The organic world, natural resources and ecological problems of the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Ocean Mineral Resources

The Atlantic Ocean provides 2/5 of the world's catch, and its share decreases over the years. In subantarctic and Antarctic waters, notothenia, blue whiting and others are of commercial importance, in the tropical zone - mackerel, tuna, sardine, in areas of cold currents - anchovies, in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere - herring, cod, haddock, halibut, sea bass. In the 1970s, due to overfishing of some fish species, the volume of fishery decreased sharply, but after the introduction of strict limits, fish stocks are gradually recovering. In the Atlantic Ocean basin, several international conventions on fisheries are in force, aiming at the efficient and rational use of biological resources, based on the application of scientifically based measures to regulate fishing. The shelves of the Atlantic Ocean are rich in oil and other minerals. Thousands of wells have been drilled offshore the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. Phosphorite deposits have been discovered in the area of ​​uplift of deep waters off the coast of North Africa in tropical latitudes. Placer deposits of tin near the shores of Great Britain and Florida, as well as diamonds off the coast of South-West Africa, have been identified on the shelf in the sediments of ancient and modern rivers. Ferromanganese nodules are found in bottom basins off the coasts of Florida and Newfoundland.
In connection with 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. Water and air are polluted, conditions for recreation on the shores of the ocean and its seas have worsened. For example, the North Sea is covered with many kilometers of oil spills. Off the coast of North America, the oil slick 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. Physical and geographical regionalization of the Atlantic Ocean. At the level of physical and geographical zones, the following subdivisions are distinguished: 1. Northern subpolar belt (northwestern part of the ocean, adjacent to Labrador and Greenland). Despite the low temperatures of water and air, these areas are distinguished by high productivity and have always been of great commercial importance. 2. Northern temperate belt (extends far beyond the Arctic Circle into the Arctic Ocean). The coastal areas of this belt have a particularly rich organic world and have long been famous for the productivity of fishing regions. Northern subtropical belt (narrow). It is allocated, first of all, by the increased salinity and high water temperature. Life here is much poorer than in higher latitudes. The commercial value is not great, except for the Mediterranean (the pearl of the entire belt =) 4. Northern tropical belt. It is characterized by a rich organic world within the nerite zone of the Caribbean Sea and very rarefied within the open water area. Equatorial belt. It is distinguished by the constancy of temperature conditions, the abundance of atmospheric 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! (in the north it is absent), are distinguished by the greatest severity of natural conditions, ice coverage and are much less populated.

125. Geographical position, size, boundaries, configuration of the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Ocean - greatest ocean of the earth. It accounts for about half (49%) of the area and more than half (53%) of the water volume of the World Ocean, and the 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 the total area (more than 3.5 million km 2) of islands, it ranks first among the rest of the Earth's oceans. Pacific Northwest and West 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 the northern coast of Antarctica. When the Southern (Antarctic) Ocean is distinguished, 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 ones. 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. Borders with other oceans south of Australia and South America are also conventionally drawn along the water surface: with the Indian Ocean - from Cape South East Point at about 147 ° E, with the Atlantic Ocean - from Cape Horn to the Antarctic Peninsula. In addition to a wide connection with other oceans in the south, there is a communication between the Pacific and the northern part of the Indian Ocean through the inter-island seas and straits of the Sunda archipelago. North 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 shores of Eastern Australia, southern North America and especially South America are usually straight and difficult to access 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 a 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 accumulations of volcanic and coral islands.

The organic world of the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean has much in common (Fig. 37). Life in the Atlantic Ocean is also zonal and concentrated mainly off the coast of continents and in surface waters.

The Atlantic Ocean is poorer than the Pacific biological resources... This is due to its relative youth. Still, the ocean provides 20% of the world's fish and seafood catch. This is primarily herring, cod, sea ​​bass, hake, tuna.

In temperate and polar latitudes, there are many whales, in particular sperm whales and killer whales. Characterized by sea crayfish - lobster, lobsters.

The economic development of the ocean is also associated with mineral resources(fig. 38). Most of them are mined offshore. More than 100 oil and gas fields have been discovered in the North Sea alone, hundreds of boreholes have been built, oil and gas pipelines have been laid along the bottom. Over 3,000 special platforms, from which oil and gas are produced, operate on the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. In the coastal waters of Canada, Great Britain, coal is mined, and diamonds are mined off the southwestern coast of Africa. For a long time, table salt has been mined from sea water.

Recently, not only on the shelf, but also at considerable depths of the Atlantic Ocean, huge reserves of oil and natural gas have been discovered. The coastal zones of Africa, in particular, turned out to be rich in fuel resources. Other areas of the Atlantic seabed are also extremely rich in oil and gas - off the northeastern shores of North America, not far from the eastern shores 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, including the Ukrainian one - Odessa. Material from the sitehttp: //worldofschool.ru

The active economic activity of man in the Atlantic Ocean basin has caused a significant pollution his waters... It is especially noticeable in some seas of the Atlantic Ocean. For example, the Mediterranean Sea is often referred to as a "gutter" because industrial waste is dumped here. A large amount of pollutants also comes from the river runoff. In addition, about a hundred thousand tons of oil and oil products get into its waters every year as a result of accidents and for other reasons.

