1.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
2.
Gulf of Mexico
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The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north, Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the south coast, in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the north coast. One of the seven main areas is the Gulf of Mexico basin. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, the Gulfs basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, with the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2, almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters, the consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. It was created by the collision of plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, first, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time and it was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading, at this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling. The subsidence was the result of a combination of stretching, cooling. Initially, the combination of stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional
3.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
4.
States of Mexico
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The United Mexican States is a federal republic composed of 31 states and Mexico City. According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free, each state has its own congress and constitution. Mexico City is currently being reformed to have the rights of a state. The states of the Mexican Federation are free, sovereign, autonomous and they are free to govern themselves according to their own laws, each state has a constitution that cannot contradict the federal constitution, which covers issues of national competence. Since states have autonomy, each has its own civil and penal codes. In addition, the federation makes up a constituency in which 32 senators are elected by the method of proportional representation, Federal Deputies, however, do not represent the states, but rather the citizens themselves. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate together comprise the Congress of the Union, the states are internally divided into municipalities. Each municipality is autonomous in its ability to elect their own council, the council is headed by a mayor elected every 3 years with no possibility of immediate reelection. Each municipality has a composed of councilors in terms of population size. The council is responsible, in most cases, to all utilities required for its population. This concept, which arises from the Mexican Revolution, is known as a free municipality. In total there are 2438 municipalities in Mexico, the state with the highest number of municipalities is Oaxaca, with 570, Mexico City has a special status within the federation, being a federal district. Until January 2016, Mexico City was officially called Federal District and it is the seat of government of the Union and the capital of the United Mexican States. Mexico City was separated from the State of Mexico, of which it was the capital, on November 18,1824, as such, it did not belong to any state in particular but to all. Therefore, it was the president of Mexico, in representation of the federation, with full autonomy, Mexico City would have its own constitution – it previously had only an organic law called Statute of Autonomy – and its boroughs became municipalities. Until the ratification of Mexico Citys constitution, it is divided for administrative purposes into 16 delegacionesor boroughs. *Mexicos post agency, Correos de México, does not offer an official list, various competing commercially devised lists exist. The list here reflects choices among them according to these sources, on September 27,1821, after three centuries of Spanish rule, Mexico gained independence
5.
Campeche
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Campeche, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It has a coastline to the west with the Gulf of Mexico, the state capital, also called Campeche, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1997. The formation of the state began with the city, which was founded in 1540 as the Spanish began the conquest of the Yucatán Peninsula, during the colonial period, the city was a rich and important port, but declined after Mexico’s Independence. Campeche was part of the province of Yucatán but split off in the mid-19th century, today, much of the state’s economic comeback is due to the finding of petroleum offshore in the 1970s, which has made the coastal cities of Campeche and Ciudad del Carmen important economic centers. The state has important Mayan and colonial sites but they are not as well known or visited as others in the Yucatán. The states executive power rests in the governor of Campeche and the legislative power rests in the Congress of Campeche which is a legislature composed of 35 deputies. The state of Campeche is located in southeast Mexico, on the west side of the Yucatan Peninsula, the territory is 56,858. 84km2, which is 2. 6% of Mexico’s total. It borders the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Tabasco, with the country of Belize to the east, Guatemala to the south and the Gulf of Mexico to the west. Politically, it is divided into municipalities, Calkiní, Calakmul, Campeche, Candelaria, Champotón, Ciudad del Carmen, Escárcega, Hecelchakán, Hopelchén, Palizada. Campeche is a flat area of Mexico with 523 km of shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the surface is of sedimentary rock much of which is from marine origin, the area with the highest elevations is near the borders with Guatemala and Quintana Roo. Notable elevations include Cerro Champerico, Cerro los Chinos, Cerro El Ramonal, Cerro El Doce, however, these hills are separated by large expanses of lower flat land. In the south of the municipality of Champotón begin a series of rolling hills known as the Sierra Alta or Puuc and these have only an average altitude of between forty and sixty meters with some reaching 100 meters. There other areas of rolling hills, near the city of Campeche with main ones known as Maxtum, Boxol. Another set is called the Sierra Seybaplaya in the center of the state, away from the coast, these rainforests are interspersed with savannah areas and along the coast are accompanied by areas with sand dunes, mangrove wetlands and estuaries. Species that can be found in the various rainforests include huapaque, cedar, pukte, sapote, dyewood, dzalam and it also includes a number of precious tropical hardwoods such as red cedar, mahogany, ciricote and guayacán. Along the coastal areas, palms such as the coconut. The main wildlife species in the state are the jaguar, ocelot, puma, deer, wild boar, raccoon, hare, ring-tailed cat, there are many bird species including the chachalaca, ducks, quail, pelican, toucan, buzzard and many more
6.
Tabasco
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Tabasco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa and it is located in the southeast of the country bordering the states of Campeche to the northeast, Veracruz to the west and Chiapas to the south, and the Petén department of Guatemala to the southeast. It has a coastline to the north with the Gulf of Mexico, most of the state is covered in rainforest as, unlike most other areas of Mexico, it has plentiful rainfall year round. For this reason, it is covered in small lakes, wetlands. The state is subject to flooding events, with the last occurring in 2007. The state is home to La Venta, the major site of the Olmec civilization. Even though it produces significant quantities of petroleum and natural gas, the state is located in the southeast of Mexico, bordering the states of Campeche, Chiapas and Veracruz with the Gulf of Mexico to the north and the country of Guatemala to the south and east. The state covers 24,731 square kilometres, which is 1. 3% of Mexicos total, the northwestern portion is on the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico with the south and east as part of the mountain chain that extends into northern Chiapas. It is divided into seventeen municipalities, there are 36 communities designated as urban with about 3,000 smaller towns and villages. 185 are classified as regional development centers, in 1994, the state was officially divided into two regions, five sub regions for socioeconomic development and geographic documentation. The two major regions are called the Grijalva and the Usumacinta, the Grijalva Region is named after the river on which most of the municipalities here are dependent. The Usumacinta Region is named after the river on which the Centla, Jonuta, Emiliano Zapata, Balancán. It is divided into the Pantanos and Ríos subregions, which are more rural than the Grijalva Region. The environment of the consists of extensive low lying floodplains, mountains. Most of the territory is covered with tropical rainforest and wetlands, there are also areas with savanna, beaches and mangrove forests. Much of the rainforest has suffered due to over logging. The east is formed by low humid plains formed by sediment deposited by a number of rivers, in the Chontalpa zone and in parts of the municipalities of Cental and Jonuta, there are swampy depressions extremely vulnerable to flooding from both river flow and from excessive rainfall. In the south there are some elevations which are part of the central mesa of Chiapas, the most important of these is El Madrigal, La Campana, La Corona, Pomaná, Coconá, Mono Pelado and El Tortuguero
7.
