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in geography, collection of maps or charts. It usually includes data on various features of a country, e.g., its topography, natural resources, climate, and population, as well as its agriculture and main industries. In astronomy, a star atlas is a collection of maps or photographs covering much or all of the celestial sphere and showing the locations of stars and other objects. Although the first known atlas was compiled by the Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2d cent. A.D., its modern form was introduced in 1570 with the publication of Theatrum orbis terrarum by the Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius. In 1595 his close friend Gerardus Mercator published Atlas sive cosmographicae. Its frontispiece was a figure of the titan Atlas holding a globe on his shoulders. The name Atlas subsequently came to be applied to volumes of maps and information in this format.


(ăt`ləs), in Greek mythology, a TitanTitan,
in Greek religion and mythology, one of 12 primeval deities. The female Titan is also called Titaness. The Titans—six sons and six daughters—were the children of Uranus and Gaea.
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; son of Iapetus and Clymene and the brother of Prometheus. When the Titans were defeated, Atlas was condemned to hold the sky on his shoulders for all eternity—a mythical explanation of why the sky does not fall. Hercules shouldered the burden in exchange for Atlas fetching him the apples of the Hesperides. He is identified with the Atlas mountains in NW Africa. He was the father of Calliope and the Pleiades.


in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of SaturnSaturn,

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. Also known as Saturn XV (or S15), Atlas is a small, irregularly shaped (nonspherical) body measuring about 25 mi (40 km) by 12.5 mi (20 km); it orbits Saturn at a mean distance of 85,544 mi (137,670 km), and has an orbital period of 0.6019 earth days—the rotational period is unknown but is assumed to be the same as the orbital period. Atlas was discovered by Richard J. Terrile in 1980 from photographs taken by Voyager 1 during its flyby of Saturn. Atlas is probably a shepherd satellite (a moon that limits the extent of a planetary ring through gravitational forces) of Saturn's A ring.


1. A small satellite of Saturn, discovered in 1980. It is the shepherd satellite for Saturn's A ring. See Saturn's rings; Table 2, backmatter.
2. See Pleiades.
Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006


A figure of a man used in place of a column to support an entablature; also called Atlantes and Telemon.


(pop culture)
Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, the first anime (Japanese animation) hero to appear on American television in 1963, has had quite the rogues' gallery of villains. Despite going up against dozens of villains, the cute little boy robot found Atlas a particularly troublesome foe. The super-robot first appeared in Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom (the original Japanese title for Astro Boy) manga in March 1956 during Astro's serialization in Shonen magazine. A tall, barrel-chested robot with super-strength and the ability to fly, Atlas was created by the scientist Dr. Ran to take revenge on the human race. Atlas was fitted with the “Omega Factor,” a device that gave him the ability to be evil. His attempt to destroy a village with a lava flow from an erupting volcano was halted by Astro, but Ran sent Atlas out to rob a bank while wearing a false Astro head, thus causing Astro a whole lot of trouble! Atlas would eventually turn on Ran, but he was destroyed following a fierce battle with Astro. Atlas returned in the 1980 Astro Boy series, but with a different look and origin; originally a boy robot like Astro, he used to commit crimes but was destroyed, only to be rebuilt as a tall, bronzed robot, equipped with a robot horse and a “lightning saber.” He also had the Omega Factor, which gave him a conscience, although he was still evil. His companion, the beautiful female robot Livian, was not evil—and even leaked information on Atlas and his plans to Astro. She would discover the truth that Atlas and Astro were created from the same plans, making them essentially brothers. In the 2003 Astro Boy series, Atlas again returned, and in a new form. This time, he was a robot created to replace Daichi, the deceased son of a millionaire. But he became rebellious, and he lacked Astro's ability to feel compassion. He was destroyed during his second confrontation with Astro, but not before saving his father's life.
The Supervillain Book: The Evil Side of Comics and Hollywood © 2006 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.



a mountainous area in northwestern Africa. It stretches east from the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea for nearly 2,000 km, passing through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It constitutes a separate natural region of Africa, with sharply contrasting landscapes because of its mountainous relief, its different exposures and climates, and its location at the juncture of subtropical and tropical geographic belts.

The Atlas attains its greatest elevation in Morocco, in the El Rif, Middle, and High Atlas ranges (Mount Toubkal, 4,165 m, the highest peak of the Atlas). To the west of its highest section, the Moroccan meseta descends by degrees from altitudes of 1,000–800 m. The Tell Atlas extends to the east, along the Mediterranean coast; the Saharan Atlas— elevations 1,200–1,500 m—stretches along the southern outskirts. The Oran-Algiers plain lies between these two ranges at elevations of 1,000–1,200 m. Spurs of the northern and southern ranges divide them into separated hollows with large salt lakes—sebkhas (Chott ech Chergui, for example). In the east, the northern and southern ranges run together and are separated by a band of meridional foothills from the coastal depression of Tunisia.