Some areas of the Atlantic shelf are rich in coal. The largest undersea coal mining is carried out by Great Britain. The largest exploited North Tumberland-Derham field with reserves of about 550 million tons is located on the north-east coast of England. Explored coal deposits 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 the leading producer of ilmenite, rutile and zircon concentrates (placers of these metals are almost ubiquitous on the shelf of North America - from California to Alaska). Placers of cassiterite off the coast of Australia, off the Cornwall Peninsula (Great Britain), and Brittany (France) are of considerable interest. The largest accumulations of ferruginous sands in terms of reserves are located in Canada. Ferruginous sands are also mined in New Zealand. Placer gold in coastal marine sediments has been found on the western shores of the United States and Canada.

The main deposits of coastal-marine diamond-bearing sands are concentrated on the southwestern coast of Africa, where they are confined to the deposits of terraces, beaches and shelf to depths of 120 m. Significant marine terraced diamond deposits are located in Namibia. African coastal-sea placers are promising. Underwater iron ore deposits are located in the coastal shelf zone. The most significant development of offshore iron ore deposits is in Canada, on the east coast of Newfoundland (Wabana deposit). In addition, Canada extracts iron ore in the Hudson Bay.

Fig. 1. Atlantic Ocean

Copper and nickel are mined in small quantities from underwater mines (Canada - in the Hudson Bay). Tin is mined on the Cornwall Peninsula (England). In Turkey, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, mercury ores are being mined. Sweden extracts iron, copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver in the bowels of the Gulf of Bothnia. Large salt sedimentary basins in the form of salt domes or stratal 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, gypsum. Calculation of these reserves is difficult: the volume of potash 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 sulfur accumulation, Grand Isle, is in operation, located 10 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Commercial 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 average concentration is 75 kg / m3.

A large number of offshore oil and gas fields have been identified in the Atlantic Ocean and its seas, including those with one of the highest production levels for these fuels in the world. They are located in different areas of the ocean shelf zone. In its western part, the bowels of the Maracaibo lagoon are distinguished by very large reserves and production volumes. Oil is extracted here from more than 4500 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 at present only a small part of the potential oil and gas reserves has been discovered in it. 14,500 wells were drilled at the bottom of the bay. In 2011, 60 million tons of oil and 120 billion cubic meters of gas were produced from 270 offshore fields, and in total 590 million tons of oil and 679 billion cubic meters of gas were extracted here during the development period. The most significant of these are located off the coast of the Paraguano Peninsula, in the Gulf of Paria and off the island of Trinidad. Oil reserves here are estimated at tens of millions of tons.

In addition to these regions, three large oil and gas provinces can be traced in the western Atlantic. One of them stretches from the Davis Strait to the latitude of New York. Within its limits, commercial oil reserves have been discovered so far near Labrador and south of Newfoundland. The second oil and gas province stretches along the coast of Brazil from Cape Kalkanyar 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 São 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 east coast of the Atlantic, oil shows were found south of Scotland and Ireland, off the coast of Portugal, in the Bay of Biscay. A large oil and gas region is located near the African continent. About 8 million tons are produced by the oil fields concentrated near Angola.

Very significant resources of oil and gas are concentrated in the bowels of some seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Among them, the most important place is occupied by the North Sea, which has no equal in terms of the rate of development of subsea oil and gas fields. Significant subsea deposits of oil and gas 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. The gas is being developed in the Gulf of Sidra (Bol. Sirte, Libya), off the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea. In the future, the bowels of the Mediterranean should yield at least 20 million tons of oil per year.

The organic world of the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean has much in common (Fig. 37). Life in the Atlantic Ocean is also zonal and concentrated mainly off the coast of continents and in surface waters.

The Atlantic Ocean is poorer than the Pacific biological resources... This is due to its relative youth. Still, the ocean provides 20% of the world's fish and seafood catch. This is primarily herring, cod, sea ​​bass, hake, tuna.

In temperate and polar latitudes, there are many whales, in particular sperm whales and killer whales. Characterized by sea crayfish - lobster, lobsters.

The economic development of the ocean is also associated with mineral resources(fig. 38). Most of them are mined offshore. More than 100 oil and gas fields have been discovered in the North Sea alone, hundreds of boreholes have been built, oil and gas pipelines have been laid along the bottom. More than 3000 special platforms, from which oil and gas are produced, operate on the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. In the coastal waters of Canada, Great Britain, coal is mined, and diamonds are mined off the southwestern coast of Africa. For a long time, table salt has been mined from sea water.