Veracruz
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It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is Xalapa-Enríquez. This state is located in Eastern Mexico and it is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north, San Luis Potosí and Hidalgo to the west, Puebla to the southwest, Oaxaca and Chiapas to the south, and Tabasco to the southeast. On its east, Veracruz has a significant share of the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, the state is noted for its mixed ethnic and indigenous populations. Its cuisine reflects the cultural influences that have come through the state because of the importance of the port of Veracruz. In addition to the city, the states largest cities include Veracruz, Coatzacoalcos, Córdoba, Minatitlán, Poza Rica, Boca Del Río. The full name of the state is Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, Veracruz was named after the city of Veracruz, which was originally called the Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. The suffix is in honor of Ignacio de la Llave y Segura Zevallos, the state’s seal was authorized by the state legislature in 1954, adapting the one used for the port of Veracruz and created by the Spanish in the early 16th century. The state is a strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre Oriental to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Its total area is 78,815 km2, accounting for about 3. 7% of Mexico’s total territory and it stretches about 650 km north to south, but its width varies from between 212 km to 36 km, with an average of about 100 km in width. Veracruz shares common borders with the states of Tamaulipas, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Tabasco, and Puebla, Hidalgo, Veracruz has 690 km of coastline with the Gulf of Mexico. The topography changes drastically, rising from the coastal plains to the highlands of the eastern Sierra Madre. Elevation varies from sea level to the Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest peak at 5,636 m above sea level, the coast consists of low sandy strips interspersed with tidewater streams and lagoons. Most of the coastline is narrow and sandy with unstable dunes, small shifting lagoons. The mountains are of the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, major peaks include Pico de Orizaba, Cofre de Perote, Cerro de Tecomates, Cerro del Vigía Alta and Cerro de 3 Tortas. The Pico de Orizaba is covered in snow year round, the Cofre de Perote is covered in winter, major valleys include the Acultzingo, Córdoba, Maltrata, Orizaba and San Andrés. All of the rivers and streams cross the state begin in the Sierra Madre Oriental or in the Central Mesa. The largest in terms of discharge are the Pánuco, Tuxpan, Papaloapan, Coazocoalcos. The Panuco, Tuxpan, Papaloapan and Coatzacoalcos are navigable, two of Mexicos most polluted rivers, the Coatzacoalcos and the Río Blanco are located in the state
8.
Cantarell Field
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Cantarell Field or Cantarell Complex is an aging supergiant oil field in Mexico. It was discovered in 1976 after oil stains were noticed by a fisherman, Rudesindo Cantarell Jimenez and it was placed on nitrogen injection in 2000, and production peaked at 2.1 million barrels per day in 2003. In terms of production to date, it is by far the largest oil field in Mexico. However, production has declined since 2003, falling to 408,000 barrels per day in April 2012, Cantarell is located 80 kilometres offshore in the Bay of Campeche. This complex comprises four major fields, Akal, Nohoch, Chac, the reservoirs are formed from carbonate breccia of Late Cretaceous age, the rubble from the asteroid impact that created the Chicxulub Crater. Cantarells oil production peaked in 2004 and has declined in subsequent years, following impact, the carbonate platform collapsed, depositing the coarse breccias, which were then overlain mixed and overlain by finer breccias from the consequent tsunamis. Folding occurred in the early Miocene to Pliocene and the compression forced up Cretaceous, there are four blocks in the Cantarell Complex, Akal, Nohoch, Chac and Kutz with the Akal block underlain by a fifth block, Sihil, where oil was discovered in 1998. By 1981 the Cantarell complex was producing 1.16 million barrels per day, however, the production rate dropped to 1 million barrels per day in 1995. However, Cantarell had much smaller oil reserves than Ghawar, so began to decline rapidly in the second half of the decade. In March 2006 it was reported that Cantarell had already peaked, for 2006, the fields output declined by 13. 1%, according to Jesús Reyes Heróles, the director-general of PEMEX. In July 2008, the production rate fell sharply by 36% to 973,668 barrels per day from 1.526 million barrels per day a year earlier. Analysts theorize that this decline is a result of production enhancement techniques causing faster short-term oil extraction at the expense of field longevity. In 2008, Pemex expected Cantarells decline to continue to 2012, by September 2009 this figure was already achieved, marking one of the most dramatic declines ever seen in the oil industry. Production is now expected to stabilize at 400,000 barrels per day, however the production had fallen to 408,000 barrels per day by April 2012. The shortfall is having an effect on Mexicos annual government budget. Production continued to decline and production was at 340,000 barrels per day in June 2014, Pemex will spend 6 billion US dollars until 2017 to stop the decline and maintain production level at around 325,000 barrels per day for another decade. Ku-Maloob-Zaap complex is expected to produce 0.8 million barrels per day by the end of decade, in 2009, Ku-Maloob-Zaap replaced Cantarell as Mexicos most productive oil field. List of oil fields Petroleum industry in Mexico Peak Oil is Now Official by Trey Shaughnessy,18 March 2006, Mexico Oil Production going down January 2007 Cantarell main data Rigzone Article on Decline Cantarell is Dying
9.
Oil field
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An oil field or oilfield is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over an area, possibly several hundred kilometres across. In addition, there may be exploratory wells probing the edges, pipelines to transport the oil elsewhere, because an oil field may be remote from civilization, establishing a field is often an extremely complicated exercise in logistics. This goes beyond requirements for drilling, to include associated infrastructure, for instance, workers require housing to allow them to work onsite for months or years. In turn, housing and equipment require electricity and water, in cold regions, pipelines may need to be heated. Also, excess gas may be burned off if there is no way to make use of it—which requires a furnace, chimney. More than 40,000 oil fields are scattered around the globe, on land, the largest are the Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia and the Burgan Field in Kuwait, with more than 60 billion barrels estimated in each. Most oil fields are much smaller, according to the US Department of Energy, as of 2003 the US alone had over 30,000 oil fields. In the modern age, the location of oil fields with oil reserves is a key underlying factor in many geopolitical conflicts. The term oilfield is also used as a shorthand to refer to the petroleum industry. However, it is accurate to divide the oil industry into three sectors, upstream, midstream and downstream. Oil Fields from Space - nighttime satellite images showing fields around the world
10.
Petroleum
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Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well
11.
