1.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
2.
Body of water
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Body of Water is a musical conceived by Tony Kienitz and Tanna Herr with music by Jim Walker. It entails the life of fourteen teens left behind in a war crisis. The show was the production of A Theatre Near U. The show was adapted from music written by Jim Walker, the music for the show was nominated for Best Original Music by the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Excellence in Theatre Awards. The album is available on iTunes here, the overall reception of Body of Water was positive. He also praised the music by Jim Walker as wonderfully raw, cryptic, richard Conema of Talkin Broadway and member of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle agreed with Jarrett on the music and choreography. He also said that the actors of the show are the adult performers of the future. These young people are doing work and many aspire to be professional actors. He also commended producing theatre company A Theatre Near U, saying that A Theatre Near U may have just fired the first shot in a revolution to determine the future of Youth Theatre
Body of water
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The original poster for Body of Water, the Musical.
Body of water
3.
Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
Indian Ocean
–
The economically important
Silk Road (red) and spice
trade routes (blue) were blocked by the
Ottoman Empire in ca. 1453 with the fall of the
Byzantine Empire. This spurred exploration, and a new sea route around Africa was found, triggering the
Age of Discovery.
Indian Ocean
–
Extent of the Indian Ocean according to the
CIA World Factbook
Indian Ocean
–
British heavy cruisers
Dorsetshire and
Cornwall under Japanese air attack and heavily damaged on 5 April 1942
Indian Ocean
–
A
dhow off the coast of Kenya
4.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
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The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
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Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
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An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
5.
Malagasy language
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Malagasy is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere, the Malagasy language is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Its distinctiveness from nearby African languages was noted in 1708 by the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland and it is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and more closely to the East Barito languages spoken in Borneo except for its Polynesian morphophonemics. According to Roger Blench, the earliest form of language spoken on Madagascar could have had some non-Austronesian substrata, Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian peoples from Maritime Southeast Asia who had passed through Borneo. 1000, the original Austronesian settlers mixed with Bantus and Arabs, there is evidence that the predecessor of the Malagasy dialects first arrived in the southern stretch of the east coast of Madagascar. Malagasy has a tradition of arts and poetic histories and legends. The most well-known is the epic, Ibonia, about a Malagasy folk hero of the same name. The Malagasy language is the language spoken on the island of Madagascar. It is also spoken by Malagasy communities on neighboring Indian Ocean islands such as Réunion, large expatriate Malagasy communities speaking the language also exist in France, Québec, and to a lesser extent Belgium and Washington DC. The Merina dialect of Malagasy is considered the language of Madagascar. It is one of two official languages alongside French in the 2010 constitution putting in place the Fourth Republic, previously, under the 2007 constitution, Malagasy was one of three official languages alongside French and English. Ethnologue encodes a dozen varieties of Malagasy as distinct languages and they have about a 70% similarity in lexicon with Merina dialect. The two main dialects of Malagasy are easily distinguished by several phonological features, the language has a written literature going back presumably to the 15th century. When the French established Fort-Dauphin in the 17th century, they found an Arabico-Malagasy script in use and this Arabic Ajami script was mainly used for astrological and magical texts. The first bilingual renderings of religious texts are those by Étienne de Flacourt, who also published the first dictionary of the language. The Malagasy alphabet consists of 21 letters, a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, v, y, z. The orthography maps rather straightforwardly to the phonemic inventory, the letters i and y both represent the /i/ sound, while o is pronounced /u/. The affricates /ʈʂ/ and /ɖʐ/ are written tr and dr, respectively, while /ts/ and /dz/ are written ts, the letter h is often silent
Malagasy language
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Sorabe Malagasy Arabic script
Malagasy language
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Malagasy bible
Malagasy language
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Malagasy lexicon (1773) (Collection BULAC Paris)
6.
Portuguese language
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Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, and has kept some Celtic phonology. Portuguese is also termed the language of Camões, after Luís Vaz de Camões, one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem, the museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was destroyed in a fire, but there are plans to reconstruct it, when the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BCE, they brought the Latin language with them, from which all Romance languages descend. Between 409 CE and 711 CE, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, Portuguese evolved from the medieval language, known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, Old Portuguese or Old Galician, of the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from the 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León, by then reigning over Galicia. In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period, the language was used for documents. For some time, it was the language of preference for poetry in Christian Hispania. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal, in the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin, and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Portuguese. Portuguese is the language of the majority of people in Brazil and Portugal, perhaps 75% of the population of Angola speaks Portuguese natively, and 85% are fluent. Just over 40% of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole is understood by all. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, there are also significant Portuguese speaking immigrant communities in many countries including Andorra, Bermuda, Canada, France, Japan, Jersey, Namibia, Paraguay, Macau, Switzerland, Venezuela. In some parts of former Portuguese India, namely Goa and Daman and Diu, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Equatorial Guinea made an application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010. In 2011, Portuguese became its official language and, in July 2014. Portuguese is a subject in The school curriculum in Uruguay
Portuguese language
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Multilingual sign in Japanese, Portuguese, and English in
Oizumi,
Japan. Return immigration of
Japanese Brazilians has led to a large Portuguese-speaking community in the town.
Portuguese language
–
Percentage of worldwide Portuguese speakers per country.
Portuguese language
–
Library of the
Mafra National Palace, Portugal
Portuguese language
–
Baroque Library of the
Coimbra University, Portugal
7.
Madagascar
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Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west
Madagascar
–
The terraced paddy fields of the
central highlands of Madagascar (left) give way to tropical rainforest along the eastern coast (center) bordered by the shores of the
Indian Ocean (right).
Madagascar
–
Flag
Madagascar
Madagascar
–
The grassy plains that dominate the western landscape are dotted with stony massifs (left), patches of deciduous forest, and
baobab trees (center), while the south is characterized by desert and
spiny forests (right).
8.
Mozambique
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It is separated from Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo, between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans, the area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonised by Portugal from 1505. The country was an important place where Somali merchants enslaved the local population, after over four centuries of Portuguese rule, Mozambique gained independence in 1975, becoming the Peoples Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. After only two years of independence, the country descended into an intense and protracted civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992, in 1994, Mozambique held its first multiparty elections and has remained a relatively stable presidential republic. However, since 2013, following more than 20 years of peace, Mozambique is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world. Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources, the countrys economy is based largely on agriculture, but industry is growing, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, and aluminium and petroleum production. The countrys tourism sector is also growing, South Africa is Mozambiques main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Belgium, Brazil, Portugal, and Spain are also among the countrys most important economic partners, since 2001, Mozambiques annual average GDP growth has been among the worlds highest. However, the ranks among the lowest in GDP per capita, human development, measures of inequality. The only official language of Mozambique is Portuguese, which is mostly as a second language by about half of the population. Common native languages include Makhuwa, Sena, and Swahili, the countrys population of around 24 million is composed overwhelmingly of Bantu people. The largest religion in Mozambique is Christianity, with significant minorities following Islam, the island-town was the capital of the Portuguese colony until 1898, when it was moved south to Lourenço Marques. Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, waves of Bantu-speaking people migrated from the west and north through the Zambezi River valley and then gradually into the plateau and they established agricultural communities or societies based on herding cattle. They brought with them the technology for smelting and smithing iron, from the late first millennium AD, vast Indian Ocean trade networks extended as far south into Mozambique as the ancient port town of Chibuene. Connections are evident at sites including Manyikeni for 11–14th century ties with the inland Great Zimbabwe kingdoms, from about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts displaced the Arabic commercial and military hegemony, becoming regular ports of call on the new European sea route to the east. The voyage of Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 marked the Portuguese entry into trade, politics, the Portuguese attempted to legitimise and consolidate their trade and settlement positions through the creation of prazos tied to Portuguese settlement and administration. Historically within Mozambique there was slavery, Human beings were bought and sold by African tribal chiefs, Arab Muslim traders and Portuguese and other European traders as well
Mozambique
–
Depiction of Arab slave traders and their captives along the Ruvuma river
Mozambique
–
Flag
Mozambique
–
The
Island of Mozambique is a small coral island at the mouth of Mossuril Bay on the
Nacala coast of northern Mozambique, first explored by Europeans in the late 15th century.
Mozambique
–
Portuguese language printing and typesetting class, 1930
9.
Mozambique Current
–
The classical definition of the Mozambique Current is that it is a strong, steady, western boundary current. Modern research has challenged that assumption, and indicates that rather than a western boundary current. Direct evidence for these eddies has been found in satellite altimetry data, ship borne surveys, nonetheless, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that the Mozambique Current may appear intermittently, for short durations. Indeed, numerical simulations in the Mozambique Channel show the appearance of a current on the Mozambican Coast. Mozambique Channel Eddies are large, warm, anti-cyclonic eddies that propagate southwards in the Mozambique Channel and these eddies may have diameters of up to 300 km, and maximum swirl velocities of nearly 1 m/s. The exact causal mechanism, and location of the formation is still debated. The frequency of eddy occurrence reduces from around seven per year in the north of the Channel, once the eddies exit the Mozambique Channel, they contribute to the variability of the Agulhas Current, including the generation of the Natal Pulse, and Agulhas Rings
Mozambique Current
–
visualisation of ocean currents
10.
