thumb
The
Denmark Strait ' onMouseout='HidePop("22623")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Greenland">Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
Strait) is a
straitA strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for...
between Greenland (northwest) and
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
(southeast).
thumb
The
Denmark Strait ' onMouseout='HidePop("22623")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Greenland">Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
Strait) is a
straitA strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for...
between Greenland (northwest) and
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
(southeast). The
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
island of
Jan MayenJan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long and 373 km
2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km wide...
is located northeast of the strait.
It connects the
Greenland SeaThe Greenland Sea is the northernmost part of the North Atlantic Ocean immediately south of the Arctic Ocean. It encompasses some 1,205,000 square km . The average depth of the Greenland Sea is close to 1,450 m...
, an extension of the
Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.
The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some...
, to the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and is 300 miles (480 km) long and 180 miles (290 km) wide at its narrowest. The narrow depth is 625 feet (191 meters) deep. The cold
East Greenland CurrentThe East Greenland Current originates in the Arctic Ocean and brings cold, low salinity, southbound water along the eastern coast of Greenland. It is one of the five main currents that make up the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre, which provides a major outflow of cold Arctic waters into the Atlantic...
passes through the strait and carries icebergs south into the north Atlantic Ocean. It hosts important fishing grounds.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the
Battle of the Denmark StraitThe Battle of the Denmark Strait was a World War II naval conflict between ships of the Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine.The British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, both of which were attempting to...
took place on May 24, 1941. The German battleship
BismarckThe German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The lead ship of her class and named after the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck displaced more than 50,000 tonnes fully loaded and was the largest warship then commissioned.Bismarck...
sank the British battlecruiser
HMS HoodHMS Hood was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy, and considered the pride of the Royal Navy in the interwar period and during the early period of World War II...
, which exploded with great loss of life, and seriously damaged the battleship
Prince of WalesHMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England...
.
Bismarck succeeded in entering the Atlantic through the Strait, but damage sustained in the battle prevented it from carrying out its intended destruction of British convoys.
See also
- GIUK gap
The GIUK gap is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval warfare chokepoint. Its name is an acronym for Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, the gap being the open ocean between these three landmasses...