Ixtoc I oil spill
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On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout resulting in one of the largest oil spills in history. Mexicos state-owned oil company Pemex was drilling a 3 km deep oil well when the drilling rig Sedco 135F lost drilling mud circulation, in modern rotary drilling, mud is circulated down the drill pipe and back up the well bore to the surface. The goal is to equalize the pressure through the shaft and to monitor the returning mud for gas, without the counter-pressure provided by the circulating mud, the pressure in the formation allowed oil to fill the well column, blowing out the well. The oil caught fire, and Sedco 135F burned and collapsed into the sea, at the time of the accident Sedco 135F was drilling at a depth of about 3,600 metres below the seafloor. The day before Ixtoc suffered the blowout and resulting fire that caused her to sink, subsequently, the circulation of drilling mud was lost resulting in a loss of hydrostatic pressure. Rather than returning to the surface, the mud was escaping into fractures that had formed in the rock at the bottom of the hole. During the removal of the pipe on Sedco 135F, the drilling mud suddenly began to flow up towards the surface, normally, this flow can be stopped by activating shear rams contained in the blowout preventer. The drilling mud was followed by a quantity of oil. The oil and gas fumes exploded on contact with the pump motors. The collapse caused damage to underlying well structures, the damage to the well structures led to the release of significant quantities of oil into the Gulf. In the initial stages of the spill, an estimated 30,000 barrels of oil per day were flowing from the well. Pemex claimed that half of the oil burned when it reached the surface, a third of it evaporated. Pemex contracted Conair Aviation to spray the chemical dispersant Corexit 9527 on the oil, a total of 493 aerial missions were flown, treating 1,100 square miles of oil slick. Dispersants were not used in the U. S. area of the spill because of the inability to treat weathered oil. Eventually the on-scene coordinator requested that Mexico stop using dispersants north of 25°N, in Texas, an emphasis was placed on coastal countermeasures protecting the bays and lagoons formed by the barrier islands. Impacts of oil to the island beaches were ranked as second in importance to protecting inlets to the bays. This was done with the placement of skimmers and booms, efforts were concentrated on the Brazos-Santiago Pass, Port Mansfield Channel, Aransas Pass, and Cedar Bayou which during the course of the spill was sealed with sand. Economically and environmentally sensitive barrier island beaches were cleaned daily, laborers used rakes and shovels to clean beaches rather than heavier equipment which removed too much sand
12.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
13.
Atlantic hurricane
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An Atlantic hurricane or tropical storm is a tropical cyclone that forms in the Atlantic Ocean, usually in the summer or fall. A hurricane differs from a cyclone or typhoon only on the basis of location, a hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean, a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, and a cyclone occurs in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean. Tropical cyclones can be categorized by intensity, Tropical storms have one-minute maximum sustained winds of at least 39 mph, while hurricanes have one-minute maximum sustained winds exceeding 74 mph. Most North Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes form between June 1 and November 30, in recent times, tropical disturbances that reach tropical storm intensity are named from a predetermined list. On average, in the North Atlantic basin 11.3 named storms occur each season, the climatological peak of activity is around September 11 each season. In March 2004, Catarina was the first hurricane-intensity tropical cyclone recorded in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. Tropical cyclones are steered by the flow throughout the depth of the troposphere. Specifically, air flow around high pressure systems and toward low pressure areas influence hurricane tracks, south of the subtropical ridge, surface easterly winds prevail. If the subtropical ridge is weakened by a trough, a tropical cyclone may turn poleward and then recurve. Poleward of the ridge, westerly winds prevail and generally steer tropical cyclones that reach northern latitudes toward the east. The westerlies also steer extratropical cyclones with their cold and warm fronts from west to east, generally speaking, the intensity of a tropical cyclone is determined by either the storms maximum sustained winds or lowest barometric pressure. The following table lists the most intense Atlantic hurricanes in terms of their lowest barometric pressure, in terms of wind speed, Hurricane Allen was the strongest Atlantic tropical cyclone on record, with maximum sustained winds of 190 mph. However, these measurements are suspect since instrumentation used to document wind speeds at the time would likely succumb to winds of such intensity, nonetheless, their central pressures are low enough to rank them among the strongest recorded Atlantic hurricanes. Owing to their intensity, the strongest Atlantic hurricanes have all attained Category 5 classification, Hurricane Opal, the strongest Category 4 hurricane recorded, intensified to reach a minimum pressure of 916 mbar, a pressure typical of Category 5 hurricanes. Nonetheless, the pressure remains too high to list Opal as one of the ten strongest Atlantic tropical cyclones, however, this was later superseded by Hurricane Patricia in 2015 in the east Pacific, which had a pressure reading of 872 mbar. Preceding Wilma is Hurricane Gilbert, which had held the record for most intense Atlantic hurricane for 17 years. The 1935 Labor Day hurricane, with a pressure of 892 mbar, is the third strongest Atlantic hurricane, since the measurements taken during Wilma and Gilbert were documented using dropsonde, this pressure remains the lowest measured over land. However, with a pressure of 895 mbar, Rita is the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico
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Hurricane Roxanne
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Hurricane Roxanne was a rare and erratic tropical cyclone that caused extensive flooding in Mexico due to its unusual movement. The depression curved northward, causing it to avoid landfall in Central America, by October 9, the depression intensified enough to be upgraded to Tropical Storm Roxanne. On the following day, Roxanne turned west-northward, where it intensified into a hurricane. As Roxanne headed generally westward, it began to rapidly deepen, shortly thereafter, Roxanne made landfall near Cozumel, Mexico at its peak intensity, which caused severe damage. Roxanne rapidly weakened while traversing the Yucatan Peninsula, and it emerged into the Bay of Campeche on October 12, further weakening occurred, and Roxanne was downgraded to a tropical storm later that day. Roxanne tracked northwestward and eventually re-intensified into a hurricane on October 14, thereafter, Roxanne began to meander erratically in the Gulf of Mexico, the storm turned abruptly southeastward, and remained nearly stationary offshore of the Yucatan Peninsula. Following day, Roxanne curved back northwestward and weakened back to a storm on October 17. Roxanne completed a loop across the Gulf of Mexico on October 18. Further weakening occurred, and Roxanne was downgraded to a depression on October 19. A cold front in the Gulf of Mexico turned Roxanne abruptly southward, Roxanne was the first October hurricane that formed and reached Category 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale in the western Caribbean Sea since Hurricane Hattie in October 1961. Due to its slow and erratic movement, Roxanne dropped heavy rainfall in areas of southern Mexico. Heavy rainfall, in turn, led to flooding, which destroyed crop, washed out roads. In addition, significant coastal flooding occurred, as storm surge for nearly a week caused water to travel inland for hundreds of yards. High winds also occurred over the Yucatan Peninsula, with one station reporting hurricane-force winds on October 11, overall, it is estimated that Roxanne caused $1.5 billion in damage, although not all damage could be distinguished from Hurricane Opal. In addition,29 fatalities were reported, Roxanne formed from a tropical wave that merged with a broad low pressure area and an upper trough just off the coast of Honduras. Although its development was complex, it is common in the western Caribbean. On October 6, data indicated that a low, a tropical wave, was well established near the Cayman Islands. Satellite images indicated that the system was organizing and strengthening, all of these factors formed a tropical depression in the western Caribbean at 1800 UTC on October 7 near Nicaragua
15.