The northern coastal part of the Atlas constitutes an alpine folded structure; it has outcrops in the core (Kabyle massifs) of ancient (Precambrian) metamorphic formations with a sheath of shallow Paleozoic and Carbonaceous Triassic and Jurassic. However, Cretaceous-Paleocene deposits—flysch, to a considerable extent—play the primary role in the structure of this zone: they form a system of tectonic sheaths, dislocated from north to south and partially overlapping the forward downwarp (pre-Rif, pre-Tell) realized by the molasse Miocene. In the structure of the Atlas further south, a layer of geosynclinal Paleozoic, which experienced intensive Her-zinian tectogenesis, played a significant role in the west (the Moroccan meseta). Further east in this same belt (the zone of the Hauts Plateaux, including the Oran meseta) relatively thin, weakly deformed shallow marine deposits of the Cretaceous and Paleocene and continental deposits of the Neocene are found on a more ancient, probably Late Precambrian foundation. Still further south, in the zone of the High and Saharan Atlas, and also in the Middle Atlas, the thickness of the Mesozoic grows and its folding increases perceptibly. In the extreme east (in Tunisia) the fold structure is to a considerable extent determined by highly plastic, salt-bearing rocks of the Triassic. In the south, the Atlas is separated by a great break (the South Atlas Break) from the African platform. Another break with a subsidence of the central part of the Atlas structure passes along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; manifestations of recent volcanism and earthquake activity are connected with it. Deposits of iron ore and polymetals are known in the Atlas.

Variegated lithology, fluctuations of climate in the Pleistocene, and contemporary climatic differences are the bases of the diversity of exogenous forms of the relief of the Atlas: on the highest peaks, traces of ancient glaciation have survived (peaks, cirques, glacial troughs, and moraines); chains have dense, deep ancient erosional dissection. Interior regions are occupied by denuded and accumulated plains, cues-tian chains, and residual plateaus. In the south, the slopes of the mountains are covered with gravelly screes, and physical weathering proceeds actively. Karst is extensively developed in regions of widespread limestone rocks.

The climate is subtropical Mediterranean in the north and semidesert in other regions. Precipitation falls primarily in autumn and winter with the passage of polar-front cyclones over the Mediterranean Sea. The greatest quantity of precipitation (1,000–1,800 mm per year) falls on the slopes of northern and western exposure in the Tell Atlas east of 2° E long and in the High Atlas at elevations of 2,000–2,500 m. Most of the Atlas Range receives 400–600 mm of precipitation; southern regions receive 300 mm and less per year. In the lower belt of the mountains, the average January temperature is 10–12° C in the north and 4–6° C in interior regions. Snow lies on the ground four to five months at altitudes of 1,500 m in the mountains. Summers are dry and hot. The average July temperature is approximately 25° C; the absolute maximum is 40° C on the interior plains and 49° C in the south.

The rivers of the Atlas—called wadis—are fed primarily by rains. Floods occur in the winter; in the summer, almost all the rivers dry up. The deepest rivers are of the Atlantic Ocean basins (Oum er Rbia, Sebou) and the Mediterranean Sea (Moulouya, Chéliff). In the rainy season, their discharge increases to several hundreds and thousands of cubic meters per second. Wadis of the internal and southern regions have occasional flow.

The soil and vegetative cover of the Atlas reflects its location in two physical-geographic zones: in the north and west, on the coast, and in the mountains up to 800 m, landscapes of the zone of arid forests and scrubs of typically Mediterranean climates are prevalent. Thickets of evergreen hard-leaf scrub (maquis) are similar in their flora to those of southern Europe. Forests are composed primarily of cork oak on brown soils. In arid interior regions and in the south, in the subtropical semidesert zone, there is sparse grassy vegetation (feather grass, alfa), wormwood scrub, and esparto on grey-brown, extremely gravelly soils. Altitudinal zonation is displayed in the mountains. It is most fully developed in El Rif and the Tell Atlas, on windward slopes: the belt of evergreen forests made up of cork and stone oak reaches up to 1,200 m; the belt of mixed forests with evergreen, summer-green, broad-leaf (oaks, maples) and coniferous trees ends at 1,700 m. The belt of coniferous forests (primarily composed of Atlas cedar), which supply valuable building lumber, is located in the coolest and most humid climate up to 2,200 m. Mountain brown-leached and, primarily, brown forest soils are developed under the forests. There are patches of mountain-meadow and mountain-steppe vegetation and soils on the peaks.

