Nantucket Shoals
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Nantucket Shoals is an area of dangerously shallow water in the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
that extends from Nantucket Island,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, eastward for and southeastward for ; in places water depth can be as shallow as . Depth soundings are unpredictable due to the constant change caused by strong currents, which are rotary rather than reversing. The shoals lie just off of a major transatlantic shipping lane. Numerous ships have been wrecked here, most recently and notably the
oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...
'' Argo Merchant'' in December 1976. Until 1983, the edge of the shoals was guarded by the Nantucket Lightship. Nantucket Shoals is made up of the following features: *Asia Rip *Davis Bank *Fishing Rip *Middle Rip *Phelps Bank According to the 2010 edition of the '' United States Coast Pilot'', the
International Maritime Organization The International Maritime Organization (IMO; ; ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a ...
has established an "area to be avoided" for the Nantucket Shoals. Vessels transporting oil or hazardous materials and vessels of more than 1,000 gross tons should avoid the area bounded by the points in the below table.


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* * Landforms of Nantucket, Massachusetts Shoals of the Atlantic Ocean Shoals of the United States {{NantucketCountyMA-geo-stub