BERING SEA AND STRAIT

The Bering Sea and the Bering Strait. Russian Beringovo More and Proliv Beringa, northernmost part of the Pacific Ocean, separating the continents of Asia and North America. To the north the Bering Sea connects with the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait, at the narrowest point of which the two continents are about 53 miles (85 kilometres) apart. The boundary between the United States and Russia passes through the sea and the strait. The Bering Sea roughly resembles a triangle with its apex to the north and its base formed by the 1,100-mile-long arc of the Alaska Peninsula in the east; the Aleutian Islands, which constitute part of the U.S. state of Alaska, in the south; and the Komandor (Commander) Islands in the west. Its area is about 890,000 square miles (2,304,000 square kilometres), including its islands. The maximum width from east to west is about 1,490 miles and from north to south about 990 miles. The Bering Strait is a relatively shallow passage averaging 100 to 165 feet (30 to 50 metres) in depth. During the Ice Age the sea level fell by several hundred feet, making the strait into a land bridge between the continents of Asia and North America, over which a considerable migration of plants and animals occurred. In addition to the Aleutian and Komandor groups, there are several other large islands in both the sea and strait. These include Nunivak, St. Lawrence, and Nelson islands in Alaskan waters and Karagin Island in Russian waters. Additional reading For the Bering Sea, see P.L. Bezrukov (ed.), Geographical Description of the Bering Sea: Bottom Relief and Sediments, trans. from Russian (1964); David M. Hopkins (ed.), The Bering Land Bridge (1967); A.P. Lisitsyn, Recent Sedimentation in the Bering Sea (1969; originally published in Russian, 1966); L.K. Coachman, K. Aagaard, and R.B. Tripp, Bering Strait: The Regional Physical Oceanography (1975); and relevant sections in Yvonne Herman (ed.), Marine Geology and Oceanography of the Arctic Seas (1974). Arkady Vladimirovich Alekseev Konstantin Trifonovich Bogdanov