Agulhas Current
–
The Agulhas Current /əˈɡʌləs/ is the western boundary current of the southwest Indian Ocean. It flows down the east coast of Africa from 27°S to 40°S and it is narrow, swift and strong. The sources of the Agulhas Current are the East Madagascar Current, the Mozambique Current, the net transport of the Agulhas Current is estimated as 100 Sv. The flow of the Agulhas Current is directed by the topography, the current follows the continental shelf from Maputo to the tip of the Agulhas Bank. Here the momentum of the current overcomes the vorticity balance holding the current to the topography, the current reaches its maximum transport near the Agulhas Bank where it ranges between 95-136 Sv. The core of the current is defined as where the surface velocities reaches 100 cm/s, the mean peak speed is 136 cm/s, but the current can reach 245 cm/s. As the Agulhas Current flows south along the African east coast, it tends to bulge inshore frequently and these bulges are occasionally followed by a much larger offshore bulge, known as Natal pulses. Natal pulses move along the coast at 20 km per day, an ACM can bulge up to 20 km and a NP up to 120 km from the currents mean position. The AC passes 34 km offshore and an ACM can reach 123 km offshore, when the AC meanders, its width broadens from 88 km to 125 km and its velocity weakens from 208 cm/s to 136 cm/s. An ACM induces a strong inshore counter-current, large-scale cyclonic meanders known as Natal pulses are formed as the Agulhas Current reaches the continental shelf on the South African east-coast. As these pulses moves along the coast on the Agulhas Bank, such a ring shedding can be triggered by a Natal pulse alone, but sometimes meanders on the Agulhas Return Current merge to contribute to the shedding of an Agulhas ring. This water becomes the Agulhas Return Current, rejoining the Indian Ocean Gyre and it is estimated that up to 85 Sv of the net transport is returned to the Indian Ocean through the retroflection. The remaining water is transported into the South Atlantic Gyre in the Agulhas Leakage, along with direct branch currents, this leakage takes place in surface water filaments, and Agulhas Eddies. It is estimated that as much as 15 Sv of Indian Ocean water is leaked directly into the South Atlantic,10 Sv of this is relatively warm, salty thermocline water, with the remaining 5 Sv being cold, low salinity Antarctic Intermediate Water. Since Indian Ocean water is warmer and saltier than South Atlantic water. This heat flux is believed to contribute to the rate of evaporation in the South Atlantic. It should be noted that an amount of the Agulhas Leakage joins the North Brazil Current. Surface water filaments are estimated to account for up to 13% of the total salt transport from the Agulhas Current into the Benguela Current, due to surface dissipation, these filaments are not believed to significantly contribute to inter-basin heat flux
Agulhas Current
11.
South Africa
–
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
South Africa
–
Mapungubwe Hill, the site of the former capital of the
Kingdom of Mapungubwe
South Africa
–
Flag
South Africa
–
Arrival of
Jan van Riebeeck, the first European to settle in South Africa, with
Devil's Peak in the background
South Africa
–
Depiction of a
Zulu attack on a Boer camp in February 1838
12.
International Hydrographic Organization
–
The International Hydrographic Organization is the inter-governmental organisation representing hydrography. A principal aim of the IHO is to ensure that the seas, oceans. It does this through the setting of standards, the co-ordination of the endeavours of the worlds national hydrographic offices. The IHO enjoys observer status at the United Nations where it is the competent authority on hydrographic surveying. When referring to hydrography and nautical charting in Conventions and similar Instruments, it is the IHO standards, the IHO was established in 1921 as the International Hydrographic Bureau. The present name was adopted in 1970 as part of a new international Convention on the IHO adopted by the member nations. The former name International Hydrographic Bureau was retained to describe the IHO secretariat until 8 November 2016, there were substantial differences in hydrographic procedures charts, and publications. In 1889, an International Maritime Conference was held at Washington, D. C. similar proposals were made at the sessions of the International Congress of Navigation held at Saint Petersburg in 1908 and the International Maritime Conference held at Saint Petersburg in 1912. In 1919 the hydrographers of Great Britain and France cooperated in taking the steps to convene an international conference of hydrographers. London was selected as the most suitable place for this conference, and on 24 July 1919 and this is still the major purpose of the IHO. As a result of the conference, a permanent organization was formed, the IHB, now the IHO, began its activities in 1921 with 18 nations as members. The Principality of Monaco was selected as the seat of the organization as a result of the offer of Albert I, the IHO develops hydrographic and nautical charting standards. These standards are adopted and used by its 86 member countries and others in their surveys, nautical charts. Much has been done in the field of standardisation since the Bureau was founded, the IHO has encouraged the formation of Regional Hydrographic Commissions. Each RHC coordinates the national surveying and charting activities of countries within each region, the 15 RHCs plus the IHO Hydrographic Commission on Antarctica effectively cover the world. The IHO, in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, directs the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans programme, in 2010 the IHO introduced a new, contemporary hydrographic geospatial standard for modelling marine data and information, known as S-100. S-100 and any dependent product specifications are underpinned by an on-line registry accessible via the IHO website, S-100 is aligned with the ISO19100 series of geographic standards, thereby making it fully compatible with contemporary geospatial data standards. Because S-100 is based on ISO19100, it can be used by other providers for their maritime-related data
International Hydrographic Organization
–
Member states Approved, but awaiting membership Membership applications
13.
Grande Comore
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Grande Comore is an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation, most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population as of 2006 is about 316,600, the islands capital is Moroni, which is also the national capital. The island is made up of two volcanoes, with Mount Karthala being the countrys highest point at 2,361 m above sea level. According to the 2009 revision of the constitution of 2002, it is governed by an elected Governor, as are the other islands, the name Ngazidja is sometimes seen in the incorrect form Njazidja. For several centuries, Grande Comore was divided into a number of sultanates, including Bambao, Itsandra, Mitsamihuli, Mbajini, Hambuu, Washili, Hamahame, Mbwankuu, Mbude, the sultans were also known as mfaume. In 1886, the ruler of Bambao, Sultan Said Ali bin Said Omar declared a state of Ngazidja, usurping the other sultanates, in 1893, Sultan Said Ali was sent into exile on Réunion. In 1908, France annexed the island and the sultanates were abolished, in 1975, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli declared independence as the nation of Comoros. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 crashed off the coast of Grande Comore on November 23,1996, in 1997, the Comoros nation began to fall apart as Anjouan and Moheli seceded. Grande Comore became the island under federal control. By 2002, however, Grande Comore was reunited with the islands under the new constitution. Abdou Soule Elbak was elected President of Grande Comore in May 2002 and he received only 17% of the vote in the first round, coming in first place, and received 60% of the vote in the runoff. He remained in his post until the July 2007 elections, at which point Mohamed Abdoulwahab won the islands presidency, prince Said Ibrahim International Airport serves the island. Media related to Grande Comore at Wikimedia Commons Comoros Island election information
Grande Comore
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Grande Comore Harbor Bay.
Grande Comore
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Flag
Grande Comore
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Sultan Said Ali bin Said Omar of Grande Comore (1897).
14.
Comoro Islands
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The Comoros Islands or Comoros form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and north-west of Madagascar. The islet of Banc du Geyser and the Glorioso Islands are part of the archipelago, the Comoro Islands are located in the Mozambique Channel to the north-west of Madagascar and facing Mozambique. Numerous peoples have crossed over and mixed, including those of Bantu, Malagasy, Indonesian, Arab, Portuguese, French, islam arrived in the 10th Century. During this period, power was in the hands of a number of local rulers, during their explorations of all this region, the Portuguese landed on the Islands of the Moon in 1505. In 1946, the islands were no longer attached to Madagascar. In 1974, France organized a referendum for self-determination in the archipelago in which the population except in Mayotte voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence, following the unilateral declaration of independence in 1975, France maintained sovereignty over Mayotte. The three remaining islands formed the Etat Comorian, which became the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoro Islands. In 1997, demands for increased autonomy on the islands of Nzwani, in 2001, the government reformed as the Union of the Comoros under a new constitution which gave each of the three islands more autonomy than had been enjoyed previously. In 2008, President of Anjouan refused to free elections. He was forced to flee following military intervention by troops of the Comorian Union, the island country continues its present form of confederal government albeit with minor changes approved in a 2009 referendum. Mayotte officially became Frances 101st department on 31 March 2011, on 30 June 2009, Yemenia Flight 626 crashed off the Comoro Islands. Out of 153 people, one girl survived. On Saturday,23 November 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 ditched into the Indian Ocean at the shore of the Comoros islands, after being hijacked by three young, 20-year-old men. After the Boeing 767-200 climbed to the altitude of 39,000 ft. Additionally, they claimed that they were eleven men and they forced the first officer Yonas Mecruria out of the cockpit. The hijackers refused to let the captain to land, although they knew that the fuel was about to run out, after a four-hour struggle with hijackers, the captain crash-landed his the plane in the Indian Ocean. Fifty people from the 175 passengers survived, while 125 people died, the majority of the fatalities resulted from passengers who blew up their life jacket inside of the aircraft and were pushed towards the fuselage when water entered the aircraft. They were unable to escape the aircraft and drowned, the Comoro Archipelago consists of volcanic islands
Comoro Islands
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Comoro Islands
Comoro Islands
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Jumbe-Souli, queen of the Comorian island of
Mohéli, receiving a French delegation, 1863.
