NORTH SEA


Meaning of NORTH SEA in English

The Baltic and North seas and the English Channel. shallow, northeastern arm of the Atlantic Ocean located between the British Isles and the mainland of northwestern Europe and covering an area of 220,000 square miles (570,000 square kilometres). The sea is bordered by the island of Great Britain to the southwest and west, the Orkney and Shetland islands to the northwest, Norway to the northeast, Denmark to the east, Germany and The Netherlands to the southeast, and Belgium and France to the south. It is connected to the Atlantic by the Strait of Dover and the English Channel and opens directly onto the ocean between the Orkney and Shetland islands and between the Shetland Islands and Norway. The Skagerrak, an eastward extension of the North Sea between Norway and Denmark, connects the North and Baltic seas via the Kattegat and the Danish straits. For map coverage of the North Sea, see the article Baltic Sea. The North Sea long has been important as one of Europe's most productive fisheries. It also serves as a prominent shipping zone among European countries and between Europe and the Middle East. A third aspect of economic importance has been the extensive reserves of petroleum and natural gas discovered beneath the seafloor. The North Sea has had a strong influence on European history. Because of its long coastline and the rivers emptying into it, it has been readily accessible to many areas, providing highways of commerce and of conquest. It was the scene of early development of maritime trade. Its waters have protected the British Isles from invasion from the Continent for more than a thousand years, yet the North Sea also has served as a springboard for the growth of the overseas empires of the countries bordering it. Without the interchange of people, goods, and ideas made possible by the existence of the North Sea, the cultural development of northwestern Europe after the Middle Ages might have been greatly retarded. shallow, northeastern arm of the Atlantic Ocean extending southward from the Norwegian Sea between Norway and the British Isles, connecting the Skagerrak (channel between Norway and Denmark) with the English Channel (between France and the United Kingdom). The North Sea is bordered by the Shetland Islands to the north, the United Kingdom and the Orkney Islands to the west, Norway and Denmark to the east, and France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany to the south. It has an area of about 220,000 square miles (570,000 square km). Few parts of the sea are more than 300 feet (90 m) deep. The floor dips to the north and is generally irregular. Southern depths reach less than 120 feet (40 m); many shallow, shifting banks, presumably of glacial origin, have been reworked by tidal currents and present serious navigational hazards. Off northern England the vast moraine called Dogger Bank is only 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) below sea level and is one of the sea's finest fishing areas. In contrast, the waters deepen in the Norwegian Trench, an unusual trench parallel to the coast of southern Norway. There are also deep trenches in the western part of the sea, including Devil's Hole east of Edinburgh, where depths exceed 1,500 feet (450 m). The North Sea is generally less saline than its North Atlantic connection because of colder, less-saline waters coming from the Baltic Sea and large quantities of fresh water contributed by the Thames, Rhine, Elbe, and other northern European rivers. Its waters are warmed by the North Atlantic Drift, which enters via the Norwegian Sea to the north. Norway, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are the major beneficiaries of the huge North Sea petroleum and natural-gas fields that were developed during the late 1970s. Additional reading Cuchlaine A.M. King, Oceanography for Geographers (1962), emphasizes features of the world ocean but includes useful discussions of the North Sea. Arne Bang-Andersen, Basil Greenhill, and Egil Harald Grude (eds.), The North Sea (1985), surveys commercial, cultural, and naval history and its impact in the post-World War II years. Chungsoo Kim, Multi-species North Sea Fisheries: Consorted Optimal Management of Renewable Resources (1984), discusses in detail the ecology of North Sea fisheries and possible approaches to conservation. Mark Wise, The Common Fisheries Policy of the European Community (1984), offers an authoritative account of the policy's development and the politics surrounding its adoption. World Oil (monthly); and the Oil and Gas Journal (weekly), carry current materials on North Sea hydrocarbon production. W. Salomons et al. (eds.), Pollution of the North Sea (1988), provides an excellent description of the environmental impacts of offshore oil and gas developments. Lewis M. Alexander

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