Sargasso Sea, caravel trap

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

A phenomenal natural phenomenon in the Atlantic Ocean - the Sargasso Sea. The coordinates of this most interesting and dangerous area of the Atlantic are 22-36 degrees north latitude and 32-64 degrees west longitude. The area of the sea is 7 million square meters. kilometers. The climate is close to tropical in terms of temperature, in summer the water surface is about 30 degrees Celsius, and in winter plus 23 degrees. The depth of the Sargasso Sea is a little over 6 thousand meters. Moreover, the temperature of the water at depth differs from the average temperature of the world ocean twice, the Sargasso Sea is very warm.

Usually seas have shores, but Sargasso does not. The Atlantic currents are considered to be the boundaries of its water area, there are only four of them, the Gulf Stream in the west, the North Atlantic in the north, the Canary in the east, and the Trade Wind in the south. All these currents are approximately equal in power, as a result of their circular closed interaction, a vast anticyclone zone is created, in which there are never storms, this zone is the Sargasso Sea. It would seem that there is nothing wrong with the fact that the Atlantic Ocean, in some part, has become a kind of quiet harbor in which ships can take refuge.weather and ride out the storm.

But the Sargasso Sea is too calm, there is always complete calm and there is not a breeze. Swimming into this calm, where the flame of a burning candle does not move and the air is still, is dangerous, you can stay in the "dead" sea forever. A light breeze is very rare in the Sargasso Sea, and it is so weak that it cannot fill the ship's sails. Therefore, in those distant times, when there were no mechanical engines yet, and the ships were all completely sailing, falling into the boundless Sargasso Sea, caravels, corvettes, frigates, brigantines became helpless and died after several months of waiting for a fair wind.

The Gulf Stream and other currents not only created the wide Sargasso Sea, but also tried to make it decorative. It is in this area of the Atlantic Ocean, at the bottom, brown algae Sargasso grow, from which, in fact, the name of the sea came from - Sargasso. These algae are very different from all other seaweeds.

Sargassum is not a ribbon algae, but a bushy one. She has a rhizome, branches, fruits and leaves, like an ordinary bush that grows on land. Life at the bottom of the ocean at the Sargasso is short, its bush is separated from the rhizome and floats to the surface, decorating the Sargasso Sea. Nature endowed the plant with the ability to reproduce in a variety of air bubbles at the tips of the branches, they help the algae to emerge and confidently stay on the water.

Indefatigable currents gather bushes in the middle of the sea, and there algae spread like a continuous carpet, frightening sailors and marine animals with their unusual appearance. Although the Sargasso do not pose any danger to ships - although reluctantly, they disperse under the bowsprit of a moving ship, again closing behind the stern. Sargassums do not carry organic life in themselves, the algae are already dead after they have risen to the surface. Their mass is used by small crustaceans to build their simple houses. Mollusks also adapt to harsh environments. There is still life in the deadly Sargasso Sea, and it continues.