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The Denmark Strait is the
The Denmark Strait is the strait
A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...
that separates Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
from Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
.
Geography
The strait connects the Greenland Sea, an extension of the Arctic Ocean, to the Irminger Sea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is long. The narrowest part of the strait is wide and lies between Straumnes, on Iceland's Hornstrandir peninsula, and Cape Tupinier, on Greenland's Blosseville Coast. According to theInternational Hydrographic Organization
The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) (French: ''Organisation Hydrographique Internationale'') is an intergovernmental organization representing hydrography. the IHO comprised 102 member states.
A principal aim of the IHO is to ...
, the dividing line between the Arctic and the North Atlantic Oceans runs from Straumnes to Cape Nansen, southwest of Cape Tunipier.
Hydrography
The narrow depth, where the Greenland–Iceland Rise runs along the bottom of the sea, is . The cold East Greenland Current passes through the strait and carriesiceberg
An iceberg is a piece of fresh water ice more than long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an i ...
s south into the North Atlantic. It hosts important fisheries
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farm ...
.
The world's largest known underwater waterfall, known as the Denmark Strait cataract, flows down the western side of the Denmark Strait.
Battle of the Denmark Strait
During World War II, the Battle of the Denmark Strait took place on 24 May 1941. The sank the British battlecruiser , which exploded with the loss of all but three of her 1,418 crew; the battleship was seriously damaged in the engagement. ''Bismarck'' was able to enter the Atlantic through the Strait, but damage sustained in the battle—combined with British aircraft search-and-destroy missions—led to her own sinking three days later.See also
* Aquatic sill *GIUK gap
The GIUK gap (sometimes written G-I-UK) is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval choke point. Its name is an acronym for ''Greenland, Iceland'', and the ''United Kingdom'', the gap being the two stretches of open ocean amo ...
References
External links
* {{Authority control Bodies of water of Iceland European seas Seas of Greenland Seas of North America Straits of the Arctic Ocean Straits of Greenland Straits of Iceland Greenland–Iceland border International straits Geography of North America Geography of Europe