Page 439 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

G H I THE EAST ATLANTIC 437

10˚W IRELAND UNITED 0˚
Bristol Channel
Porcupine Bank Celtic Sea Plymouth Isle of Wight 50˚N 1 The East Atlantic
Cork
KINGDOM
English Channel
THE EASTERN NORTH ATLANTIC is renowned for its winter
Porcupine Seabight (125ft) Isles of Land’s Channel Cherbourg Seine storms, which batter the western coasts of Europe. The energy for
38m
Scilly
End Islands these storms is provided by the Gulf Stream feeding warm water
Golfe de into the North Atlantic Drift, which flows to the northeast. The
St-Malo
Goban Celtic Shelf North Atlantic Gyre pulls some of this water south along
Spur
99m Brest the African coast as the Canaries Current.
(325ft) FRANCE
Pointe Loire
du Raz full-size Atlantic rollers are amplified
Belle Île Nantes ATLANTIC OCEAN I3 by the sudden shallow depth. There is
2
Bay of Biscay a weak counterclockwise surface
Île de Ré current within the bay. The Charcot
Île d’Oléron AREA 86,000 square miles (223,000 square km) Seamounts, Azores–Biscay Rise, and
MAXIMUM DEPTH 15,535 ft (4,735 m) Kings Trough mark an inactive crustal
Biscay Plain Bay of INFLOWS Loire, Dordogne, Garonne, Adour rivers fracture where the sea floor was once
Plateau de Rochebonne
Bordeaux splitting apart.
Biscay The Bay of Biscay lies between Brest,
4,870m
(15,978ft) on the Brittany Peninsula, and the
Charcot Seamounts Cabo Biarritz 3 north coast of Spain. The northern
half of the bay is quite shallow,
Theta Gap Ortegal Gijón Costa Verde de Ajo San Sebastián overlying the continental shelf, but
Cabo
this steeply drops away to the Biscay
Donostia–
Santander
Plain, which is a small, partially
opened ocean basin. Ships crossing
La Coruña
Cabo the bay experience heavy seas, as
492m Galicia Fisterra Vigo
(1,614ft) Bank Douro LIGHTHOUSE ON THE BAY
The Old Lighthouse at La Raz Cap is one of
several that mark treacherous rocks off the
Oporto Brittany Peninsula in the Bay of Biscay.
SPAIN 40˚N 4
PORTUGAL
The islands rise from the extensive
Iberian Plain
Cabo Mondego Tagus ATLANTIC OCEAN D5 Azores Plateau, an area of thickened
5,536m Azores ocean crust. Although volcanic in
(18,164ft) Guadiana origin, the oldest islands also include
TYPE Volcanic islands substantial accumulations of limestone
Lisbon and clay sediments. A mantle hotspot
Cabo de Roca AREA 890 square miles (2,300 square km) (see p.51) underlies the plateau and
Cabo Espichel Guadalquivir NUMBER OF ISLANDS 9 seems to be slowly spreading it apart
Cabo de Sines
5 The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the at the Terceira Rift, a fracture that
Tagus Algarve dominant seafloor feature in the links the East Azores Fracture Zone
Gorringe Ridge
Plain São Vicente Gulf of Gibraltar Mediterranean eastern Atlantic region, with a central to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The last
Cadiz
Cabo de
trough and numerous transform
volcanic eruption in the Azores was
Horseshoe Gettysburg Gibraltar Tangiers Sea fracture zones. Just east of the ridge, in 1957, when the Capelinhos volcano
Strait of
Seamounts
the Azores island group straddles the
produced a cinder island (an island
Ceuta
triple junction between the Eurasian,
composed of lava fractures called
Seamount
African, and North American plates.
cinders) off Faial’s coast.
Ampere
Seamount 6 last erupted in 1909. Teide’s slopes are
Rabat ATLANTIC OCEAN G8 unstable, and there is evidence that
KEY
20m Seine Plain Casablanca sea level Canary Islands huge landslides have occurred in the
(66ft) past. There is also a risk that volcanic
TYPE Volcanic islands activity or earth tremors could cause
800 ft
Seine part of La Palma island to slip into the
Seamount 4,265m (250 m) AREA 2,900 square miles (7,400 square km)
(13,993ft) 1,600 ft NUMBER OF ISLANDS 7 sea, resulting in an enormous tsunami.
Safi (500 m) Such an event would threaten the
3,300 ft The name of these islands derives coasts of the north Atlantic, including
(1,000 m)
not from the yellow bird of the same heavily populated parts of North
MOROCCO 6,500 ft name, but from the Latin word for America, with inundation. The islands’
(2,000 m) 7
9,800 ft dogs, Canaria. The islands are volcanic, first volcanic eruptions in 40 years
Dacia Agadir Canyon overlying a mantle hotspot. Pico del occurred in 2011, under the sea off
Seamount Cap Rhir Agadir (3,000 m) Teide on Tenerife is the third largest El Hierro, the youngest and most
Conception (5,000 m) volcano on Earth, rising more than southwesterly of the islands.
16,400 ft
Bank
12,000 ft (3,700 m)
land above sea level, or TENERIFE ISLAND
almost 23,000 ft
seamount (7,000 m) from ATLAS OF THE OCEANS
Lanzarote
Canary Islands sea depth the sea floor. It
Santa Cruz Fuerteventura maximum depth 8
Tenerife on map
Cap Juby
tectonic plate
Las Palmas boundary
WESTERN SAHARA
10˚W
G H I