Campeche City
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The citys population at the 2010 census was 220,389, and the municipality for which it serves as municipal seat had a population of 259,005. The city was founded in 1540 by Spanish conquistadores as San Francisco de Campeche atop the pre-existing Maya city of Can Pech, the Pre-Columbian city was described as having 3,000 houses and various monuments, of which little trace remains. The city retains many of the old colonial Spanish city walls and fortifications protected the city from pirates. The state of preservation and quality of its architecture earned it the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, originally, the Spaniards lived inside the walled city, while the natives lived in the surrounding barrios of San Francisco, Guadalupe and San Román. These barrios still retain their original churches, the one in Guadalupe is almost 500 years old, founded in 1540 by Francisco Montejo, Campeche was terrorized by pirates and marauders until the city started fortification in 1686. San Francisco de Campeche was originally a village, Ah Kim Pech. The city of Campeche was founded in 1540 and fortified against pirates during the 17th century and it still has the appearance of a fortress. Historical monuments and buildings, such as the Franciscan cathedral, old Maya ruins, the state of preservation and quality of its architecture earned it the status of a World Heritage Site in 1999. More than one thousand buildings with a historic value have survived as witnesses of space, the French engineer Louis Bouchard de Becour was commissioned to unify all the defensive works that surrounded the city with a wall. At its completion, the surrounding the city of Campeche was 2,560 meters in length, forming an irregular hexagon around the main part of the city. These bulwarks now serve different functions, Santiago, Used as the Botanical Garden Xmuch´haltún, San Francisco, Protects the Land Gate. Houses the library of the INAH, San Juan, Protects the Land Gate. Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Also protects the Sea Gate and it is the largest one and holds the Museum of City History. San Carlos, Holds the City Museum and this fort was the first one built. It also contained four gates to access to the main quarters. The main entrances are the Puerta de la tierra, built in 1732, the Land Gate is kept as a tourist attraction, having a light and sound show three nights each week and keeping original supplies and items from the 17th century. The other gates were Guadalupe and San Román, connecting to the outside neighborhoods, additionally, two main forts protected the city from two nearby hills on each side, the forts of San José el Alto and San Miguel. These forts gave long-range artillery coverage and served also as look-outs and they were built before the walls of the city
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Carmen Municipality
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Carmen is one of the 11 municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Campeche. It is situated at the south-west of the state, on, the municipal seat, and largest settlement, is Ciudad del Carmen. As of 2015, the population was 248,303, the municipality of Carmen borders to the north with the Gulf of Mexico, to the west with the municipality of Palizada, and to the east with the municipalities of Champotón, Escárcega and Candelaria. It covers a surface area of 9,720.09 km². As of 2010, the municipality had a population of 221,094. The 2005 census reported a population of 199,988 persons, of these,4,151 spoke one of 25 indigenous languages used in the municipality, predominantly Chol and Yucatec Maya
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Ciudad del Carmen
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Isla del Carmen and Carmen Island redirect here. For the island in Baja California, see Isla del Carmen, Ciudad del Carmen is a city in the southwest of the Mexican state of Campeche. Ciudad del Carmen is located at 18. 63°N91. 83°W /18.63, -91.83 on the southwest of Carmen Island, as of 2010, Ciudad del Carmen had a population of 169,466, up from the 2005 census of 154,197. In July 2006 Ciudad del Carmen celebrated its 150th anniversary as a city, the city is nicknamed The Pearl of the Gulf. Ciudad del Carmen was a city mostly devoted to fishing until the 1970s when oil was discovered in the region, since then it has grown. To this day Carmen is known as one of the best locations to find seafood in Mexico, the construction of the first bridge was motivated by the sinking of one of the islands pangas which resulted in the death of nearly everyone on board. The bridge Puente El Zacatal, constructed in 1994, is one of the longest in Latin America. This border area at the edge of the Yucatán Peninsula was previously part of the state of Yucatán, then of Tabasco. In 1840 the city had a population of about 7,000, the city is also the seat of the state of Campeches Carmen municipality, which includes the city and the surrounding area. The 2010 census population of the municipality of Carmen was 221,094 people, the main university in Ciudad del Carmen is the Universidad Autónoma del Carmen. Founded in the era, Ciudad del Carmen was an important location which served to connect the Aztec. Ciudad del Carmen is located on an island covering an area of 11,513 hectares, the island is mainly 2 to 3 metres above sea level. Ciudad del Carmen is the head of Carmen municipality, like most of the cities along the Yucatans gulf coast, Ciudad del Carmen exhibits a Tropical savanna climate. The city, situated on Carmen Island, has a dry season that lasts from January through May. September and October bring copious rainfall, with both months averaging well over 200 milimeters, the vast majority of habitants in Ciudad del Carmen comes from other places. In the mid 1970s Ciudad del Carmen was transformed from a fishing and shrimping city into a hub for oil when Pemex discovered large amounts of petroleum off the coast. Ever since, Carmen has become a home for Mexican and foreign oil workers alike, including many Texans, and now houses many foreign companies
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Palizada Municipality
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Palizada is one of the 11 municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Campeche. It is situated in the far south-west corner of the state, the municipal seat, and largest settlement, is the city of Palizada. As of 2010, the population was 8,352, the municipality of Palizada borders to the west with the state of Tabasco and to the east with the neighbouring Campeche municipality of Carmen. It covers a surface area of 2,071. 70km². As of 2010, the municipality had a population of 8,352. As of 2010, the town of Palizada had a population of 3,089, other than the town of Palizada, the municipality had 256 localities, none of which had a population over 1,000
19.
Palizada
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Palizada is a city in the Mexican state of Campeche. It is situated in the south-west the state and it serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. As of 2010, the Palizada had a population of 3,089, Palizada was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2010. Palizada Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México Ayuntamiento de Palizada Municipal website
20.