Comoro Islands
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Comorans protest
Mayotte referendum, 2009
Comoro Islands
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Anjouan Island
15.
Southern Africa
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Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics, and including several countries. The term southern Africa or Southern Africa, generally includes Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, from a political perspective the region is said to be unipolar with South Africa as a first regional power. It is not used in political, economic or human geography contexts because this definition cuts Mozambique in two, the Southern African Development Community was established in 1980 to facilitate co-operation in the region. Comoros, Madagascar, Malawi, Mayotte, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, Seychelles, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, though more commonly reckoned in Central and Eastern Africa, respectively, are occasionally included in Southern Africa as they are SADC members. The terrain of Southern Africa is varied, ranging from forest, the region has both low-lying coastal areas, and mountains. While colonialism has left its mark on the development over the course of history, today poverty, corruption, the pursuit of economic and political stability is an important part of the regions goals, as demonstrated by the SADC. In terms of strength, South Africa is by far the dominant power of the region. South Africas GDP alone is many times greater than the GDPs of all countries in the region. Southern Africa has a diversity of ecoregions including grassland, bushveld, karoo, savannah. It has complex Plateaus that create massive mountain structures along the South African border, there are numerous environmental issues in Southern Africa, including air pollution and desertification. Southern Africa is home to cultures and people. It was once populated by San, Khoikhoi and Pygmies in widely dispersed concentrations, the process of colonization and settling resulted in a significant population of European and Asian descent in many southern African countries. These factors vary from country to country, for example, the Democratic Republic of Congo has favourable climatic and physical conditions, but performs far below its capacity in food provision due to political instability and poor governance. The Republic of South Africa is a food producer and exporter in the region. However this data might not fully capture the reality of a region with high urban populations, urban food security has been noted as an emerging area of development concern in the region, with recent data showing high levels of food insecurity amongst low-income households. In South Africa for example, while over 50% experience hunger, there is only limited data on the other Southern African countries. History of Southern Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Southern Africa
Southern Africa
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A composite satellite image of South Africa, a country in the southern African region.
Southern Africa
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Southern Africa (
UN subregion)
16.
Anjouan
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Anjouan is an autonomous island in the Indian Ocean that forms part of the Union of the Comoros. Its chief town is Mutsamudu and, as of 2006, its population is around 277,500, the total area of the island is 424 square kilometers. The first inhabitants of the island were explorers and immigrants from Indonesia and Polynesia, after that people all around the Indian Ocean began to come to Anjouan and the Comoro Islands. In about 1500, the Sultanate of Ndzuwani was founded, which took over the entire island, the sultanate was the most powerful of all the Comorian sultanates. In 1816, Sultan Alawi bin Husein requested French assistance against the Sultanate of Zanzibar which was threatening his domain, the island came under French protection in 1886. France abolished slavery in then-Ndzuwani in 1899, and formally annexed it in 1912, the strictly republican annexation was opposed by the last reigning sultan but his meager forces were crushed when they offered resistance. John Mucknell marooned his enemies on Anjouan in 1644 and his ship, the John, was owned by the East India Company, but after ridding himself of opposition in this manner, he turned pirate and returned to Britain. Anjouan joined the State of Comoros when it became independent in 1975, in 1997, the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli seceded from the Comoros. On 3 August 1997, Anjouan declared itself the independent State of Anjouan with Foundi Abdallah Ibrahim as president, an independence referendum was subsequently held in October, with over 99% voting in favour. The island then asked to be integrated again into the French Republic, a constitution was adopted for Anjouan in a referendum on 25 February 1998. In 1999, Anjouan had internal conflicts and on 1 August of that year, the government was overthrown in a coup by army and navy officers on 9 August 2001. Mohamed Bacar soon rose to leadership of the junta took over. Despite two coup attempts in the three months, including one by Abeid, Bacar’s government remained in power, and was apparently more willing to negotiate with Comoros. Bacar was elected for a 5-year term as President of the island of Anjouan and his term expired on 14 April 2007 and the president of the assembly, Houmadi Caambi, became acting president from 15 April until he was overthrown by forces loyal to Bacar on 10 May. Peace talks were held between the government and the regime in Anjouan and agreed to hold free elections in which Mohamed Bacar would stand. Although the Union government delayed the election - citing alleged irregularities and intimidation — Bacar unilaterally printed ballots, the result, due to electoral fraud, was an overwhelming victory of 90 percent. In July 2007, he again declared the island of Anjouan to be independent of the Comoros. In February 2008, the Comoros rejected the African Unions extended sanctions against Anjouan, in early March, the Comoros armed forces and around 400 international reinforcements from the African Union assembled on the island of Mohéli
Anjouan
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Flag
17.
Region of France
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France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through amalgamation, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 with effect from 1 January 2016. However, the region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called Normandy. Permanent names were to be proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016, the legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to Centre-Val de Loire with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names, between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four regions, in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth. Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law and they levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections. A regions primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools, in March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the costs. In addition, regions have considerable power over infrastructural spending, e. g. education, public transit, universities and research. This has meant that the heads of regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions. Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986, Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Radio France Internationale in English Overseas regions Ministère de lOutre-Mer some explanations about the past and current developments of DOMs and TOMs
Region of France
18.
Mayotte
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Mayotte is an insular department and region of France officially named Département de Mayotte. It consists of an island, Grande-Terre, a smaller island, Petite-Terre. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, the department status of Mayotte is recent and the region remains the poorest in France. Mayotte is nevertheless much more prosperous than the countries of the Mozambique Channel. Mayottes area is 374 square kilometres and, with its 212,645 people, is densely populated at 569 per km². The biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou on Grande-Terre, however, the Dzaoudzi–Pamandzi International Airport is located on the neighbouring island of Petite-Terre. The territory is part of the Comoro Islands. The territory is known as Maore, the native name of its main island. The language of the majority is Shimaore, a Bantu language variety closely related to the varieties in the neighbouring Comoros islands, the second most widely spoken native language is Kibushi, a Malagasy language variety most closely related to the Sakalava dialect of Malagasy with influences from Shimaore. The vast majority of the population is Muslim, the island was populated from neighbouring East Africa with later arrival of Arabs, who brought the Islamic religion. A sultanate was established in 1500, the people of Mayotte voted to remain politically a part of France in the 1974 referendum. The term Mayotte may refer to all of the islands, of which the largest is known as Maore and includes Maores surrounding islands, most notably Pamanzi. The main island, Grande-Terre, geologically the oldest of the Comoro Islands, is 39 kilometres long and 22 kilometres wide, because of the volcanic rock, the soil is relatively rich in some areas. A coral reef encircling much of the island ensures protection for ships, Dzaoudzi was the capital of Mayotte until 1977. It is situated on Petite-Terre, which at 10 square kilometres is the largest of several islets adjacent to Maore, in 1500, the Maore or Mawuti sultanate was established on the island. In 1503, Mayotte was observed by Portuguese explorers, but not colonized, in 1832, Mayotte was conquered by Andriantsoly, former king of Iboina on Madagascar, in 1833, it was conquered by the neighbouring sultanate of Mwali. On 19 November 1835, Mayotte was again conquered by the Ndzuwani Sultanate, however, in 1836 it regained its independence under a last local Sultan. Mayotte was purchased by France in 1841 and it was the only island in the archipelago that voted in referendums in 1974 and 1976 to retain its link with France and forgo independence
Mayotte
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Beach scenery in Mayotte.
Mayotte
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Flag
Mayotte
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Sea near
Mamoudzou.
Mayotte
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A view of
Sada including mosque.
19.
