The Norwegian Sea (Norwegian Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants (see Danish language#Classification): Norskehavet) is part of the North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas". The oldest known mention of this name, northwest of Norway Norway (pronounced /ˈnɔɹweɪ/ ; Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål), Noreg (Nynorsk)) or Norga (North Sami), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty. The majority of the country, located between the North Sea The North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, with an area of around 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi). A large part (i.e. north of Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland) and the Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is the northernmost part of the North Atlantic Ocean immediately south of the Arctic Ocean. It encompasses some 1,205,000 square km . The average depth of the Greenland Sea is close to 1,450 m (4,750 ft). The deepest recorded point of 5600m has been found at Molloy Deep, in the Fram Strait between northeastern Greenland and.
It adjoins the North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas". The oldest known mention of this name to the west and the Barents Sea The Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea (average depth 760 feet (230 m) and maximum depth 1,480 feet (450 m) ), bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard (Norway) in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a submarine ridge running between Iceland The Republic of Iceland ( /ˈaɪslənd/ ) (Icelandic: Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland (names of Iceland); IPA: [ˈislant]), is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík and the Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands or Faeroe Islands or simply Faroe or Faeroes (Faroese: Føroyar, Danish: Færøerne, Nynorsk: Færøyane, Bokmål: Færøyene, Old Norse/Icelandic: Færeyjar, Irish: Na Scigirí) are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately half way between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe. To the North, the Jan Mayen Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km2 (144 mi2) in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of 114.2 km2 around the Beerenberg). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide. It lies 600 km (about 400 mi) northeast of Ridge separates it from the Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is the northernmost part of the North Atlantic Ocean immediately south of the Arctic Ocean. It encompasses some 1,205,000 square km . The average depth of the Greenland Sea is close to 1,450 m (4,750 ft). The deepest recorded point of 5600m has been found at Molloy Deep, in the Fram Strait between northeastern Greenland and.
The Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea are sometimes collectively referred to as the Nordic Seas.
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Geography
The International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization was originally established in 1921 as the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB). The present name was adopted in 1970 as a result of a revised international agreement among member nations. However, the former name International Hydrographic Bureau was retained for the IHO's administrative body of three defines the limits of the Norwegian Sea as follows[1]
- a line from the southernmost point of Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (formerly known as West Spitsbergen; the German spelling Spitzbergen is often used in English) is a Norwegian island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km² (15,075 square miles). This name was also formerly applied to the entire archipelago of to Bear Island
- a line from Bear Island to the North Cape
- the coast of Norway
- the line of latitude 61° N from the coast of Norway to longitude 0°53’ W, thence to the northeast point of Fugloy in the Faroe Islands
- a line from Fugloy to Gerpir in Iceland
- a line from Gerpir to Jan Mayen Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km2 (144 mi2) in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of 114.2 km2 around the Beerenberg). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide. It lies 600 km (about 400 mi) northeast of
- a line from Jan Mayen to Spitsbergen
Currents
In the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea, surface water descends two to three kilometres down to the bottom of the ocean, forming cold, oxygen-rich groundwater. As a result, there is a warm surface current An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon the water, such as the Earth's rotation, wind, temperature, salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun. Depth contours, shoreline configurations and interaction with other currents influence a current' and a cold depth current running along the west coast of Norway.
The so-called East Iceland Current transports cold water south from the Norwegian Sea towards Iceland and then east, along the Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. In 2009, it is the parallel of latitude that runs approximately 66° 33′ 39″ north of the Equator. The region north of this circle is known as the Arctic, and the zone just to the south is called the Northern Temperate Zone. The equivalent Polar circle. In the Norwegian Current, a branch of the Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, exits through the Strait of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The process of carries warm water masses northward and contributes to the mild and moist climate in Norway. The Norwegian Sea is the source of much of the North Atlantic Deep Water North Atlantic Deep Water is a water mass that forms in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is largely formed in the Labrador Sea and in the Greenland Sea by the sinking of highly saline, dense overflow water from the Greenland Sea. The watermass can be traced around the southern end of Greenland and then, at a depth of 2000-4000 meters, down the coast.
The region remains ice-free due to the warm and saline Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates and bicarbonates. Salinity in Australian English and North American English may also refer to the salt content of soil Norwegian Atlantic Current. It provides rich fishing Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping grounds, with catches mostly consisting of cod, herrings, sardines and anchovies. Nowadays, shifts and fluctuations in these currents are closely monitored, as they are thought to be indicators for an ongoing climate change Climate change is any long-term change in the statistics of weather over durations ranging from decades to millions of years. It can be manifest in changes to averages, extremes, or other statistical measures, and may occur in a specific region or for the Earth as a whole.
Other
Large-scale oil and gas production in the Norwegian Sea started in 1993. In recent news, the Norwegian Sea was proposed as a prototype storage site for the greenhouse gas Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. Common greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. In our solar system, the atmospheres of Venus, Mars carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state (see carbon sink The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as CO2 sequestration or carbon sequestration. Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset)[citation needed]. This has yet to be confirmed.
References
- Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest personalities in the history of Norway and Helland-Hansen: report for the Norwegian Fishery and Marine Investigations. vol. ii. No. 2, 1909
- Hopkins: The GIN Sea - A synthesis of its physical oceanography and literature review 1972-1985. 1991
- Fairbridge (editor): The Encyclopedia of Oceanography. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1966
- Skjoldal, H.R. (editor):"The Norwegian Sea Ecosystem". Tapir Forlag, Norway.2004
External links
- LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia
- American Geophysical Union - Norwegian Sea Proposed as Storage Site for Carbon Dioxide
- Goliat - New oil field off Northern Norway discovered
- NASA: Smoke Over Norwegian Sea
- Coral reefs in the Norwegian Sea
Coordinates: 69°00′N 0°01′E / 69°N 0.017°E
Categories: Marginal seas of the Atlantic Ocean | Marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean | Seas of Norway
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Reuters India
T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it would delay the start of oil production from the Yme oil field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea to ...
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Guru
Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:37:17 GM
Royal Dutch Shell Europe s largest oil company, made a natural gas discovery at a record depth in the northern . Norwegian Sea. that may equal the size of Norway s annual production of the fuel. The find may the biggest since Ormen Lange ...