Tenabo Municipality
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Tenabo is one of the 11 municipalities in the Mexican state of Campeche. It is situated on the coast in the north of the state, the municipal seat, and largest settlement, is the city of Tenabo,36 km from state capital Campeche, Camp. As of 2015, the municipality had a population of 10,665. It covers 882 km², accounting for 1. 5% of the total surface area. As of 2010, the municipality had a population of 9,736. As of 2010, the city of Tenabo had a population of 7,543, other than the city of Tenabo, the municipality had 90 localities, none of which had a population over 1,000
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Calakmul Municipality
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Calakmul is a municipality in the Mexican state of Campeche, situated in the central part of the Yucatán Peninsula. The municipality of Calakmul borders to the east with Quintana Roo and Belize, to the south with Guatemala and it covers 13,839.11 km², accounting for 24. 34% of the states total surface area, and is the 10th-largest municipality in area in the country. The municipality was created on 31 December 1996, from part of the territory of Champotón, the 2010 census reported a population of 26,882 persons. The languages spoken in Calakmul include Yucatec Maya, Chol, Chontal, Tzotzil, the largest localities are, Maya archaeological sites in the municipality include, Calakmul, Becán, Chicanna, El Hormiguero, Río Bec and Xpuhil. The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve also covers much of its southern portion
22.
Xpujil
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Xpujil is a town in the Mexican state of Campeche. It serves as the seat for the surrounding municipality of Calakmul. As of 2010, Xpujil had a population of 3,984, Xpujil is located in the south-east of the state, close to the border with Quintana Roo to the east and Peten, Guatemala, to the south. With Escárcega, Campeche 153 kilometres to the west and Chetumal, close to the town are the Maya ruins of Xpuhil and Becan, Chicanná, Balamcan, Hormiguero. Further to the south-west is the major Maya site of Calakmul, Highway 186 was, as of February 2009, undergoing a major refurbishment to a multilane highway that will improve access to the zone. Currently many tourists travel by road from Cancun to Palenque, there are plans to increase room availability and other services for eco-tourism and other activities within the Calakmul Ecological reserve. XEPUJ, an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish, Yucatec Maya
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Candelaria Municipality
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Candelaria is one of the 11 municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Campeche. It is situated at the south of the state, and the municipal seat, as of 2010, the population was 41,194. The name Candelaria is in reference to the Río Candelaria, a river which drains the region and it covers a total surface area of 5,518.55 km². The region is a part of a large plain, the lowest altitude is 10 meters above sea level, and the highest is 100 meters above sea level. The plain is flat with moderate hills. A large river, the Candelaria River, runs through the municipality, on 25 April 1984, the State Congress heard a request made by the residents of the region for it to be established as an autonomous municipality. The municipality of Candelaria was created by the Congress on 19 June 1998, the Candelaria region is part of the Grijalva-Usumacinta hydrological system, which includes the Candelaria River. The Candelaria River begins in the Petén Department in Guatemala, and empties into the Boca de Pargos, the river is 402 km long. The Candelaria River has several waterfalls, some of these include the Waterfall of Death, Grande Waterfall, and Bull Waterfall. This region varies between a humid climate and a rainy, warm, Humid subtropical climate, with monsoon rains occurring during the summer. The average annual temperature is 25 degrees Celsius, annual precipitation in the Candelaria region is approximately 1700 mm, from the period of May to December, with much of that rainfall occurring in the months of September and October. According to the 2005 Population and Housing count, the municipality has a total of 49,850 inhabitants, as of 2010, the city of Candelaria had a population of 9,812. Other than the city of Candelaria, the municipality had 1,401 localities, the largest of which were, Benito Juárez Uno and El Naranjo, classified as rural
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Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
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Ocean
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An ocean is a body of saline water that composes much of a planets hydrosphere. On Earth, an ocean is one of the major divisions of the World Ocean. These are, in descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, the word sea is often used interchangeably with ocean in American English but, strictly speaking, a sea is a body of saline water partly or fully enclosed by land. The ocean contains 97% of Earths water, and oceanographers have stated that less than 5% of the World Ocean has been explored, the total volume is approximately 1.35 billion cubic kilometers with an average depth of nearly 3,700 meters. As the world ocean is the component of Earths hydrosphere, it is integral to all known life, forms part of the carbon cycle. The world ocean is the habitat of 230,000 known species, but because much of it is unexplored, the origin of Earths oceans remains unknown, oceans are thought to have formed in the Hadean period and may have been the impetus for the emergence of life. Extraterrestrial oceans may be composed of water or other elements and compounds, the only confirmed large stable bodies of extraterrestrial surface liquids are the lakes of Titan, although there is evidence for the existence of oceans elsewhere in the Solar System. Early in their histories, Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water oceans. The Mars ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once covered by water, compounds such as salts and ammonia dissolved in water lower its freezing point so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrial environments as brine or convecting ice. Unconfirmed oceans are speculated beneath the surface of many planets and natural satellites, notably. The Solar Systems giant planets are thought to have liquid atmospheric layers of yet to be confirmed compositions. Oceans may also exist on exoplanets and exomoons, including surface oceans of water within a circumstellar habitable zone. Ocean planets are a type of planet with a surface completely covered with liquid. The concept of Ōkeanós has an Indo-European connection, Greek Ōkeanós has been compared to the Vedic epithet ā-śáyāna-, predicated of the dragon Vṛtra-, who captured the cows/rivers. Related to this notion, the Okeanos is represented with a dragon-tail on some early Greek vases, though generally described as several separate oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water sometimes referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography. The major oceanic divisions – listed below in descending order of area and volume – are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, Oceans are fringed by smaller, adjoining bodies of water such as seas, gulfs, bays, bights, and straits. The Mid-Oceanic Ridge of the World are connected and form the Ocean Ridge, the continuous mountain range is 65,000 km long, and the total length of the oceanic ridge system is 80,000 km long
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Arctic Ocean
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The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the worlds five major oceans. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean, located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere, the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America. It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter, the summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center uses satellite data to provide a record of Arctic sea ice cover. The Arctic may become ice free for the first time in human history within a few years or by 2040, for much of European history, the north polar regions remained largely unexplored and their geography conjectural. He was probably describing loose sea ice known today as growlers or bergy bits, his Thule was probably Norway, early cartographers were unsure whether to draw the region around the North Pole as land or water. The makers of navigational charts, more conservative than some of the more fanciful cartographers, tended to leave the region blank and this lack of knowledge of what lay north of the shifting barrier of ice gave rise to a number of conjectures. In England and other European nations, the myth of an Open Polar Sea was persistent, john Barrow, longtime Second Secretary of the British Admiralty, promoted exploration of the region from 1818 to 1845 in search of this. In the United States in the 1850s and 1860s, the explorers Elisha Kane, even quite late in the century, the eminent authority Matthew Fontaine Maury included a description of the Open Polar Sea in his textbook The Physical Geography of the Sea. Nevertheless, as all the explorers who travelled closer and closer to the reported, the polar ice cap is quite thick. Fridtjof Nansen was the first to make a crossing of the Arctic Ocean. The first surface crossing of the ocean was led by Wally Herbert in 1969, in a dog sled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard, with air support. The first nautical transit of the pole was made in 1958 by the submarine USS Nautilus. Since 1937, Soviet and Russian manned drifting ice stations have extensively monitored the Arctic Ocean, scientific settlements were established on the drift ice and carried thousands of kilometres by ice floes. In World War II, the European region of the Arctic Ocean was heavily contested, the Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2, almost the size of Antarctica. The coastline is 45,390 km long and it is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea, countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are, Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. There are several ports and harbours around the Arctic Ocean In Alaska, in Canada, ships may anchor at Churchill in Manitoba, Nanisivik in Nunavut, Tuktoyaktuk or Inuvik in the Northwest territories
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Amundsen Gulf
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Amundsen Gulf is a gulf located in Canadian Northwest Territories, between Banks Island and Victoria Island and the mainland. It is approximately 250 mi in length and about 93 mi across where it meets the Beaufort Sea, the Amundsen Gulf was explored by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen between 1903 and 1906. The gulf is at the end of the famous Northwest Passage. Few people live along the shores of the gulf, but there are a few towns and communities, including Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok, heading north in the gulf one would find the Prince of Wales Strait. Heading southeast and east, the gulf leads through the Dolphin and Union Strait, past Simpson Bay, from there one would go through the Dease Strait and into the Queen Maud Gulf, and eventually head northeast into the Victoria Strait. Heading west and northwest a traveller would first enter the Beaufort Sea, the entire gulf is in the Arctic tundra climate region, characterized by extremely cold winters. In late winter the Amundsen Gulf is covered in sea ice, most of the ice breaks up in July during a normal year, with some areas in the far eastern and northern part of the gulf only breaking up in August. Beluga whales, seals, Arctic char, cod, and even use the waters of the gulf
28.
