
"Eurasia Eurasia is a combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia. The term is a portmanteau of its constituent continents (Europe and Asia). Located primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and by Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean to the south. The division between Europe and Asia as two different continents is a historical social construct, with no clear physical separation between them; thus, in some parts of the world, Eurasia is recognized as the"
"that the coastline of the European Union is 66,000 km long, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea. European mountain ranges include the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkan Mountains and Scandinavian Mountains with the tallest mountain in the Union being Mont Blanc. Several overseas territories and dependencies of various member states are also formally part of the EU (for Spain: the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla; for Portugal: the Azores, Madeira; for UK: Gibraltar and British sovereign bases in Cyprus; for France: La Réunion, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Mayotte, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy) while in other cases territories"
"as the mid-19th century. During the Age of Discovery, the Atlantic was also known to English cartographers as the Great Western Ocean. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) defined the limits of the oceans and seas in 1953, but some of these definitions have been revised since then and some are not used by various authorities, institutions, and countries, see for example the CIA World Factbook. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies. The Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea,"
"Alboran Sea The Alboran Sea is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa (Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south). The Strait of Gibraltar, which lies at the west end of the Alboran Sea, connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean. Its average depth is and maximum depth is . The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Alboran Sea as follows: ""On the West."" The Eastern limit of the Strait of Gibraltar: A line joining from tip (Europa Point) of ""Cap Gibraltar"" in Europe"
"Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. To the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe: the Strait of Gibraltar (where it connects with the Mediterranean Sea–one of its marginal seas–and, in turn, the Black Sea, both of which also touch upon Asia) and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean. The 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean. The Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by"
"of western Europe also help drive marine air masses into continental areas, enabling cities such as Dresden, Prague, and Vienna to have maritime climates in spite of being located well inland from the ocean. Oceanic climates in Europe occur mostly in Northwest Europe, from Ireland and Great Britain eastward to central Europe. Most of France (away from the Mediterranean), Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Norway, the north coast of Spain (Basque Country, north of Navarre, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria), the western Azores off the coast of Portugal, the south of Kosovo and southern portions of Sweden, also have oceanic climates."
"tributaries. It is expected that the Danube's upper course will one day disappear entirely in favour of the Rhine (""stream capture""). European watershed The main European watershed is the drainage divide (""watershed"") which separates the basins of the rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea from those that feed the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. It stretches from the tip of the Iberian Peninsula at Gibraltar in the southwest to the endorheic basin of the Caspian Sea in Russia in the northeast. The Watershed runs northwards through Spain in"
"(such as Poland) are not usually considered part of either Northern or Southern Europe. Historically, when Europe was dominated by the Roman Empire, everything not near the Mediterranean region was termed Northern Europe, including southern Germany, all of the Low Countries, and Austria. This meaning is still used today in some contexts, for example, discussions of the Northern Renaissance. Northern Europe consists roughly of the British Isles, Fennoscandia, the peninsula of Jutland, the Baltic plain that lies to the east and the many islands that lie offshore from mainland Northern Europe, Greenland, and the main European continent. The area is"
"Western Europe Western Europe is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic, geopolitical and cultural definitions of the term are outlined. Significant historical events that have shaped the concept of Western Europe include the rise of Rome, the adoption of Greek culture during the Roman Republic, the adoption of Christianity by Roman Emperors, the division of the Latin West and Greek East, the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the reign of Charlemagne, the Viking Invasions, the East-West schism, the Black Death, the Renaissance, the Age of Discovery, the Protestant Reformation as well as the"
"the Celtic Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea complex, and the Barents Sea. The northern plain contains the old geological continent of Baltica, and so may be regarded as the ""main continent"", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in south and west constitute fragments from various other geological continents. The geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary. Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population"
"as temperate in the winter, and tropical in the summer. The climate of Western Europe is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The Mediterranean’s waters are not as deep as the large oceans, allowing it to become a heat store tempering winters along its coastlines. The Gulf Stream is nicknamed ""Europe's central heating"", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. Compared to areas located in the higher middle latitudes, parts of western Europe have mild winters and higher annual"
