Charles Pefley age 12, of Spokane Washington, for his question:

How deep is the Atlantic Ocean?

The Atlantic is the worlds second largest ocean. It covers an area of about 31,830,800 square miles, which makes it big enough to swallow the Americas twice over. If it had one million square miles more it would be half as big as the vast Pacific.

The floors of the oceans are far from smooth and flat. There are hills and dales, deep valleys and massive mountain ranges. A map of the sea bed is all higgledy piggledy like a map of the dry land. Hence the Atlantic is deeper in some places than in others.

We cane however, form a rough estimate of the average depth. The average depth of the Atlantic is said to be 12,800 feet ‑over two miles. But we know of a few spots far deeper than this. Off Puerto Rico is a deep trench in the floor of the Atlantic. One part of this trench is over 30,000 feet below the surface of the sea. Here the Atlantic is over five miles deep.