Barents Sea
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The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters. Known among Russians in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea and it is a rather shallow shelf sea, with an average depth of 230 metres, and is an important site for both fishing and hydrocarbon exploration. Novaya Zemlya, an extension of the part of the Ural Mountains. The southern half of the Barents Sea, including the ports of Murmansk, in September, the entire Barents Sea is more or less completely ice-free. Until the Winter War, Finlands territory also reached to the Barents Sea, with the harbor at Petsamo being Finlands only ice-free winter harbor. There are three types of water masses in the Barents Sea, Warm, salty Atlantic water from the North Atlantic drift, cold Arctic water from the north, and warm. Between the Atlantic and Polar waters, a front called the Polar Front is formed, the lands of Novaya Zemlya attained most of their early Holocene coastal deglaciation approximately 10,000 years before present. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Barentsz Sea as follows, On the west, on the northwest, The eastern shore of West Spitzbergen, Hinlopen Strait up to 80° latitude north, south and east coasts of North-East Land to Cape Leigh Smith. On the north, Cape Leigh Smith across the Islands Bolshoy Ostrov, Gilles and Victoria, on the east, Cape Kohlsaat to Cape Zhelaniya, west and southwest coast of Novaya Zemlya to Cape Kussov Noss and thence to western entrance Cape, Dolgaya Bay on Vaigach Island. Through Vaigach Island to Cape Greben, thence to Cape Belyi Noss on the mainland, on the south, The northern limit of the White Sea. Other islands in the Barents Sea include Chaichy and Timanets, most of its geological history is dominated by extensional tectonics, caused by the collapse of the Caledonian and Uralian orogenic belts and the break-up of Pangaea. These events created the rift basins that dominate the Barents Shelf, along with various platforms. Due to the North Atlantic drift, the Barents Sea has a high biological production compared to other oceans of similar latitude. The spring bloom of phytoplankton can start quite early close to the ice edge, the phytoplankton bloom feeds zooplankton such as Calanus finmarchicus, Calanus glacialis, Calanus hyperboreus, Oithona spp. and krill. The zooplankton feeders include young cod, capelin, polar cod, whales, the capelin is a key food for top predators such as the north-east Arctic cod, harp seals, and seabirds such as common guillemot and Brunnichs guillemot. The fisheries of the Barents Sea, in particular the cod fisheries, are of importance for both Norway and Russia. There is a genetically distinct polar bear population associated with the Barents Sea and its eastern corner, in the region of the Pechora Rivers estuary, has been known as Pechorskoye Morye, that is, Pechora Sea. This sea was given its present name in honor of Willem Barentsz, Barentsz was the leader of early expeditions to the far north, at the end of the sixteenth century
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Beaufort Sea
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The Beaufort Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, west of Canadas Arctic islands. The sea is named after hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort, the major Mackenzie River empties into the Canadian part of the sea, west of Tuktoyaktuk, which is one of the few permanent settlements on the sea shores. The sea, characterized by climate, is frozen over most of the year. Historically, only a narrow pass up to 100 km opened in August–September near its shores, claims that the seacoast was populated about 30,000 years ago have been largely discredited, present population density is very low. The sea contains significant resources of petroleum and natural gas under its shelf and they were discovered in the period between the 1950s and 1980s, and their exploration became the major human activity in the area since the 1980s. The traditional occupations of fishery and whale and seal hunting are practiced only locally, as a result, the sea hosts one of the largest colonies of beluga whales, and there is no sign of overfishing. To prevent overfishing in its waters, the US adopted precautionary commercial fisheries management plan in August 2009, in April 2011 the Canadian government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Inuvialuit as a first step in developing a larger ocean management plan. The Canadian government has set a new block of the Beaufort Sea off the Parry Peninsula in the Amundsen as a Marine Protected Area, the protected area is set to protect species and habits for the Inuvialuit community. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Beaufort Sea as follows, a line from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Lands End, Prince Patrick Island. There is a dispute involving a wedge-shaped slice on the International Boundary in the Beaufort Sea. Canada claims the maritime boundary to be along the 141st meridian west out to a distance of 200 nmi, following the Alaska–Yukon land border. The position of the United States is that the line is perpendicular to the coast out to a distance of 200 nmi. This difference creates a wedge with an area of about 21,000 km2 that is claimed by both nations, Canadas position has its roots in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg between the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire that set the boundary between the two. They differ on what should be deemed equitable, Canada contends that an equidistance principle does not result in an equitable boundary, because distortion would occur. The coast of Yukon is concave, whereas the coast of Alaska is convex, because of this, Canada argues that special circumstances apply to this border, a position that the U. S. rejects. Before the end of 2004, the US leased eight plots of land below the water for oil exploration and exploitation, provoking a diplomatic protest from Canada. On 20 August 2009, United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke announced a moratorium on fishing of the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska. In July 2010, US–Canada negotiations have started in Ottawa with the meeting planned in 2011
30.
