Kevin Haworth, age 9, of Superior, Wisconsin, for his question:

What does the word Atlantic mean?

Nowadays the word "Atlantic" means anything to do with the great Atlantic Ocean. But the history of the word goes back thousands of years. Its story includes an impossible giant and a mighty mountain, an inland sea and a mysterious island. It started as Atlas, a giant who was believed to hold the whole world on his mighty shoulders. They named Mount Atlas for him and the Atlas Mountains still stand in the Middle Eastern country of Lybia.

In olden days, the people of Egypt and Greece sailed around the smallish sea that lies between Europe and Africa. They named it the Atlantic, in honor of mighty Mount Atlas. They also changed the word Atlas to name the strange island of Atlantis. Much later they sailed westward, through Gibralta and found a great ocean. The ocean was called the Atlantic and the name of the smallish inland sea became the Mediterranean.