Comoros
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Other countries near the Comoros are Tanzania to the northwest and the Seychelles to the northeast. Its capital is Moroni, on Grande Comore, the Union of the Comoros has three official languages – Comorian, Arabic and French. The religion of the majority of the population is Islam, at 1,660 km2, excluding the contested island of Mayotte, the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area. The population, excluding Mayotte, is estimated at 798,000, as a nation formed at a crossroads of different civilisations, the archipelago is noted for its diverse culture and history. The archipelago was first inhabited by Bantu speakers who came from East Africa, supplemented by Arab, the country consists of three major islands and numerous smaller islands, all in the volcanic Comoros archipelago. The major islands are known by their French names, northwestern-most Grande Comore, Mohéli. France has vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions that would affirm Comorian sovereignty over the island, in addition, Mayotte became an overseas department and a region of France in 2011 following a referendum passed overwhelmingly. It became part of the French colonial empire in the 19th century before becoming independent in 1975, since declaring independence, the country has experienced more than 20 coups détat or attempted coups, with various heads of state assassinated. As of 2008 about half the population lived below the poverty line of US$1.25 a day. The Comoros is the state to be a member of the African Union, Francophonie, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League. The name Comoros derives from the Arabic word قمر qamar, the first human inhabitants of the Comoro Islands are thought to have been Polynesian and Melanesian settlers, Malays and Indonesians, travelling by boat. The islands of the Comoros were populated by a succession of peoples from the coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar. Bantu-speaking settlers reached the islands as a part of the greater Bantu expansion that took place in Africa throughout the first millennium, according to pre-Islamic mythology, a jinni dropped a jewel, which formed a great circular inferno. This became the Karthala volcano, which created the island of the Comoros, development of the Comoros was divided into phases. The earliest reliably recorded phase is the Dembeni phase, during each island maintained a single. From the eleventh to the centuries, trade with the island of Madagascar and merchants from the Middle East flourished, smaller villages emerged. Many Comorians can trace their genealogies to ancestors from Yemen, mainly Hadhramaut, and Oman. According to legend, in 632, upon hearing of Islam, islanders are said to have dispatched an emissary, Mtswa-Mwindza, to Mecca—but by the time he arrived there, the Islamic prophet Muhammad had died
Comoros
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A large
dhow with
lateen sail rigs.
Comoros
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Flag
Comoros
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A
vanilla plantation.
Comoros
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An 1808 map refers to the islands as "Camora".
20.
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
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The French Southern and Antarctic Lands is an overseas territory of France. It consists of, Kerguelen Islands, a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa. The territory is called the French Southern Lands or French Southern Territories. The latter excludes Adélie Land, where French sovereignty is not widely recognized, the lands are not connected to France Antarctique, a former French colony in Brazil. The territory has no permanent civilian population and those resident consist of visiting military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands have formed a territoire doutre-mer of France since 1955, the territory is divided into five districts, a According to new law 2007-224 of February 21,2007, the Scattered Islands constitute the TAAFs fifth district. The TAAF website does not mention their population, the data are not included in the totals. b The Îles Éparses principal station is on Tromelin. The headquarters of the district chief lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island. c The Territorys principal station is Martin-de-Viviès on Île Amsterdam, the capital and headquarters of the Territorial administrator lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island. Each district is headed by a chief, who has powers similar to those of a French mayor. Because there is no permanent population, there is no elected assembly, Adélie Land and the islands, totaling 7,781 km2, have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter to summer. Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul are extinct volcanoes and have been delineated as the Amsterdam, the highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Île Kerguelen at 1,850 m. There are very few airstrips on the islands, only existing on islands with weather stations, the islands in the Indian Ocean are supplied by the special ship Marion Dufresne sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island. Terre Adélie is supplied by Astrolabe sailing out of Hobart in Tasmania and this register, however, is to vanish, replaced by the International French Register. The territory contains the land mass that is antipodal to the Contiguous United States. Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul lie antipodal to two areas in south-eastern Colorado, near the cities of Lamar and Cheyenne Wells, respectively. The territorys natural resources are limited to fish and crustaceans, economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets. The main fish resources are Patagonian toothfish and spiny lobster, both are poached by foreign fleets, because of this, the French Navy and occasionally other services patrol the zone and arrest poaching vessels. Such arrests can result in heavy fines and/or the seizure of the ship, France used to sell licenses to foreign fisheries to fish the Patagonian toothfish, because of overfishing, it is now restricted to a small number of fisheries from Réunion Island
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
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Kerguelen cabbages on Mayes Island,
Kerguelen.
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
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Flag
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
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Kerguelen Islands - The Volcan du Diable.
21.
Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean
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They have never had a permanent population. Also in the Mozambique Channel is the Banc du Geyser, a reef under French control claimed by Madagascar since 1976, France and the Comoros view the Banc du Geyser as part of the Glorioso Islands. The islands have been classified as nature reserves, except for Bassas da India, they all support meteorological stations, those on the Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova, and Europa Island are automated. The station on Tromelin Island, in particular, provides warning of cyclones threatening Madagascar, Réunion, each of the islands, except Bassas da India and Banc du Geyser, has an airstrip of more than 1,000 metres. Mauritius, the Comoros, and Madagascar dispute Frances sovereignty over the islands, Mauritius claims Tromelin and argues that the island, discovered by France in 1722, was not ceded by the treaty of Paris in 1814. The Comoros claims the Glorioso Islands too, as a part of the disputed French region of Mayotte, Madagascar claims Juan de Nova, and Europa and Bassas da India since 1972. Seychelles claimed a part of Scattered Islands too before the France–Seychelles Maritime Boundary Agreement, the Îles Éparses had previously been under the administration of the prefect of Réunion since the independence of Madagascar in 1960. France maintains a garrison of around 14 troops on each of the islands in the Mozambique Channel that are claimed by Madagascar. The Glorioso Islands are also claimed by the Comoros, while Mauritius claims Tromelin Island, there is considerable overlap of the EEZ with the neighbouring states. French overseas departments and territories Administrative divisions of France French Southern and Antarctic Lands Official website Îles Éparses travel guide from Wikivoyage
Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean
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Flag
22.
Banc du Geyser
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The Banc is a dangerous oval-shaped reef 8 km long and 5 km wide that becomes exposed only at low tides, with the exception of some rock formations in the southern part of the reef. The rocks are generally 1.5 to 3 m in height, in the eastern part of the reef there are some sandy cays,1 to 3 m in height covered with grass and small bushes. The entrance into the lagoon is possible from a south-southeastern direction. There is an abundance of sea birds, and the cays are covered in tons of guano, the Geysir Reef was first known by Arab sailors around the year 700, and was shown on some navigation-charts dated around 800. Around 1650 the reef was shown on Spanish maps as Arecife de Santo Antonio, the current name was given on 23 December 1678, when the British vessel Geysir ran on the reef. France and the Comoros claim the Banc du Geyser as part of their exclusive economic zone, the reef is also claimed Madagascar. From the French point of view, it is part of the EEZ of Glorioso Islands, in 2012, France included the reef in the parc naturel marin des Glorieuses, a marine protected area, to preserve the endangered flora and fauna of Glorioso Islands. About 20 km southwest of Geysir is Zélée Bank, a submarine feature. Satellite images of Banc du Geysir, archived from the original on December 23,2010. CS1 maint, Unfit url Sailing Directions, East Africa and the South Indian Ocean
Banc du Geyser
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Banc du Geyser
23.
Juan de Nova Island
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Anchorage is possible off the northeast of the island which also has a 1,300 metres airstrip. Administratively, the island is one of the Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean, the island is garrisoned by French troops from Réunion and has a weather station. Juan de Nova, about 6 kilometres long and 1.6 kilometres at its widest, is a reserve surrounded by reefs which enclose an area of roughly 40 square kilometres. Forests, mainly of Casuarinaceae, cover about half the island, sea turtles nest on the beaches around the island. The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports a large colony of sooty terns. It also has a smaller colony of greater crested terns. Of at least seven species of landbirds present, most are probably introduced, the island is named after Juan de Nova, a Galician admiral in the service of Portugal who came across the island in 1501. The island had never been inhabited when it became a possession of France in 1897, in 1921, France decided to transfer the administration of Juan de Nova from Paris to Tananarive in its colony of Madagascar and Dependencies. Before the independence of Madagascar, France transferred the administration to Saint-Pierre on Réunion Island, Madagascar became independent in 1960 and claims sovereignty over the island since 1972. Guano deposits were exploited from the start of the 20th century until 1970, the island was abandoned during World War II and was visited by German submariners. Installations, including a hangar, rail lines, houses and a jetty are in ruins, the island lies on the sea route between South Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar. It is affected by currents, and has become the site of numerous wrecks. Most visible are the remains of the SS Tottenham which ran onto the southern fringing reef in 1911
Juan de Nova Island
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2008 map.