Chukchi Sea
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Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, the Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The principal port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia, the International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea from northwest to southeast. It is displaced eastwards to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland, the sea has an approximate area of 595,000 km2 and is only navigable about four months of the year. The main geological feature of the Chukchi Sea bottom is the 700-kilometre-long Hope Basin, depths less than 50 meters occupy 56% of the total area. The Chukchi Sea has very few compared to other seas of the Arctic. Wrangel Island lies at the limit of the sea, Herald Island is located near its northern limit. The sea is named after the Chukchi people, who reside on its shores, the coastal Chukchi traditionally engaged in fishing, whaling and the hunting of walrus in this cold sea. In Alaska, the rivers flowing into the Chukchi Sea are the Kivalina, the Kobuk, the Kokolik, the Kukpowruk, the Kukpuk, the Noatak, the Utukok, the Pitmegea, and the Wulik, among others. Of rivers flowing in from its Siberian side, the Amguyema, Ioniveyem, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Chuckchi Sea as follows, On the West. The Eastern limit of East Siberian Sea, a line from Point Barrow, Alaska to the Northernmost point of Wrangel Island. The Arctic Circle between Siberia and Alaska, common usage is that the southern extent is further south at the narrowest part of the Bering Strait which is on the 66th parallel north. The Chukchi Sea Shelf is the westernmost part of the shelf of the United States. Within this shelf, the 50-mile Chukchi Corridor acts as a passageway for one of the largest marine mammal migrations in the world, in 1728, Vitus Bering and in 1779, Captain James Cook entered the sea from the Pacific. Since further progress for that year was impossible, the ship was secured in winter quarters, even so, members of the expedition and the crew were aware only a few miles of ice-blocked sea lay between them and the open waters. The following year, two days after Vega was released, she passed the Bering Strait and steamed towards the Pacific Ocean. In 1913, Karluk, abandoned by expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson, drifted in the ice along the northern expanses of the Chukchi Sea and sank, the survivors made it to Wrangel Island, where they found themselves in a hopeless situation. Then Captain Robert Bartlett walked hundreds of kilometers with Kataktovik, an Inuit man and they reached Cape Vankarem on the Chukotka coast, on April 15,1914
31.
East Siberian Sea
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The East Siberian Sea is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukotka and this sea borders on the Laptev Sea to the west and the Chukchi Sea to the east. This sea is one of the least studied in the Arctic area, the sea shores were inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous tribes of Yukaghirs, Chukchi and then Evens and Evenks, which were engaged in fishing, hunting and reindeer husbandry. They were then absorbed by Yakuts and later by Russians, major industrial activities in the area are mining and navigation within the Northern Sea Route, commercial fishing is poorly developed. The largest city and port is Pevek, the northernmost city of mainland Russia, the present name was assigned to the sea on 27 June 1935 by Decree of the Soviet Government. Before that, the sea had no name was intermixedly called in Russia as Indigirskoe, Kolymskoe, Severnoe, Sibirskoe or Ledovitoe. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the East Siberian Sea as follows, the Eastern limit of Laptev Sea. A line from the Northernmost point of Wrangel Island to the Northern sides of the De Long Islands and Bennett Island, from the Northernmost point of Wrangel Island through this island to Cape Blossom thence to Cape Yakan on the main land. Because it is open towards the Arctic Ocean in the north, the gulfs of the East Siberian Sea, like the Kolyma Bay, the Kolyma Gulf. There are no islands in the middle of the East Siberian Sea, but there are a few islands and island groups in its waters, like Ayon Island. The total area of the islands is only 80 km2, some islands mostly consist of sand and ice and gradually erode. The total catchment area is 1,342,000 km2, among the rivers flowing into the East Siberian Sea, the Indigirka, Alazeya, Uyandina, Chukochya, Kolyma, Rauchua, Chaun, and Pegtymel are the most important. Only a few rivers are navigable, the coastline of the sea is 3,016 km long. It makes large bends, sometimes stretching deep into the land, fine bends are rare and occur only in the river deltas. The coastal section between the New Siberian Islands and the mouth of the Kolyma River is uniform, with low and it extends landwards to the marshy tundra filled with numerous small lakes. In contrast, the coast to the east of the Kolyma River is mountainous, about 70% of the sea is shallower than 50 m, with predominant depths of 20–25 m. North-east to the mouth of the Kolyma and Indigirka rivers, there are deep trenches on the seabed, the region of small depths in the western part forms the Novosibirsk shoal. The greatest depths of about 150 m are found in the part of the sea
32.
Greenland Sea
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The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean, sometimes as part of the Atlantic Ocean. However, definitions of the Arctic Ocean and its seas tend to be imprecise or arbitrary, in general usage the term Arctic Ocean would exclude the Greenland Sea. In oceanographic studies the Greenland Sea is considered part of the Nordic Seas, the Nordic Seas are the main connection between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and, as such, could be of great significance in a possible shutdown of thermohaline circulation. In oceanography the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas are often referred to collectively as the Arctic Mediterranean Sea, the sea has Arctic climate with regular northern winds and temperatures rarely rising above 0 °C. The West Ice forms in winter in the Greenland Sea, north of Iceland and it is a major breeding ground of harp seal and hooded seal that has been used for seal hunting for more than 200 years. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Greenland Sea as follows, a line joining the Northernmost point of Spitzbergen to the Northernmost point of Greenland. The West coast of West Spitzbergen, a line joining Straumnes to Cape Nansen in Greenland. The East and Northeast coast of Greenland between Cape Nansen and the northernmost point, while the sea is known for millennia, its first scientific investigations were carried out in 1876–1878 within the Norwegian North-Atlantic Expedition. Since then, many countries, mostly Norway, Iceland and Russia have sent scientific expeditions to the area, the complex water current system was detailed in 1909 by the Fridtjof Nansen. The Greenland Sea was a hunting ground for the whaling industry for 300 years, until 1911. At that point, the formerly rich whale population here, was so depleted that the industry was no longer profitable, the remaining whales of the Greenland Sea has been protected ever since, but the populations had not shown any proof of significant regeneration. In the last 20 years, polar biologists reports an increase in the local bowhead whale population and in 2015, arctic scientists discovered a surprising abundance of them in a small area. These results may be interpreted as an sign of a beginning recovery for this particular species. The inuit hunted whales on a scale in the Greenland Sea since the fifteenth century. The Greenland Sea is bounded to the west by the island of Greenland, to the southeast, behind the Jan Mayen island lies the vast expanse of the Norwegian Sea, of which Greenland Sea may be considered an extension. Across the Fram Strait to the northeast, the sea is delimited by the Svalbard archipelago, the bottom of the Greenland Sea is a depression bounded to the south by the underwater Greenland-Iceland ridge and to the east by the Mohns Ridge and Knipovich Ridge. To the west, the bottom rises first slowly, but then rapidly toward the wide Greenland coastal strip, silts fill the submarine hollows and gorges, silty sands, gravel, boulders, and other products of erosion coat the shelves and ridges. Of those, only the Svalbard islands are inhabited, and Jan Mayen has only temporal military staff, several radio and meteorological stations operate on the island nowadays
33.