Recently, not only on the shelf, but also in significant depths of the Atlantic Ocean, huge reserves of oil and natural gas have been discovered. The coastal zones of Africa, in particular, turned out to be rich in fuel resources. Other areas of the Atlantic seabed are also extremely rich in oil and gas - off the northeastern shores of North America, not far from the eastern shores 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, including the Ukrainian one - Odessa. Material from the site

The active economic activity of man in the Atlantic Ocean basin has caused a significant pollution his waters... It is especially noticeable in some seas of the Atlantic Ocean. For example, the Mediterranean Sea is often called a "gutter" because industrial enterprises dump their waste here. A large amount of pollutants also comes from the river runoff. In addition, about a hundred thousand tons of oil and oil products get into its waters every year as a result of accidents and for other reasons.

Oil dilutes the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. This happens from time to time. In 1980, due to the disruption of oil production, 0.5 million tons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, and the oil slick stretched for 640 km. In 1997, as a result of a collision of two ships in the Caribbean Sea, 287 thousand tons of oil got into the water.

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Coastal marine placers rich in ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monocyte are represented by large deposits on the coasts of Brazil and the Florida Peninsula (USA). On a smaller scale, minerals of this type are concentrated off the coast of Argentina, Uruguay, Denmark, Spain, Portugal. Tin-bearing and ferruginous sands are found on the Atlantic coast of North America and Europe, and coastal-sea placers of diamonds, gold, platinum - off the coast of South-West Africa (Angola, Namibia, South Africa). On the shelf of the Atlantic coast of North and South America and Africa (Blake Plateau, Morocco, Liberia, etc.), phosphorite formations and phosphate sands were found (the extraction of which is still unprofitable due to the lower quality compared to land phosphorites). Vast fields of ferromanganese nodules are found in the northwestern part of the ocean, in the North American Basin and on the Blake Plateau. The total reserves of ferromanganese nodules in the Atlantic Ocean are estimated at 45 billion tons. The level of concentration of non-ferrous metals in them (with a low content of manganese) is close to the ore-bearing rocks of the land. A large number of offshore oil and gas fields have been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean and its seas, which are being intensively developed. The richest offshore oil and gas regions in the world include the Gulf of Mexico, the Maracaibo Lagoon, the North Sea, the Gulf of Guinea, which are being intensively developed. Three large oil and gas provinces have been identified in the Western Atlantic: 1) from the Davis Strait to the latitude of New York (commercial reserves near Labrador and south of Newfoundland); 2) on the Brazilian shelf from Cape Kalkanyar to Rio de Janeiro (more than 25 fields have been discovered); 3) in the coastal waters of Argentina from the Gulf of São Jorge to the Strait of Magellan. According to estimates, promising oil and gas areas account for about 1/4 of the ocean area, and the total potential recoverable oil and gas resources are estimated at more than 80 billion tons. Some areas of the Atlantic shelf are rich in coal (Great Britain, Canada), iron ore (Canada, Finland) ...

24. Transport system and ports of the Atlantic Ocean.

Leading place among other sea basins in the world. The world's largest oil cargo traffic from the Persian Gulf countries splits into two branches on the way to the Atlantic: one goes around Africa from the south and goes to Western Europe, North and South America, and the other - through the Suez. Oil from North African countries to Europe and, partially, to North America, from the Gulf of Guinea countries to the USA and Brazil. From Mexico and Venezuela to the United States through the Caribbean, and from Alaska through the Panama Canal to ports on the Atlantic coast. Liquefied gas from North African countries (Algeria, Libya) to Western Europe and the USA. In dry bulk shipments - iron ore (from Brazilian and Venezuelan ports to Europe), grain (from the USA, Canada, Argentina - to European ports), phosphorites (from the USA (Florida), Morocco - Western Europe), bauxite and alumina (from Jamaica, Suriname and Guyana in the US), manganese (from Brazil, West and South Africa), chrome ore (from South Africa and the Mediterranean), zinc and nickel ore (from Canada), timber (from Canada, Scandinavian countries and northern ports Russia to Western Europe). General cargo, which is 2/3 transported by liner vessels. Versatile ports with a high level of mechanization. Western Europe-1/2 cargo turnover. English Channel to the Keele Canal, the east coast of Great Britain, Mediterranean port complexes along the coast of the Gulf of Lyon and the Ligurian Sea. USA from the Gulf of Maine to the Chesapeake Bay: New York - New Jersey, Ameriport and Hampton Rhodes. The Gulf of Mexico, where there are three main port-industrial complexes (New Orleans and Baton Rouge; Galveston Bay and the Houston Canal; the ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange connected to the Gulf of Mexico by canals through Lake Sabin). oil (Amuay, Cartagena, Tobruk) and chemical (Arzev, Alexandria, Abidjan) factories, al (Belen, San Luis, Puerto Madryn), metallurgy (Tubaran, Maracaibo, Varrizh), cement (Freeport) industries. the southeastern coast of Brazil (Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Victoria) and the Bay of La Plata (Buenos Aires, Rosario, Santa Fe). (Port Harcourt, Lagos, Niger Delta). North African ports are wide open to the sea, and their versatility requires significant costs to modernize the port facilities (Algeria, Tripoli, Casablanca, Alexandria and Tunisia). On a number of Caribbean islands (Bahamas, Cayman, Virgin Islands), the deepest transshipment terminals in this part of the ocean for large tankers (400-600 thousand DWT) have been built.