1. A reference to the world's second largest ocean, which separates Europe and Africa from North and South America; the area includes 82,400,000 sq. km. (31,800,000 sq. mi.): In the novel James was reading there was a horrific Atlantic storm that had been a terrific nightmare for the sailors on the ship.
2. Relating to or bordering the Atlantic Ocean: There are many lovely little towns and villages in France along the Atlantic coast.

A heat transfer from south to north by near-surface waters moving across the equator in the Atlantic Ocean: The Atlantic heat conveyor is a movement that is necessary to stabalize a southward flow of water in the deepness of the ocean, which is slow-moving with a cold and substantial current.

The world's second-largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, but larger than the Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean).

The Kiel Canal (Germany), Oresund (Denmark-Sweden), Bosporus (Turkey), Strait of Gibraltar (Morocco-Spain), and the Saint Lawrence Seaway (Canada-US) are important strategic access waterways.

The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth world ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Atlantic Ocean south of 60 degrees south latitude.

The Atlantic Ocean provides some of the world's most heavily trafficked sea routes between and within the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

Other economic activities include the exploitation of natural resources, such as fishing, dredging of aragonite sands (The Bahamas), and production of crude oil and natural gas (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Sea).