Juan de Nova Island
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Flag
Juan de Nova Island
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Image of Juan de Nova Island taken from the
International Space Station.
24.
Europa Island
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Europa Island is a 28-square-kilometre low-lying tropical atoll in the Mozambique Channel, about a third of the way from southern Madagascar to southern Mozambique. The island had never been inhabited until 1820, when the French family Rosier moved to it, the island officially became a possession of France in 1897. The island, garrisoned by a detachment from Réunion, has a station and is visited by scientists. Though uninhabited, it is part of the Scattered Islands of the French Southern, Europa Island was the setting of a 1968 episode of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, partly focusing on the breeding habits of the green sea turtle. Europa is 6 kilometres in diameter, with an altitude of 6 metres. It is surrounded by beaches and a fringing reef and encloses a mangrove lagoon of around 9 square kilometres. There are no ports or harbours but anchorage is possible offshore and its Exclusive Economic Zone, contiguous with that of Bassas da India, is 127,300 square kilometres. The airstrip is 1,500 metres metres long, the island is a nature reserve. Its vegetation consists of dry forest, scrub, euphorbia, the swamp. It is one of the worlds largest nesting sites for green sea turtles and it is also home to goats introduced by settlers in the late 18th century. The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports a large and diverse population of breeding seabirds and it is the only known breeding site outside Aldabra and Madagascar for Malagasy pond herons. Seabirds include the second largest colony in the western Indian Ocean of great frigatebirds, Audubons shearwaters, dimorphic egrets, the island is also home to an endemic subspecies of white-tailed tropicbird. There are three species of landbirds present, one of which is a subspecies of the Malagasy white-eye. Additionally, the island is home to its own species of hissing cockroach. Climate is affected by the Agulhas Current with water temperatures usually above 30 °C, southeast trade winds during the winter and occasional cyclones. While the island has probably been sighted by navigators since at least the 16th century, it takes its name from the British ship Europa, ruins and graves on Europa island attest to several attempts at settlement from the 1860s to the 1920s. For example, the French Rosiers family moved to the island in 1860, but subsequently abandoned it
Europa Island
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Satellite photo of Europa Island (north faces upward).
Europa Island
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Flag
Europa Island
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Aerial view of the island.
Europa Island
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Beaches, north of the island
25.
Bassas da India
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Bassas da India is an uninhabited, roughly circular French atoll that is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Overall, the atoll is about 10 km in diameter, rising steeply from the seabed 3000 m below to encircle an area of 80 km2 and its exclusive economic zone,123,700 km2 in size, is contiguous with that of Europa Island. The atoll consists of ten barren rocky islets, with no vegetation and those on the north and east sides are 2.1 to 3 m high, while those on the west and south sides are 1.2 m high. The reef, whose coastline measures 35.2 km, is covered by the sea from three hours before high tide to three hours afterward. The region is subject to cyclones, making the atoll a long-time maritime hazard. Jaguar Seamount and Hall Tablemount lie, respectively, about 40 and 70 km further southwest, the Bassas da India was first recorded by Portuguese explorers in the early sixteenth century as the Baixo da Judia. The Judia was the Portuguese ship that discovered the feature by running aground on it in 1506, the name became Bassas da India due to transcription errors by cartographers. The Santiago broke up on the shoal in 1585 and it was rediscovered by the Europa in 1774, whence the name Europa Rocks. The Malay was lost 27 July 1842 on the Europa Rocks, in 1897, the shoal became a French possession, later being placed under the administration of a commissioner residing in Réunion in 1968. Madagascar became independent in 1960 and claims sovereignty over the shoal since 1972, mooring at Bassas da India requires a permit from the French Government. Fishing without such a permit may result in the boat being expelled or even confiscated, several illegal tourism charters departing from Mozambique or South Africa have been seized since 2013 by the French navy. Wikimedia Atlas of Bassas da India Oceandots, archived from the original on 23 December 2010. CS1 maint, BOT, original-url status unknown Sailing Directions, East Africa and the South Indian Ocean French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Bassas da India
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ISS photograph.
Bassas da India
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Flag
Bassas da India
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ISS image of Bassas da India with varying degrees of sunglint.
26.
Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago
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The islands lie in two groups along the western side of the Mozambique Channel. The islands lie in a string along Africas continental shelf, the five Segundas islands are in the north, separated by a stretch of open water and reefs from the five islands of the Primeiras chain to the south. The eastern sides of the islands are fringed with coral reefs, composed mainly of soft corals, beds of seagrass are situated between the islands and the mainland, which are important habitat for sea turtles and dugongs. The southern islands support Mozambiques largest nesting grounds for sea turtles. The archipelago also hosts the most important dugong population in the western Indian Ocean, vegetation on these low islands includes mangrove, grass and scrub. Offshore, they are noted for the biodiversity of their spectacular coral reefs. Due to the lack of sources of fresh water, habitation on the islands is sparse — mainly in support of fishing operations. The European discovery of the archipelago came on 25 February 1498 during Vasco da Gamas first expedition to India. The islands became an important stopping-off point for Portuguese trading fleets sailing for India and the Orient, the islands remained a colony of Portugal until Mozambican independence in 1975, at which time they became part of Mozambique. The area has been threatened by fishing operations and impacts from unauthorized tourism. Cutting down of mangrove has also increased erosion, with negative effects on marine life. The archipelago is currently the focus of joint conservation and development projects by CARE, the initial goal of the projects was the creation of a 17,000 km2 area to be protected as a marine reserve. This was realized in 2012 when Mozambique established Africas largest protected marine zone surrounding the islands, a continuing goal is to increase awareness among local people of how their activities affect the larger environment and their own long-term security and prosperity. Moving towards more sustainable farming and fishing methods is also a focus of educational outreach to area communities
Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago
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The Primeiras and Segudas chain in the Mozambique Channel near Angoche, c. 1500.
27.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
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The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
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Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
28.
Battle of Madagascar
–
The Battle of Madagascar was the British campaign to capture Vichy French-controlled Madagascar during World War II. It began with Operation Ironclad, the seizure of the port of Diego Suarez near the tip of the island. A subsequent campaign to secure the island, Operation Streamline Jane, was opened on 10 September. Fighting ceased and an armistice was granted on 6 November, Antsiranana is a large bay with a fine harbour near the northern tip of the island of Madagascar and has an opening to the east through a narrow channel called Oronjia Pass. The naval base of Antsirane lies on a peninsula between two of the four small bays enclosed within the Antsiranana bay, Antsiranana Bay cuts deeply into the northern tip of Madagascar, almost severing it from the rest of the island. In the 1880s, the bay was coveted by France, which claimed it as a station for steamships travelling to French possessions further east. The colonys administration was subsumed into that of French Madagascar in 1897, in 1941, Antsiranana town, the bay and the channel were well protected by naval shore batteries. In March 1942, Japanese aircraft carriers conducted the Indian Ocean raid upon shipping in the bay of Bengal and bases in Colombo and Trincomalee in Ceylon. This raid drove the British Eastern Fleet out of the area and they were forced to relocate to a new base at Kilindini, near Mombasa, the move made the British fleet more vulnerable to attack. The possibility of Japanese naval forces using forward bases in Madagascar had to be addressed, the potential use of these facilities particularly threatened Allied merchant shipping, the supply route to the British Eighth Army and also the Eastern Fleet. Fricke further emphasized that Ceylon, the Seychelles and Madagascar should have a priority for the Axis navies than operations against Australia. British naval advisors urged the occupation of the island as a precautionary measure, by 12 March, Churchill had been convinced of the importance of such an operation and the decision was reached that the planning of the invasion of Madagascar would begin in earnest. It was agreed that the Free French would be excluded from the operation. It was a force to bring against the 8,000 men at Diego Suarez. This was to be the first British amphibious assault since the landings in the Dardanelles twenty-seven years before. This was evaluated by the Chiefs of Staff, but it was decided to retain Diego Suarez as the objective due to the lack of manpower. He added that when the Commandos were withdrawn, garrison duties would be performed by two African brigades and one brigade from the Belgian Congo or west coast of Africa, in March and April, the South African Air Force had conducted reconnaissance flights over Diego Suarez and No. Allied commanders decided to launch an assault on Madagascar
Battle of Madagascar
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Allied soldiers landing from
LCAs at
Tamatave in May 1942
Battle of Madagascar
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Map of the assault
Battle of Madagascar
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19 September 1942. Allied troops disembarking from a
Landing Craft Assault (LCA) in
Tamatave harbour.
Battle of Madagascar
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Kings African Rifles '
25 pdr battery in action against Vichy positions near
Ambositra
29.
