Great Belt

The Great Belt (Danish: Storebælt, pronounced [ˈstoːɐˌpelˀt]) is a strait between the major islands of Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn) in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits.

Great Belt
Straits of Denmark and southwestern Baltic Sea. The Great Belt (labelled with its Danish name Storebælt) is slightly left of center
Great Belt
Coordinates55.333°N 11.000°E / 55.333; 11.000
Typestrait
Basin countriesDenmark
Max. length60 km (37 mi)
Max. width32 km (20 mi)
Min. width16 km (10 mi)
Max. depth60 m (197 ft)
IslandsSamsø in the north and Langeland to the south

Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the Belt was served by the Great Belt ferries from the late 19th century until the islands were connected by the Great Belt Fixed Link in 1997–98.

Geography
Satellite view over Denmark: The Great Belt is the passage in the center.

The Great Belt is the largest and most important of the three Danish Straits that connect the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat strait and Atlantic Ocean. The others are the Øresund and the Little Belt straits.

The Great Belt is 60 km (37 miles) long and 16–32 km (10–20 miles) wide. It flows around two major islands: Samsø in the north and Langeland to the south. At Sprogø the Great Belt divides into the East Channel and the West Channel. Both are traversed by the Great Belt Bridge, but a tunnel also runs under the East Channel.

Geology

In pre-glacial times a river, which the Baltic Sea basin then contained and which geologists call the Eridanos, must have passed near the region as the rise of South Swedish Dome in Neogene times diverted it south from its previous path across central Sweden.[1]

The Great Belt originated as Dana River that was eroded into existence 9000–8900 years B.P. when post-glacial rebound made the Ancylus Lake that occupied the Baltic depression lose its outlets around Gothenburg tipping over in the south.[2] The forming of Dana River is thought to have caused a dramatic erosion of sediments, peatlands and forests along its way. This led initially to a relatively rapid fall in the lake level over hundreds of years to then continue falling at a lower pace.[2] Rising sea levels allowed the sea to break through the Dana River forming the Great Belt as a proper seaway. In the processes the Ancylus Lake became the Littorina Sea as salt water entered the Baltic depression.[2]

Biology

The Great Belt is home to some popular fish: flatfish, sea trout, Atlantic cod, Atlantic mackerel and garfish, which are fished avidly for sport and for sale. A large and rising population of harbour porpoises lives in the Belts.[3]

International waterway

The Great Belt was historically navigable to ocean-going vessels. It still is used, despite a few collisions and near collisions with the Great Belt Bridge. The Danish navy monitors maritime traffic in the waters around the Great Belt.

In the reign of king Eric of Pomerania the Danish government began to receive a large part of its income from the so-called Sound Dues toll on international merchant ships passing through the Øresund. Non-Danish vessels were restricted to the Øresund channel. Merchants paid the tax under threat of having their vessels sunk or confiscated.

During the middle of the 19th century, this practice became a diplomatic liability and the Danish government agreed to terminate it, achieving an international financial compensation in return. Danish waterways were consequently opened to foreign shipping. The eastern half of the Great Belt is an international waterway, legally based on the 1857 Copenhagen Convention.[4] The western half of the Great Belt (between Funen and Sprogø) and all other parts of the Danish straits are Danish territorial waters and subject to Danish jurisdiction.

gollark: Cool, although crazy.
gollark: Does it involve placing a binary file on the actual CC FS to hold all the file stuff or what?
gollark: Your CC OS supports ext2?
gollark: If they were to take it down, though, expect massive public backlash (unless it takes place ages from now), not that that will change much.
gollark: Probably. It'd likely come under that DMCA stupidity or something.

See also

References
  1. Lidmar-Bergström, Karna; Olvmo, Mats; Bonow, Johan M. (2017). "The South Swedish Dome: a key structure for identification of peneplains and conclusions on Phanerozoic tectonics of an ancient shield". GFF.
  2. Björck, Svante (1995). "A review of the history of the Baltic Sea, 13.0-8.0 ka BP". Quaternary International. 17: 19–40. doi:10.1016/1040-6182(94)00057-C.
  3. Miljø- og Fødevareministeriet (19 June 2013): Marsvin trives i de indre danske farvande. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  4. "Maritime Law". UNESCO. Retrieved 2009-06-16.

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