Where is the Danish Strait? It separates the southeast coast of Greenland and the northwest coast of the state of Iceland. Located in the northern hemisphere, its maximum width reaches 280 kilometers. Connects the Greenland Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It has a minimum shipping depth of 230 meters. The length of the water area is about 500 kilometers. The Danish Strait conditionally divides the World Ocean into the Arctic and Atlantic. According to geographic research, the true borders of the strait took shape about 15 thousand years ago.
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In the Danish Channel, battles of the Second World War took place. One of the most famous ones, which occurred in May 1941, was attended by ships of the British Royal Navy and the naval forces of the Third Reich (Kingsmare). As a result of these actions, the British fleet “Hood” battleship was damaged and sunk by the heavy cruiser “Prince Eugen” and the battleship “Bismarck”, which the British, led by the battleship “Prince of Wales”, were trying to prevent from proceeding through the Danish Strait to the Atlantic Ocean. Gunther Lutiens commanded the forces of the Third Reich, and Lancelot Holand, who died along with the rest of the team, the British.
Water development
The first people to visit the strait were the Vikings from Norway, who in the 9th century sailed on their ships through it to the shores of North America and Greenland. Because of the climate, icebergs constantly drift over the waters of the water area.
The shores of the islands of Greenland and Iceland, which is washed by the Danish Strait, are riddled with fjords and, by and large, have not changed in appearance over the past few millennia.
Bottom and depth
It is worth noting that the bottom topography in the strait is quite uneven. The threshold between Iceland and Greenland has depressions, the depth of which reaches more than 300 m, and the minimum is about 150 m. It is he who separates the strait from the North Atlantic. It is believed that the average depth of the strait varies between 200–300 m. However, after lengthy studies of this water area, scientists have discovered quite deep depressions, the size of which exceeds two thousand meters. That is why it can be argued that the change in the depth of the Danish Strait ranges from 150 to 2.9 thousand m.
Shipping
The impact of human activity on these parts is weak. Shipping in the Danish Strait is not intensive. Fishing vessels predominate among the categories of vessels, since this area is rich in arthropods, many fish species, for example, salmon, capelin, flounder, and halibut. The Danish Channel is considered an industrial fishing zone.
Navigation is still difficult due to the fact that icebergs regularly drift from the ends of the fjords of Greenland, subsequently drifting in the direction of currents. Some of them are especially large and pose a considerable danger to ships. Often, along with fishing ships with research, climatologists, hydrologists and meteorologists go to the waters of the strait.
Underwater wildlife
The fauna of the water area is rich in marine representatives. As we said before, many commercial fish live here. These are capelin, species of the salmon family, etc. Among other representatives of the animal world, the Danish Strait is inhabited by various species of whales, such as killer whales and whale whales. On the coast of Greenland, seal rookeries and harp seals are organized.
Strait Features
There are two important currents in this area. One of them is warm - Irminger, the second cold - East Greenland. It is they who mainly affect climate formation, both in the strait itself and in nearby regions, that is, islands. Scientists are making a lot of effort to study these circulating masses. Why is so much attention paid to them? Everything is extremely simple, these trends, or rather, their interaction largely determines the climate of Northern Europe.
In order to understand the importance of this, a number of questions need to be answered. For example, why has there been a continuous decline in the temperature of the Danish Strait in recent decades? Is it possible to predict climate change in the near future? It is not yet clear whether the climate will warm or cool in Northern Europe, but the study of the strait will make it possible to make forecasts both for the long term and for a shorter period.