Alboran Sea
–
The Alboran Sea is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa. The Strait of Gibraltar, which lies at the west end of the Alboran Sea and its average depth is 1,461 feet and maximum depth is 4,920 feet. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Alboran Sea as follows, the Eastern limit of the Strait of Gibraltar, A line joining from tip of Cap Gibraltar in Europe to the tip of the Península de Almina of Ceuta in Africa. A line joining from Cabo de Gata in Andalusia in Europe to Cap Fegalo in Algeria in Africa, several small islands dot the sea, including the eponymous Isla de Alborán. Most, even including those close to the Moroccan shore are controlled by Spain, reoccurring earthquakes at a depth of about 600 km indicates that this subduction is ongoing and that complex interactions between the lithosphere and mantle are forming the region. The internal zones are made of Late Paleozoic to Triassic rocks that were piled up during the Tertiary and has extended since the Early Miocene. The seafloor is morphologically complex with several sub-basins, including three main sub-basins named West, East, and South Alboran Basins, ridges, and seamounts, the most prominent structure in the Alboran Sea is the 180 km -long Alboran Ridge which stretches southwest from the volcanic Alborán Island. Thus there is typically a vertical rotary circulation, also known as a gyre, the Alboran Sea is a transition zone between ocean and sea, containing a mix of Mediterranean and Atlantic species. The Alboran sea also hosts important commercial fisheries, including sardines, in 2003, the World Wildlife Fund raised concerns about the widespread drift net fishing endangering populations of dolphins, turtles, and other marine animals. An arc of mountains, known as the Gibraltar Arc, wraps around the northern, western, the Gibraltar Arc is made up of the Baetic Cordillera of southern Spain and the Rif Mountains of Morocco
Alboran Sea
–
A satellite image centred on the Alboran Sea. To the left, the Iberian Peninsula, and to the right, the north of Africa.
30.
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
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of
Portugal
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean, not including
Arctic and
Antarctic regions
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Atlantic Ocean
–
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.
31.
Levantine Sea
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Levantine Sea is the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea. The Levantine Sea is bordered by Turkey in the north, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip in the east, Egypt and Libya in the south, and the Aegean Sea in the northwest. The western border to the open Mediterranean is defined as a line from the cape Ras al-Hilal in Libya to the island of Gavdos, the largest island in the Levantine Sea is Cyprus. The greatest depth of 4384 meters is found in the Pliny Trench, the Levantine Sea stretches over an area of 320,000 km2. The northern part of the Levantine Sea between Cyprus and Turkey is called Cilician Sea, also in the north are the large bays Gulf of İskenderun and Gulf of Antalya. The Leviathan gas field is located in area under the Levantine basin in the southeastern part of the Mediterranean. The Suez Canal was completed in 1869, linking the Levantine Sea to the Red Sea, the Red Sea is higher than the Eastern Mediterranean, so the canal serves as a tidal strait that pours Red Sea water into the Mediterranean. This migration of species is known as the Lessepsian migration, after Ferdinand de Lesseps, construction of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in the 1960s has reduced the flow of freshwater and silt into the Levantine Sea. Eastern Mediterranean Levant Özsoy, E. and H. Güngör, simultaneous Deep and Intermediate Depth Convection in the Northern Levantine Sea, Winter 1992, Ocean. Study and Analysis of Water Masses Formation in the Levantine Sea
Levantine Sea
–
Map of the Levantine Sea
32.
Mediterranean Sea
–
The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
Mediterranean Sea
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Circa the 6th century BCE: In ancient times the Mediterranean provided sources of food and local commerce and direct routes for trade and communications, colonisation, and war. Numerous cities and colonies were situated at its shores or within the basin: Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow)
colonies in antiquity; and other cities (grey), including the provincial
"Rom".
Mediterranean Sea
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Map of the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
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With its highly indented coastline and large number of islands, Greece has the longest Mediterranean coastline.
Mediterranean Sea
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The
Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European
Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.
33.
Red Sea
–
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait, to the north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez. The Red Sea is a Global 200 ecoregion, the sea is underlain by the Red Sea Rift which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The Red Sea has an area of roughly 438,000 km2, is about 2250 km long and. It has a depth of 2211 m in the central median trench. However, there are also extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life, the sea is the habitat of over 1,000 invertebrate species, and 200 soft and hard corals. It is the worlds northernmost tropical sea, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Red Sea as follows, On the North. The Southern limits of the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, a line joining Husn Murad and Ras Siyyan. Red Sea is a translation of the Greek Erythra Thalassa, Latin Mare Rubrum, Arabic, البحر الأحمر. Al-Baḥr Al-Aḥmar, Somali Badda Cas and Tigrinya Qeyyiḥ bāḥrī, the name of the sea may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum near the waters surface. A theory favored by modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction south. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to the cardinal directions, herodotus on one occasion uses Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably. Historically, it was known to western geographers as Mare Mecca. Some ancient geographers called the Red Sea the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. C, in that version, the Yam Suph is translated as Erythra Thalassa. The Red Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms — the others being the Black Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea. The direct rendition of the Greek Erythra thalassa in Latin as Mare Erythraeum refers to the part of the Indian Ocean. The earliest known exploration of the Red Sea was conducted by ancient Egyptians, one such expedition took place around 2500 BC, and another around 1500 BC. Both involved long voyages down the Red Sea, historically, scholars argued whether these trips were possible
Red Sea
–
Red Sea
Red Sea
–
Tihama on the Red Sea near Khaukha,
Yemen
Red Sea
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Annotated view of the Nile and Red Sea, with a dust storm
Red Sea
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Dust storm over the Red Sea
34.
Southern Ocean
–
As such, it is regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions, smaller than the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans but larger than the Arctic Ocean. This ocean zone is cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters. By way of his voyages in the 1770s, Captain James Cook proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. Since then, geographers have disagreed on the Southern Oceans northern boundary or even existence, considering the part of the Pacific, Atlantic. Others regard the seasonally-fluctuating Antarctic Convergence as the natural boundary, Borders and names for oceans and seas were internationally agreed when the International Hydrographic Bureau, the precusor to the IHO, convened the First International Conference on 24 July 1919. The IHO then published these in its Limits of Oceans and Seas, Australian authorities regard the Southern Ocean as lying immediately south of Australia. Map publishers using the term Southern Ocean on their maps include Hema Maps, Southern Ocean is an obsolete name for the Pacific Ocean or South Pacific, coined by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to discover it, who approached it from the north. The South Seas is an archaic synonym. A1745 British Act of Parliament established a prize for discovering a Northwest Passage to the Western and Southern Ocean of America, authors using Southern Ocean to name the waters encircling the unknown southern polar regions used varying limits. James Cooks account of his second voyage implies New Caledonia borders it, peacocks 1795 Geographical Dictionary said it lay to the southward of America and Africa, John Payne in 1796 used 40 degrees as the northern limit, the 1827 Edinburgh Gazetteer used 50 degrees. The United Kingdoms South Australia Act 1834 described the waters forming the southern limit of the new colony of South Australia as the Southern Ocean. The Colony of Victorias Legislative Council Act of 1881 delimited part of the division of Bairnsdale as along the New South Wales boundary to the Southern ocean. The limit then followed the west coast of Tasmania southwards to the South East Cape and then went eastwards to Broughton Island, New Zealand, the northern limits of the Southern Ocean were moved southwards in the IHOs 1937 second edition of the Limits of Oceans and Seas. From this edition, much of the northern limit ceased to abut land masses. As is discussed in detail below, prior to the 2002 edition the limits of oceans explicitly excluded the seas lying within each of them. The Great Australian Bight was unnamed in the 1928 edition, and it therefore encompassed former Southern Ocean waters but was technically not inside any of the three adjacent oceans by 1937. To perform direct comparisons of current and former limits of oceans it is necessary to consider, or at least be aware of, the limits of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans have therefore been extended South to the Antarctic Continent. The IHO readdressed the question of the Southern Ocean in a survey in 2000, of its 68 member nations,28 responded, and all responding members except Argentina agreed to redefine the ocean, reflecting the importance placed by oceanographers on ocean currents
Southern Ocean
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1928 First Edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas with original IHO delineation of Southern Ocean abutting land-masses.
Southern Ocean
–
Earth's oceans
Southern Ocean
–
1937 Second Edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas showing IHO's pre-1953 delineation of Southern Ocean moved southwards.
Southern Ocean
–
1564 Typus Orbis Terrarum, a map by
Abraham Ortelius showed the imagined link between the proposed continent of Antarctica and
South America.
35.
