30 Oct 2024        11:41:06 am

Geography

North Sea

Tags : North Sea

Topic: Water Bodies

Why in the news?

• Oil pollution in the North Sea is ‘grossly underestimated’, suggests a new report. Oil and gas companies are regularly breaching their legal produced water permit allowances.
• Contaminants associated with chronic oiling have been shown to have a range of effects on marine life.

Source: Down To Earth

About North Sea:

• It is a sea in northern Europe and is part of the Atlantic ocean.
• It is bordered by the United Kingdom and Norway to the west, Denmark to the south, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to the east, and the Faroe Islands and Norway\'s Svalbard archipelago to the north.
• The North Sea connects to the Atlantic Ocean via the English Channel in the southwest and the Baltic Sea in the east via the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits.
• The Kiel Canal, one of the world\'s busiest artificial waterways, connects the North Sea with the Baltic.
• It covers an area of approximately 570,000 sq. km.
• It is a relatively shallow sea with an average depth of 90 m. Its deepest part is the Norwegian trench which is 725 m. deep.
  • The shallowest area is the Dogger Bank, which is only 12 m. deep.
• It experiences an oceanic temperate maritime climate characterized by slightly high temperatures. Winters are long but cool, while summers are short and mild. 
• Major rivers that drain into the North Sea include the Forth, Elbe, the Weser, the Ems, the Rhine and Meuse, the Scheldt, the Thames, and the Humber.
• It has several major ports located along its coasts, such as Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe, Antwerp, Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Felixstowe, all busy container seaports, as well as the Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge, Europe\'s leading RoRo port. 

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