Animal life has been greatly depleted over a long period of time. There are representatives both of African and of some European animals (hares). Monkeys have survived in the north; there are jackals everywhere; and in the south there are hyenas and some hoofed animals. There are many migratory birds. Reptiles are particularly numerous.

The landscapes of the Atlas have been modified greatly by man. Natural vegetation has been reduced in northern areas; large tracts of cultivated lands are concentrated in the river valleys (grains, citrus fruits, grapes, and vegetables are cultivated). The reduction of forests has brought much soil erosion. Primitive terraced irrigated agriculture, and nomadic and seminomadic livestock raising (primarily goats and sheep) are found in the valleys of the southern sections.


Bernard, O. Severnaia i Zapadnaia Afrika. Moscow, 1949. (Translated from French.)
Gornung, M. B. Alzhiriia. Moscow, 1958.
Birot, P., and J. Dreche. Sredizemnomor’e, vol. 1. Moscow, 1960. (Translated from French.)



the name of a series of American launch vehicles used as the first two stages of the Atlas interplanetary ballistic rocket. The initial mass is between 125 and 135 tons, and the overall length is between 31 and 36 m. The first stage has three liquid-propellant rocket engines having a total thrust of 1.6 meganewtons (163 tons) fueled with liquid oxygen and kerosene. In the Atlas-Agena version the third stage is an Agena-D. In the Atlas-Centaur the third stage is a Centaur. The payload mass placed into a low satellite orbit around the earth ranges from 2.2 to 4.5 tons for the different versions. The Atlas is used to launch the satellites Midas and Samos, secret satellites, and the unmanned interplanetary stations Ranger, Mariner, and others.



The first cervical vertebra.
A collection of charts or maps kept loose or bound in a volume.
An atlas for a manifold is a collection of coordinate patches that covers the manifold.


The innermost known satellite of Saturn, which orbits at a distance of 85 × 103 miles (137 × 103 kilometers), just outside the A ring, and has an irregular shape with an average diameter of 20 miles (30 kilometers).

atlas, pl. atlantes

A figure (or figures) of a man used in place of a column to support an entablature; also called a telamon.


Titan condemned to support world on his shoulders. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Handbook, 13]


Titan condemned to bear heavens on shoulders. [Gk. Myth.: Walsh Classical, 38]


1. Anatomy the first cervical vertebra, attached to and supporting the skull in man
2. Architect another name for telamon
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005




Microsoft's AJAX functionality in its ASP.NET Web server development system. It includes a library of scripts (client scripts) that make Web pages work like local applications. See AJAX. See also Baby.
References in periodicals archive ?
The author is also a longtime Atlantean and documents both past history and its lasting impact on the city and the South, showing that the historic 'wrecking' didn't end with the city's takeover, but continued long into its occupation.
When I decided to take him home, my manager charged me full price and said, "Are you sure you want that thing?" It felt good to spend forty dollars on a two-gallon aquarium, colorful pebbles, a miniature Atlantean castle, and a plastic clump of seaweed, knowing that Hugo would have a better life with me; it felt even better to do so knowing that it would leave others perplexed and maybe a bit awed.
The Lost Chambers Suites, namely Poseidon and Neptune, each offer an opportunity to act out your own Atlantean adventure in your room.
city DMC1947's picture of a Leyland Atlantean, at Speke Hall, is included for simple nostalgia's sake.
THE inventor of the Atlantean language also made up Vulcan and Klingon in Star Trek.
Atlantean Arthur Curry is also a member of the Justice League of America.
Namor, heir to the undersea kingdom of Atlantis--the son of an Atlantean princess and a human sea captain--rejected his human heritage.
Consider teaching about ratio via an Atlantean Dodgeball video where one coach does not understand the concept of ratio and how it will affect the outcome of the game.
It also symbolises the road that Edinburgh Festival-goers must take from the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, travelling westwards towards the Celtic Atlantean shorelines.
Many have wondered what to make of the prologue to the Timaeus (17a-27b), with its Atlantean allusions and a seemingly meandering setting of the stage which eventually gives way to a monotone exposition by the eponymous interlocutor.
Wilkins's Secret Cities of Old South America: Atlantis Unveiled was published in 1952, at which time The Magician's Nephew was still in gestation (and contained, as yet, no Atlantean material).
Among the impressive roster of entertainment and leisure options are The Lost Chambers, an underwater world of avenues and passageways where the ruins and relics of Atlantean life coexist with over 65,000 marine animals, Aquaventure, the largest water attraction in the region featuring daredevil slides and river rapid rides, and Dolphin Bay, a dolphin education centre and interactive marine habitat.