Abu Qir Bay
–
The Abū Qīr Bay is a spacious bay on the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, lying between Abu Qir and the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. The ancient cities of Canopus, Heracleion and Menouthis lie submerged beneath the waters of the bay, in 1798 it was the site of the Battle of the Nile, a naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French First Republic. The bay contains a gas field, discovered in the 1970s. On August 1,1798, Horatio Nelson fought the naval Battle of the Nile, on 1 March 1801, some 70 British warships, together with transports carrying 16,000 troops, anchored in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria. The intent was to defeat the French expeditionary force that had remained in Egypt after Napoleons return to France. Bad weather delayed disembarkation by a week but, on 8 March, Captain Alexander Cochrane of HMS Ajax deployed 320 boats, in line abreast. French shore batteries opposed the landing, but the British were able to drive back and, by the next day. The British then defeated the French army at the Battle of Alexandria, the Siege of Alexandria followed, with the city falling on 2 September 1801. The bay contains the archaeological sites of three cities from the pre-Hellenistic, Hellenistic and Roman periods. The Eastern part of ancient city of Canopus is submerged in the bay, along with the remains of Menouthis and they were excavated by French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio
Abu Qir Bay
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English ships attacking French ships at Abukir
Abu Qir Bay
–
Abu Qir Bay
Abu Qir Bay
–
Map of Nile Delta showing ancient
Canopus,
Heracleion, and
Menouthis
36.
Algoa Bay
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Algoa Bay is a bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located in the east coast,425 miles east of the Cape of Good Hope, Algoa Bay is bounded in the west by Cape Recife and in the east by Cape Padrone. The bay is up to 436 m deep, the harbour city of Port Elizabeth is situated adjacent to the bay, as is the new Coega deep water port facility. The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to reach Algoa Bay in 1488 and he gave the bay a name meaning Bay of the Rock, which was changed in Portugal to Bahia de Lagoa or Bay of the Lagoon, and which eventually became Algoa Bay. Trawlers should exercise the greatest caution, the chemical weapons were dumped in the bay in the aftermath of World War II. During that conflict, Port Elizabeth was used as a research, manufacturing, the condition of the canisters and projectiles are not currently known. The metropolitan municipality of Nelson Mandela Bay, which includes Port Elizabeth, is located on the shore of Algoa Bay. The combined surface area of islands is said to be 40 ha. The second group consists of Bird, Seal and Stag Islands, all six islands and their adjacent waters are declared nature reserves and form part of the Addo Elephant National Park. The islands are closed to the public, worthy of mention as an obstacle to navigation is Despatch Rock,2.4 km due east of the Port Elizabeth suburb of Summerstrand. The rock, which is submerged at high tide, is marked with a light, further south, about 1 km southwest of Cape Recife, the western starting point of the bay is Thunderbolt Reef. Though not in the bay, this hazard to navigation has claimed many ships carelessly entering or leaving, Thunderbolt Reef is submerged save for spring low tides and the surf crashing on it can be observed from the mainland. St. Croix Island at 33°47′58″S 25°46′11″E is 3.9 km from the nearest land, the BirdLife fact sheet states the 12 ha island is only 58 m above sea level. It adds that the island is rocky and “supports minimal vegetation”, the island runs 700 m along a northwest, southeast axis and is about 360 m wide at its broadest – along the west coast. Its highest point is halfway along the north coast, Brenton Island is equally sparsely vegetated and is less than 20 m in elevation, and is roughly 250 m ×200 m in size with a northwest-southeast orientation. It is 5.75 km to sea from the nearest point on the mainland and 1.75 km south of St. Croix. Jahleel, at less than 10 m in height, is just over 1 km from the closest beach, jahleel is about the same size as Brenton and has a north-south axis. It is 5.75 km west of St. Croix, vasco da Gama named this group of islands Ilhéus Châos
Algoa Bay
–
Algoa Bay with
Port Elizabeth in the foreground
Algoa Bay
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St. Croix Island seen from the nearest landfall at Hougham Park, just east of the
Coega harbour development. From here the island is about 4 km to sea. Two disused stone bungalows, used by
guano collectors and then by the
University of Port Elizabeth for research purposes are visible.
Algoa Bay
–
Brenton Island seen from the same location as the previous image. The island is just less than 6 km (3.7 mi) offshore.
37.
Antongil Bay
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Helodranon Antongila, more commonly called Antongil Bay in English, is the largest bay in Madagascar. It is at the end of the east coast of the island. The bay is about 60 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, at the northern end of the bay is the island of Nosy Mangabe and the town of Maroantsetra. In the southern end of the bay is found the town of Mananara Avaratra and the mouth of the Mananara River
Antongil Bay
–
Antongil Bay
38.
Bay of Arguin
–
The Bay of Arguin is a bay on the Atlantic shore of Mauritania. It is located south of Cap Blanc, north of Cap Timiris, the bay contains three islands, including Arguin and Tidra, as well as numerous sandbanks. Smaller bays includes Dakhlet Nouadhibou in the north and Baie de Tanoudert in the east, other promontories includes Minou, Cap Sainte-Anne, Argun, Alzaz, one stream flowing only when the climate is partly wet, the Oued Chibka is in the northcentral part. Places by the bay includes Nouadhibou in the north, Arkeiss and Tel-Alloul to the east and Teichott, RGueiba, the bay would be first known in 1035 as Abdallah ibn Yasin founded a ribat in the island of Tidra and was the origin of the Almoravid Dynasty. The first European to visit the bay was Nuno Tristão in 1443, the area is also known as the place where the French French frigate Méduse was wrecked in 1816. Satellite photographs of the bay by the European Space Agency
Bay of Arguin
–
Map of the bay showing the Banc d'Arguin National Park
39.
Bight of Benin
–
The Bight of Benin or Bay of Benin is a bight in the Gulf of Guinea area on the western African coast. It extends eastward for about 400 miles from Cape St. Paul to the Nun outlet of the Niger River, to the east it is continued by the Bight of Bonny. The Republic of Benin and this bight were both named after the Benin Empire, on December 25,2003, UTAGE Flight 141 crashed in the Bight. Historical associations with the Atlantic slave trade led to the becoming known as the Slave Coast. The Bight of Benin has an association with slavery, its shore being known as the Slave Coast. An old rhyme says, Beware, beware the Bight of the Benin, a variation goes, Beware beware, the Bight of Benin, one comes out, where fifty went in. This is said to be a jingle or sea shanty about the risk of malaria in the Bight. A third version of the couplet is Beware and take care of the Bight of Benin, theres one comes out for forty goes in. The author Philip McCutchan has written a book titled Beware, beware the Bight of Benin, a short story by Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Forgotten Island, deals with a treasure from Benin. A variation of the rhyme is also mentioned, in Patrick OBrians novel The Commodore, Dr. Maturin recites the rhyme when he learned of his ships destination. Commodore Aubrey checks him, telling him it is bad luck to say out loud on the way in. The rhyme is also quoted in chapter Context of John Brunners novel Stand on Zanzibar. The Bight of Benin is mentioned throughout the novel, david Bramhalls trilogy The Greatest Cape also mentions the rhyme, one of the characters in the first volume, The Black Joke, having been a pirate and a slaver. In 2007, a collection of stories entitled The Bight of Benin. The stories are set in Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, avant-garde musician Bucketheads song The Bight of Benin off the album Albino Slug is named after this area. Paul to the Nun outlet of River Niger
Bight of Benin
–
Map of the Gulf of Guinea showing the Bight of Benin.
40.
Bight of Biafra
–
The Bight of Biafra is a bight off the West African coast, in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea. The Bight of Biafra extends east of the Bight of Benin from the River Delta of the Niger in the north until it reaches Cape Lopez in Gabon. Besides the Niger River, other rivers reaching the bay are the Cross River, Wouri River, Calabar River, Ndian, Wouri, Sanaga, Nyong River, Ntem, Mbia, Mbini, Muni and Komo River. The main islands in the Bay are Bioko and Príncipe, other important islands are Ilhéu Bom Bom, Ilhéu Caroço, Elobey Grande, countries located at the Bight of Bonny are Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. The area would, in different steps, merge further via the 12 May 1893 Niger Coast Protectorate,1 January 1900, on 28 February 1906 made into the Colony, from 1 January 1914, it was part of Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. The bight was renamed within independent Nigeria in 1972, when after the Biafran War, the Nigerian government wanted to remove the name of the term Biafra considered secessionist
Bight of Biafra
–
Map of the Gulf of Guinea showing the Bight of Bonny.
41.
Bombetoka Bay
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Bombetoka Bay is a bay on the northwestern coast of Madagascar near the city of Mahajanga, where the Betsiboka River flows into the Mozambique Channel. Along the northwest coast of Madagascar, mangroves and coral reefs partner up to create dynamic, the mangrove forests capture river-borne sediment that would smother coastal reefs, while reefs buffer the mangroves from pounding surf. Near water, shrimp and rice farming are common, while coffee plantations abound in the surrounding terrain and these changes have adversely affected agriculture, fisheries, and transportation for one of Madagascar’s largest ports Bombetoka Bay, Madagascar
Bombetoka Bay
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Betsiboka River estuary and Bombetoka Bay seen from space. (North is to the right.)
