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Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar[1] is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa. The two continents are separated by 13 kilometres (8.1 miles; 7.0 nautical miles) of ocean at the Strait's narrowest point between Punta de Tarifa in Spain and Point Cires in Morocco.[2] Ferries cross between the two continents every day in as little as 35 minutes. The Strait's depth ranges between 300 and 900 metres (980 and 2,950 feet; 160 and 490 fathoms).[3]

Not to be confused with Gibraltar.

Strait of Gibraltar

13 km (8.1 mi)

900 metres (2,953 ft)

The strait lies in the territorial waters of Morocco, Spain, and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, foreign vessels and aircraft have the freedom of navigation and overflight to cross the strait of Gibraltar in case of continuous transit.

Names and etymology[edit]

The name comes from the Rock of Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic Jabal Ṭāriq (meaning "Tariq's Mount"),[4] named after Tariq ibn Ziyad. It is also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, the Gut of Gibraltar (although this is mostly archaic),[5] the STROG (STRait Of Gibraltar) in naval use.[6]


Another Arabic name is Bāb al-maghrib (Arabic: باب المغرب), meaning "Gate of the West" or "Gate of the sunset", and furthermore "Gate of the Maghreb" or "Gate of Morocco". In the Middle Ages it was called in Arabic Az-Zuqāq (الزقاق), "the Passage" and by the Romans Fretum Gaditanum (Strait of Cadiz).[7]


In Latin it has been called Fretum Herculeum,[8] based on the name from antiquity "Pillars of Hercules" (Ancient Greek: αἱ Ἡράκλειοι στῆλαι, romanizedhai Hērákleioi stêlai),[9] referring to the mountains as pillars, such as Gibraltar, flanking the strait.

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Biodiversity[edit]

The Strait has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of the hundreds of thousands of seabirds which use it every year to migrate between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, including significant numbers of Scopoli's and Balearic shearwaters, Audouin's and lesser black-backed gulls, razorbills, and Atlantic puffins.[16]


A resident orca pod of some 36 individuals lives around the Strait, one of the few that are left in Western European waters. The pod may be facing extinction in the coming decades due to long term effects of PCB pollution.[17]

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Power generation[edit]

Some studies have proposed the possibility of erecting tidal power generating stations within the Strait, to be powered from the predictable current at the Strait.


In the 1920s and 1930s, the Atlantropa project proposed damming the Strait to generate large amounts of electricity and lower the sea level of the Mediterranean by several hundreds of meters to create large new lands for settlement.[32] This proposal would however have devastating effects on the local climate and ecology and would dramatically change the strength of the West African Monsoon.

Westerly wind

Vendavel

Perdicaris Park

Floating suspension bridge

Mediterranean Basin

List of straits

Archived 2009-02-22 at the Wayback Machine—American Geophysical Union, 1997. Accessed 26 February 2006. Gone 12 February 2010. Dam design at http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/eosrjohnsonf3.gif Archived 2012-09-26 at the Wayback Machine Building the dam and letting the Mediterranean Sea completely evaporate would raise Sea Level 15 meters over 1,000 years. Evaporating the first 100 meters or so would raise Sea Level 1 meter in about 100 years.

Climate Control Requires a Dam at the Strait of Gibraltar

—United Nations Economic and Social Council, 2001. Accessed 26 February 2006.

Project for a Europe-Africa permanent link through the Strait of Gibraltar

—La Universidad de Tetuán and La Universidad de Sevilla. Accessed 26 February 2006. (in Spanish)

Estudios Geográficos del Estrecho de Gibraltar

. NASA Earth Observatory. Archived from the original on 2004-08-17. Retrieved 2006-05-24.

"Solitons, Strait of Gibraltar"

. NASA Earth Observatory. Archived from the original on 2001-06-20. Retrieved 2006-05-24.

"Internal Waves, Strait of Gibraltar"

Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, The National Library of Israel

Old maps of the Strait of Gibraltar

By ACNEG The Straits of Gibraltar Swimming Association.

HOW TO SWIM ACROSS THE STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR

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