Skagerrak
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Skagerrak | |
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Skagerrak and Kattegat
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Location | North Sea–Kattegat (Atlantic Ocean) |
Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Type | Strait |
Basin countries | Norway Denmark Sweden |
Average depth | 200 metres (660 ft) |
Max. depth | 700 metres (2,300 ft) |
The Skagerrak is a strait running between the southeast coast of Norway, the southwest coast of Sweden, and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea.
Name
The meaning of Skagerrak is most likely the Skagen Channel/Straight. Skagen is a town near the northern cape of Denmark (The Skaw). Rak means 'straight waterway' (compare the Damrak in Amsterdam); it is cognate with 'reach'.[1][2] The ultimate source of this syllable is the Proto-Indo-European root *reg-, 'straight'. Rak means 'straight' as in 'straight ahead' in both modern Norwegian and Swedish. "Råk" in modern Norwegian refers to a channel or opening of water in an otherwise ice covered body of water. There is no evidence to suggest a connection with the modern Danish word rak (meaning rabble or riff-raff). [See Kattegat for its etymology, in which gat means gate or hole.]
Geography
The Skagerrak is 240 km (150 mi) long and between 80 and 140 km (50 and 87 mi) wide. It deepens toward the Norwegian coast, reaching over 700 metres at the Norwegian Trench. Some ports along the Skagerrak are Oslo and Kristiansand in Norway and Uddevalla and Strömstad in Sweden.
The Skagerrak has a salinity of 30 practical salinity units. The area available to biomass is about 3,600 km2 (1,400 sq mi), including a wide variety of habitats from the sandbanks to Sweden and Denmark to the deeps of the Norwegian trench.
Extent
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Skagerrak as follows:[3]
On the West. A line joining Hanstholm (Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.) and the Naze (Lindesnes, Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.).
On the Southeast. The Northern limit of the Kattegat [A line joining Skagen (The Skaw, North Point of Denmark) and Paternoster Skær (Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.) and thence Northeastward through the shoals to Tjörn Island].
History
Older names for the combined Skagerrak and Kattegat were the Norwegian Sea or Jutland Sea; the latter appears in the Knýtlinga saga.
In both the world wars, the Skagerrak was strategically very important for Germany. The biggest sea battle of World War I, the Battle of Jutland, also known as the Battle of the Skagerrak, took place there May 31 to June 1, 1916. The importance of controlling this waterway, the only sea access to the Baltic, was the motivation for the German invasion of Denmark and Norway during World War II. These naval engagements have contributed to the large number of shipwrecks in the area.
Biology
The Skagerrak is habitat for approximately 2000 marine species, many of them adapted to its waters. For example, a variety of Atlantic cod called the Skagerrak cod spawns off the Norwegian coast. The eggs are buoyant and the hatchlings feed on zooplankton. Juveniles sink to the bottom where they have a shorter maturity cycle (2 years). They do not migrate but remain local to Norwegian fjords.
The variety of habitats and the large volume of plankton on the surface support prolific marine life. Energy moves from the top to the bottom according to Vinogradov's ladder of migrations; that is, some species are benthic and others pelagic, but there are graded marine layers within which species move vertically for short distances. In addition, some species are benthopelagic, moving between surface and bottom. The benthic species include Coryphaenoides rupestris, Argentina silus, Etmopterus spinax, Chimaera monstrosa and Glyptocephalus cynoglossus. On the top are Clupea harengus, Scomber scombrus, Sprattus sprattus. Some species that move between are Pandalus borealis, Sabinea sarsi, Etmopterus spinax.
References
External links
Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Skagerrack. |
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