Bombetoka Bay
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Bombetoka Bay seen by Spot satellite.
42.
Dakhlet Nouadhibou
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Dakhlet Nouadhibou is a bay on the Atlantic shore of Mauritania. The bay is open towards the south and contains numerous shoals and it is limited by the Cap Blanc headland on its western side. In French maps the inner bay is known as Baie de lArchimède, currently the Dakhlet Nouadhibou Region, an administrative division of Mauritania, is named after it
Dakhlet Nouadhibou
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Dakhlet Nouadhibou ولاية داخلت نواذيبو
43.
Elands Bay
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Elands Bay is a town in South Africa, situated in the Western Cape Province, on the Atlantic Ocean, at 32°18′S 18°19′E. The town is located about 220 kilometres north from Cape Town and it is a major surfing location and is also noted for its caves, which have a number of rock paintings. In 2009, Heritage Western Cape declared the Elands Bay Cave and most of Baboon Point, on which it is located, Elands Bay along with much of this coastline is an important bird habitat. The local wetland, Verloerenvlei, is a Ramsar wetland
Elands Bay
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Baboon Point, Elands Bay
Elands Bay
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Cave at Eland's Bay
44.
False Bay
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False Bay is a body of water defined by Cape Hangklip and the Cape Peninsula in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The eastern and western shores of the bay are rocky and even mountainous. The highest peak visible across False Bay is Du Toits Peak near Paarl, the northern shore, however, is defined by a very long, curving, sandy beach. This sandy, northern perimeter of the bay is the edge of the area known as the Cape Flats. The bay is 30 kilometres wide at its widest point, some 20 kilometres across the Cape Flats, to the north, there is a smaller, C-shaped bay — Table Bay — with Robben Island guarding its entrance. The central districts of Cape Town lie around Table Bay, devils Peak, Table Mountain, Lions Head and Signal Hill form an amphitheatre along the western edge of the Cape Flats. Suburbs of Greater Cape Town now stretch right across the Cape Flats from Table Bay to the shores of False Bay, bartolomeu Dias in 1488 first referred to the bay as the gulf between the mountains. The name False Bay was applied early on by sailors who confused the bay with Table Bay to the north, according to Schirmer, the confusion arose because sailors returning from the east initially confused Cape Point and Cape Hangklip, which are somewhat similar in form. Hangklip was known to the early Portuguese seafarers as Cabo Falso, or False Cape, the climate is Mediterranean, with warm, dry summers and cool, damp winters. In winter gales and storms from the northwest are common and can be ferocious, False Bay is exposed to southeasterly winds in summer and its waters are approximately 6 °C warmer than those of Table Bay, owing to the influence of the warm Agulhas Current. Fishing is good in False Bay and at times there are schools of snoek. Angling from the shores to either side of the bay is very popular. Scores of fishermen have been away and drowned over the years. Sailing is also a recreational activity in False Bay. The killer waves mentioned earlier can wreak havoc with moored sailboats, especially if the moorings are chain based, there is a small granite island in the bay called Seal Island, which is one of the main breeding sites for the Cape fur seal. The seals attract many great white sharks and some of the biggest sharks ever seen have been spotted in these waters and these sharks are famous for the manner in which they breach the surface of the water while attacking seals, sometimes jumping entirely out of the ocean. Despite this, swimming, surfing, yachting, scuba diving and so on are popular pastimes around the bay, at such as Muizenberg, Kalk Bay, Smitswinkel Bay, Strand. Shark attacks are uncommon but by no means unknown, with two deaths since 2010
False Bay
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The Cape Peninsula seen from the West, False Bay (right) and Table Bay, with
Robben Island (left). Compilation produced by NASA from
Landsat and
SRTM data.
False Bay
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Eastern False Bay coast aerial view looking somewhat south of east: Gordon's Bay (left) to Cape Hangklip (right)
False Bay
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Surfers Corner; Surfspot at
Muizenberg in the False Bay
False Bay
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A historic
9 inch gun overlooking False Bay installed at Simon's Town in the 1800s by the
British to defend the bay.
45.
Gulf of Aden
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The Gulf of Aden is a gulf located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and it shares its name with the port city of Aden in Yemen, which forms the northern shore of the gulf. Historically, the Gulf of Aden was known as The Gulf of Berbera, however, as the city of Aden grew during the colonial era, the name of Gulf of Aden was popularised. The waterway is part of the important Suez Canal shipping route between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean with 21,000 ships crossing the gulf annually. The name of the Gulf was inspired by the former British Crown Colony city of Aden, the Somali names are Gacanka Cadmeed or Gacanka Saylac. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Gulf of Aden as follows, on the Northwest – The eastern limit of the Gulf of Tadjoura. On the East – The meridian of Cape Guardafui, the temperature of the Gulf of Aden varies between 15 °C and 28 °C, depending on the season and the appearance of monsoons. The Gulf of Aden is a waterway for shipping, especially for Persian Gulf oil. Approximately 11 percent of the worlds petroleum passes through the Gulf of Aden on its way to the Suez Canal or to regional refineries. The main ports along the gulf are Aden in Yemen, Djibouti City in Djibouti, in earlier history, the city of Crater, located just south of the modern city of Aden, was an important port in regional trade. In the late 2000s, the gulf evolved into a hub of pirate activity, by 2013, attacks in the waters had steadily declined due to active private security and international navy patrols. India receives USD50 billion in imports and sends USD60 billion in exports through this area annually, because of this and for the sake of protecting the trade of other countries, India keeps a warship escort in this area. Also see Piracy in Gulf of Aden, a geologically young body of water, the Gulf of Aden has a unique biodiversity that contains many varieties of fish, coral, seabirds and invertebrates. This rich ecological diversity has benefited from a lack of pollution during the history of human habitation around the gulf. However, environmental groups fear that the lack of an effort to control pollution may jeopardize the gulfs ecosphere. Whales, dolphins, and dugongs were common before being severely reduced by commercial hunts, including by mass illegal hunts by Soviet Union
Gulf of Aden
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A
dhow in the Gulf of Aden.
Gulf of Aden
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Gulf of Aden
46.
Gulf of Guinea
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The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf, among the many rivers that drain into the Gulf of Guinea are the Niger and the Volta. The coastline on the gulf includes the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Bonny, the Niger River in particular deposited organic sediments out to sea over millions of years which became crude oil. The origin of the name Guinea is thought to be an area in the region, bovill gives a thorough description, The name Guinea is usually said to have been a corrupt form of the name Ghana, picked up by the Portuguese in the Maghrib. The present writer finds this unacceptable, the name Guinea has been in use both in the Maghrib and in Europe long before Prince Henrys time. A passage in Leo points to Guinea having been a form of Jenne, less famous than Ghana but nevertheless for many centuries famed in the Maghrib as a great market. The relevant passage reads, The Kingdom of Ghinea. called by the merchants of our nation Gheneoa, by the inhabitants thereof Genni and by the Portugals. But it seems probable that Guinea derives from aguinaou, the Berber for Negro. Marrakech has a gate, built in the century, called the Bab Aguinaou. The modern application of the name Guinea to the coast dates only from 1481, the name Guinea is still attached to the names of three countries in Africa, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea, as well as New Guinea in Melanesia. The main river shedding its waters in the gulf is the Niger River, the Gulf of Guinea contains a number of islands, the largest of which are in a southwest-northeast chain, forming part of the Cameroon line of volcanoes. Annobón, also known as Pagalu or Pigalu, is an island that is part of Equatorial Guinea, bobowasi Island is an island off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea that is part of Western region Ghana. Bioko is an island off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea that is part of Equatorial Guinea, corisco is an island belonging to Equatorial Guinea. Elobey Grande and Elobey Chico are two small islands belonging to Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea that became independent from Portugal in 1975. It is located off the western equatorial coast of Africa and consists of two islands, São Tomé and Príncipe and they are located about 140 kilometres apart and about 250 and 225 kilometres, respectively, off the northwestern coast of Gabon. Both islands are part of a volcanic mountain range. São Tomé, the southern island, is situated just north of the Equator. Media related to Gulf of Guinea at Wikimedia Commons The Gulf of Guinea Commission - CGG - GGC
Gulf of Guinea
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Map of the Gulf of Guinea, showing the chain of islands formed by the
Cameroon line of volcanoes.
Gulf of Guinea
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Satellite imagery of Gulf of Guinea states.
Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). "Mozambique Channel". The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co.
Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). "
