Sargasso lake

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Location of the Sargasso Sea.
The Sargasso Sea is bounded by the following currents: the Gulf Stream (north), the North Atlantic Current ( east), the Canary Islands and the North Equatorial Current (south).
Free swimming Sargassum in the Sargasso Sea.

The Sargasso Sea is a marine area in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida . The Bermuda Islands are located on their western edge.

Hydrography

The position is around 30 ° north latitude and 60 ° to 75 ° west longitude. With an area of ​​around 5.3 million square kilometers, this marine area without coasts and islands is larger than the Mediterranean and the Caribbean Sea combined. It lies in the eddy shadow of the Antilles Current , which becomes the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida . It is between 5,000 and 7,000 meters deep (shallower depths exist in the area of ​​the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ), the water is particularly clear. The length of the marine area is 3,200 km and it is up to 1,100 km wide. Due to the centrifugal forces of the currents all around, the sea level in the center is about one meter below that of the surrounding Atlantic.

Name and ecosystem

The name Sargassosee is derived from the large amounts of brown algae of the genus Sargassum floating freely in the water . These Sargassum "forests" represent a special habitat for small crabs , worms and other marine animals.

The algae clusters can be up to 300 meters long. The primary production is considerable, it is estimated that one third of the primary production of the open Atlantic takes place in the Sargasso.

The Sargasso Sea is where the American eels and European eels meet and spawn. From here the young animals ( willow leaf larvae - Leptocephalus) start their long journey to the rivers and lakes of the respective continents.

The scholar Maury once explained the extraordinary collection of free-floating plants as follows: If you put floating bodies in a vessel and move the water in this vessel in circular motions, you will see that the scattered pieces combine to form a group in the center of the liquid surface, that is, at the point where there is least movement. In this case, the Atlantic is the vessel, the Gulf Stream the circular movement and the Sargasso Sea the center where the floating bodies unite. Jules Verne quotes this statement verbatim in his 1870 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea .

Scientists suspect that the Sargassum brown algae can get very old.

rubbish

The people's garbage problem has also reached the Sargasso Sea. Just like in the North Pacific, a gigantic garbage vortex turns in a circle. Plastic waste that is simply thrown overboard by ships collects here, as does waste from rivers.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. George Webster: Mysterious waters: from the Bermuda Triangle to the Devil's Sea. CNN, May 31, 2011, accessed June 25, 2018 .
  2. a b Lugt, Hans J., author .: Vortex flow in nature and technology . ISBN 0-89464-916-7 ( worldcat.org [accessed March 7, 2019]).

Web links

Coordinates: 28 ° 20 ′ 8 ″  N , 66 ° 10 ′ 30 ″  W.