Climate The climate of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent land areas is influenced by the temperatures of the surface waters and water currents as well as the winds blowing across the waters. Because of the oceans' great capacity for retaining heat, maritime climates are moderate and free of extreme seasonal variations. Precipitation can be approximated from coastal weather data and air temperature from the water temperatures. The oceans are the major source of the atmospheric moisture that is obtained through evaporation. The coldest zones are in the high latitudes, with the coldest regions corresponding to the areas covered by sea ice.
Ocean currents contribute to climatic control by transporting warm and cold waters to other regions.
Adjacent land areas are affected by the winds that are cooled or warmed when blowing over these currents. In general winds tend to transport moisture and warm or cool air over land areas. Hurricanes develop in the southwestern North Atlantic Ocean. Economy The Atlantic Ocean appears to be the youngest of the world's oceans. Evidence indicates that it did not exist prior to 100 million years ago, when the continents that formed from the breakup of the ancestral supercontinent, Pangaea, were being rafted apart by the process of seafloor spreading.