"taken to be the Urals, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea; to the southeast, including the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence Iceland is generally considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to North America. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus is closest to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is usually considered part of Europe both culturally and politically and is a member state of"
"North Sea The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between the United Kingdom (particularly England and Scotland), Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. An epeiric (or ""shelf"") sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around . The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery. The sea is a popular destination for recreation"
"Northwestern Europe North western Europe, or North west Europe, is a loosely defined region of Europe, overlapping northern and western Europe. The region can be defined both geographically and ethnographically. Geographically, North western Europe usually consists of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Northern Germany, Luxembourg, Northern France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. Finland, Southern Germany, and Switzerland are also often considered part of the grouping. Austria is also sometimes defined as Northwestern Europe, though less frequently. Southern France is not regarded as northwestern, and it is usually geographically and culturally considered part of the Mediterranean region or Southern"
"Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of Earth which lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. The Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, the western portions of Eurasia and Africa, the extreme eastern tip of Siberia (Russia), numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland. In an attempt to define the Western Hemisphere as the parts of the world which are"
"Atlantic during the Second World War in which Nazi Germany's ""Kriegsmarine"" attempted to blockade the United Kingdom using submarines (U-boats) operating in this area. Since almost all shipping to and from the United Kingdom passed through this area, it was an excellent hunting ground and had to be heavily defended. Western Approaches The Western Approaches is an approximately rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying immediately to the west of Ireland and parts of Great Britain. The north and south boundaries are defined by the corresponding extremities of Britain. The coast of the mainland forms the eastern side and the"
"point is in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, and in the south by Africa. It is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, on the southwestern coast of Turkey, is approximately 4,000 km (2,500 miles). The sea's average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km (500 miles). The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara (connected by the Dardanelles to"
"Western Approaches The Western Approaches is an approximately rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying immediately to the west of Ireland and parts of Great Britain. The north and south boundaries are defined by the corresponding extremities of Britain. The coast of the mainland forms the eastern side and the western boundary is the 30 degree meridian, which passes through Iceland. The area is particularly important to the United Kingdom, because many of its larger shipping ports lie within it. The term is most commonly used when discussing naval warfare, notably during the First World War and Battle of the"
"as the ""main continent"", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in south and west constitute fragments from various other geological continents. The geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary. The climate of the European Union is of a temperate, continental nature, with a maritime climate prevailing on the western coasts and a mediterranean climate in the south. The climate is strongly conditioned by the Gulf Stream, which warms the western region to levels unattainable at similar"
"Geography of the North Sea The geography of the North Sea studies coastal and submarine features as well as the people who live on its coasts. It is bounded by the east coasts of England and Scotland to the west and the northern and central European mainland to the east and south, including Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. In the south-west, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively."
"oceanic Europe and Mediterranean Europe normally runs west to east and is related to changes in precipitation patterns and differences to seasonal temperatures. The oceanic climate exists in an arc spreading across the north-western coast of North America from the Alaskan panhandle to northern California, in general the coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest. It includes the western parts of Washington and Oregon, the Alaskan panhandle, western portions of British Columbia, and north-western California. In addition, some east coast areas such as some higher elevations along the southern Appalachian Mountains as well as Block Island, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and"
"Mediterranean Sea as follows: Stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar in the west to the entrances to the Dardanelles and the Suez Canal in the east, the Mediterranean Sea is bounded by the coasts of Europe, Africa and Asia, and is divided into two deep basins: Being nearly landlocked affects conditions in the Mediterranean Sea: for instance, tides are very limited as a result of the narrow connection with the Atlantic Ocean. The Mediterranean is characterised and immediately recognised by its deep blue colour. Evaporation greatly exceeds precipitation and river runoff in the Mediterranean, a fact that is central to"
"142nd meridian east The 142nd meridian east of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, Australasia, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole. The 142nd meridian east is the estimated location of the boundary between Spain and Portugal (as per the Treaty of Zaragoza) signed on 22 April 1529. Consequently, at Possession Island 142°24'E, just before sunset on Wednesday 22 August 1770, Captain Cook declared the coast to be British territory in the name of King George III. The Coast to the"