28 Facts About North Sea

North Sea has featured prominently in geopolitical and military affairs, particularly in Northern Europe, from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

North Sea is bounded by the Orkney Islands and east coast of Great Britain to the west and the northern and central European mainland to the east and south, including Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, and the Frisian Islands.

The North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles.

North Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean receiving the majority of ocean current from the northwest opening, and a lesser portion of warm current from the smaller opening at the English Channel.

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North Sea located on the continental shelf has different waves from those in deep ocean water.

The east coast and south-east of the North Sea have coastlines that are mainly sandy and straight owing to longshore drift, particularly along Belgium and Denmark.

The immense landslips occurred between 8150 BCE and 6000 BCE, and caused a tsunami up to 20 metres high that swept through the North Sea, having the greatest effect on Scotland and the Faeroe Islands.

Shallow epicontinental seas like the current North Sea have since long existed on the European continental shelf.

The North Sea was cut off from the English Channel by a narrow land bridge until that was breached by at least two catastrophic floods between 450, 000 and 180, 000 years ago.

Coasts of the North Sea are home to nature reserves including the Ythan Estuary, Fowlsheugh Nature Preserve, and Farne Islands in the UK and the Wadden Sea National Parks in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

North Sea cetaceans include various porpoise, dolphin and whale species.

Plant species in the North Sea include species of wrack, among them bladder wrack, knotted wrack, and serrated wrack.

Eelgrass, formerly common in the entirety of the Wadden North Sea, was nearly wiped out in the 20th century by a disease.

The name "North Sea" probably came into English, however, via the Dutch "Noordzee", who named it thus either in contrast with the Zuiderzee, located south of Frisia, or because the sea is generally to the north of the Netherlands.

North Sea has provided waterway access for commerce and conquest.

In turn, the North Sea countries imported high-grade cloths, spices, and fruits from the Mediterranean region.

Tensions in the North Sea were again heightened in 1904 by the Dogger Bank incident.

However, it gained significant economic importance in the 1960s as the states around the North Sea began full-scale exploitation of its oil and gas resources.

Price of Brent Crude, one of the first types of oil extracted from the North Sea is used today as a standard price for comparison for crude oil from the rest of the world.

The North Sea contains western Europe's largest oil and natural gas reserves and is one of the world's key non-OPEC producing regions.

In January 2018, The North Sea region contained 184 offshore rigs, which made it the region with the highest number of offshore rigs in the world at the time.

Fishing in the North Sea is concentrated in the southern part of the coastal waters.

The North Sea is the home of one of the first large-scale offshore wind farms in the world, Horns Rev 1, completed in 2002.

North Sea Trail is a long-distance trail linking seven countries around the North Sea.

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Wadden North Sea in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

North Sea is important for marine transport and its shipping lanes are among the busiest in the world.

North Sea coasts are home to numerous canals and canal systems to facilitate traffic between and among rivers, artificial harbours, and the sea.