Gulf of Boothia
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The Gulf of Boothia /ˈbuːθiə/ is a body of water in Nunavut, Canada. Administratively it is divided between the Kitikmeot Region on the west and the Qikiqtaaluk Region on the east and it merges north into Prince Regent Inlet, the two forming a single bay with different names for its parts. The south end is Committee Bay, northwest of which are the Simpson Peninsula, in addition to its connection to Prince Regent Inlet one can use an icebreaker to go east through the Fury and Hecla Strait, or, with luck, pass the Bellot Strait westward. In 1822 it was seen by some of William Edward Parrys men who went on foot along the ice-choked Fury, in 1829 it was entered by John Ross who was frozen in for four years and named it for his patron Sir Felix Booth. Its south end was explored by John Rae in 1846/47 who reached it overland from the south
34.
Kara Sea
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The Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and it is named for the Kara River, which is now relatively insignificant but which played an important role in the Russian conquest of northern Siberia. The word kara is derived from kara, which in several Turkic languages means black, the Kara Sea is roughly 1,450 kilometres long and 970 kilometres wide with an area of around 880,000 km2 and a mean depth of 110 metres. Compared to the Barents Sea, which receives relatively warm currents from the Atlantic, the Kara receives a large amount of fresh water from the Ob, Yenisei, Pyasina, and Taimyra rivers, so its salinity is variable. Its main ports are Novy Port and Dikson and it is important as a fishing ground although the sea is ice-bound for all but two months of the year. Significant discoveries of petroleum and natural gas, the East-Prinovozemelsky field, in 2014, US government sanctions resulted in Exxon having until September 26 to discontinue its operations in the Kara Sea. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Kara Sea as follows, the Eastern limit of Barentsz Sea. Komsomolets Island from Cape Molotov to South Eastern Cape, thence to Cape Vorochilov, then to Cape Unslicht on Bolshevik Island. Thence to Cape Pronchisthehev on the main land, there are many islands and island groups in the Kara Sea. The largest group in the Kara Sea is by far the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, with five large subgroups, other important islands in the Kara Sea are Bely Island, Dikson Island, Taymyr Island, the Kamennyye Islands and Oleni Island. Despite the high latitude all islands are unglaciated except for Ushakov Island at the northern limit of the Kara Sea. The Kara Sea was formerly known as Oceanus Scythicus or Mare Glaciale, since it is closed by ice most of the year it remained largely unexplored until the late nineteenth century. In 1556 Stephen Borough sailed in the Searchthrift to try to reach the Ob River, not until 1580 did another English expedition, under Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman, attempt its passage. They too failed to penetrate it, and England lost interest in searching for the Northeast Passage, in 1736–1737 Russian Admiral Stepan Malygin undertook a voyage from Dolgy Island in the Barents Sea. The two ships in this expedition were the Perviy, under Malygins command and the Vtoroy under Captain A. Skuratov. After entering the little-explored Kara Sea, they sailed to the mouth of the Ob River, Malygin took careful observations of these hitherto almost unknown areas of the Russian Arctic coastline. With this knowledge he was able to draw the first somewhat accurate map of the Arctic shores between the Pechora River and the Ob River, frozen in for the winter in the Chukchi Sea, Nordenskiöld waited and bartered with the local Chukchi people. The following July, the Vega was freed from the ice and he became the first to force the Northeast Passage
35.
Laptev Sea
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The Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands and its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with co-ordinates of 79°N and 139°E, and ends at the Anisiy Cape. The Kara Sea lies to the west, the East Siberian Sea to the east, the sea has a severe climate with temperatures below 0 °C over more than 9 months per year, low water salinity, scarcity of flora, fauna and human population, and low depths. It is frozen most of the time, though clear in August. The sea shores were inhabited for thousands of years by tribes of Yukaghirs and then Evens and Evenks. They were then settled by Yakuts and later by Russians, Russian explorations of the area started in the 17th century. They came from the south via several large rivers which empty into the sea, such as the prominent Lena River, the Khatanga, the Anabar, the Olenyok, the Omoloy, the sea contains several dozen islands, many of which contain well-preserved mammoth remains. Major human activities in the area are mining and navigation on the Northern Sea Route, the largest settlement and port is Tiksi. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Laptev Sea as follows, the eastern limit of Kara Sea. A line joining Cape Molotov to the Northern extremity of Kotelni Island, from the Northern extremity of Kotelni Island – through Kotelni Island to Cape Madvejyi. Then through Malyi Island, to Cape Vaguin on Great Liakhov Island, thence to Cape Sviatoy Nos on the main land. Using current geographic names and transcription this definition corresponds to the shown in the map. The seas border starts at Arctic Cape on Komsomolets Island at 81°13′N 95°15′E and connects to Cape Rosa Luxemburg, the next segment crosses Red Army Strait and leads to Cape Vorochilov on October Revolution Island and afterwards through that island to Cape Anuchin at 79°39′37″N 100°21′22″E. Next, the border crosses Shokalsky Strait to Cape Unslicht at 79°25′04″N 102°31′00″E on Bolshevik Island and it goes further through the island to Cape Yevgenov at 78°17′N 104°50′E. From there, the border goes through Vilkitsky Strait to Cape Pronchishchev at 77°32′57″N 105°54′4″E on the Tamyr peninsula, the southern boundary is the shore of the Asian mainland. Prominent features are the Khatanga Gulf and the delta of the Lena River, in the east, the polygon crosses the Dmitry Laptev Strait. It connects Cape Svyatoy Nos at 72. 7°N141. 2°E /72.7,141. 2 with Cape Vagin at 73°26′0″N 139°50′0″E in the very east of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. Next, the Laptev Sea border crosses Eterikan Strait to Little Lyakhovsky Island at 74. 0833°N140. 5833°E /74.0833,140. 5833 up to Cape Medvezhiy, finally, there is a segment through Kotelny Island to Cape Anisy, its northernmost headland 76°10′N 138°50′E
State of Campeche
