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The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space
(on the left: Spain)

A view across the Strait of Gibraltar taken from the hills over Tarifa, Spain

The Strait of Gibraltar (Arabic: مضيق جبل طارق, Spanish: Estrecho de Gibraltar) is the strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain from Morocco. The name comes from Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic Jebel Tariq (جبل طارق) meaning mountain of Tariq. It refers to the Ummayad Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad who led the Islamic conquest of Hispania in 711.^[1] It is also known as the Straits of Gibraltar or STROG (Strait Of Gibraltar), the latter being in naval use.^[2] There are 8 miles (13 km) of ocean separating Europe from Africa at the strait's narrowest point. The strait depth ranges between 300 and 900 meters.^[3] Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links File links The following pages link to this file: Strait of Gibraltar ... Image File history File links File links The following pages link to this file: Strait of Gibraltar ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1118 KB) A shot of the Strait of Gibraltar from atop The Rock in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1118 KB) A shot of the Strait of Gibraltar from atop The Rock in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Simplified diagram A strait is a narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water, and thus lies between two land masses. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... The Umayyad Dynasty (Arabic الأمويون / بنو أمية umawiyy; in Turkish, Emevi) was the first dynasty of caliphs of the Prophet Muhammad who were not closely related to Muhammad himself, though they were of the same Meccan tribe, the... The Berbers (also called Amazigh, free men, pl. ... Tariq ibn Ziyad or Taric ben Zeyad (d. ... The Umayyad conquest of Hispania (711–718) commenced when an army of the Umayyad Caliphate consisting largely of Moors, the Muslim inhabitants of North and West Africa, invaded Visigothic Christian Hispania (Portugal and Spain) in the year 711 CE. Under the authority of the Umayyad caliph at Damascus, and led... See also: phone number 711. ... The multinational Combined Task Force One Five Zero (CTF-150) The British Grand Fleet, the supreme naval force of World War I A rare occurrence of a 5-country multinational fleet, during Operation Enduring Freedom in the Oman Sea. ...

Location

On the northern side of the Strait is Spain and Gibraltar, while on the southern side is Morocco and Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa. Its boundaries were known in antiquity as the Pillars of Hercules. There are several small islands, such as the disputed Isla Perejil, that are claimed by both Spain and Morocco.^[4] Capital Official language(s) Spanish Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked  28 km²   Population  â€“ Total (2006)  â€“ % of Spain  â€“ Density Ranked  75,861    2,709. ... D is Bs exclave, but is not an enclave. ...  Northern Africa (UN subregion)  geographic, including above North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A territorial dispute is a disagreement over the possession/control of land between two or more states, or over the possession/control of land by one state after it has conquered it from a former state no longer currently recognized by the occupying power. ... A satellite NASA World Wind caption of Isla Perejil seen as a tiny island (top middle) The Isla Perejil (Parsley Island in English; Arabic: Leila, night , local, i. ...

Geology

About 6 million years ago, the Strait closed, effectively turning the Mediterranean into a huge salty lake that eventually dried up, in what is known as the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The Mediterranean then turned into a lake, known as the Mediterranean Sea. At the Miocene/Pliocene boundary, approximately 5.33 million years ago, the Strait opened up for the last time, and has remained open since.^[5] // The Messinian Salinity Crisis, also referred to as the Messinian Event, is a period when the Mediterranean Sea evaporated partly or completely dry during the Messinian period of the Miocene epoch, approximately 6 million years ago. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Miocene Epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23. ... The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts) is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5. ...

Communications

The Straits are an important shipping route from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. There are ferries that operate between Spain and Morocco across the strait, as well as between Spain and Ceuta Shipping route is any trade route used by merchant ships. ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one_fifth of its surface. ... The Pride of Burgundy, a P&O Ferries car ferry on the Dover-Calais route A ferry is a boat or a ship carrying passengers, and possibly their vehicles, on a relatively short-distance, regularly-scheduled service. ... Capital Official language(s) Spanish Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked  28 km²   Population  â€“ Total (2006)  â€“ % of Spain  â€“ Density Ranked  75,861    2,709. ...

Tunnel across the strait

Main article: Gibraltar Tunnel

In December 2003, Spain and Morocco agreed to explore the construction of an undersea rail tunnel to connect their rail systems. The gauge of the tunnel would be 1435mm to match the proposed construction and conversion of significant parts of the existing broad gauge system to standard gauge. ^[6] Gibraltar Tunnel is a planned rail tunnel that will link Africa and Europe. ... An underwater scene just beneath the surface. ... French 1912 drawing of typical elements of railways Railway tracks running through Stanhope railway station in North East England, UK A railway yard in Portland, Oregon. ... A disused railway tunnel now converted to pedestrian and bicycle use, near Houyet, Belgium A tunnel is an underground passage. ... As railways developed and expanded one of the key issues to be decided was that of the rail gauge (the distance between the two rails of the track) which should be used. ...

Inflow and outflow

Internal waves (marked with arrows) caused by the Strait of Gibraltar

On a net basis, water continually flows eastward into and through the Strait of Gibraltar, due to an evaporation rate within the Mediterranean basin higher than the combined inflow of all the rivers that empty into it. The sill of the Strait of Gibraltar acts to limit mixing between the cold, less saline Atlantic water and the warm Mediterranean waters. The latter are so much saltier that they sink below the constantly incoming Atlantic water and form a highly saline (thermohaline, both warm and salty) bottom water, called the Mediterranean outflow. A density boundary separates the layers at about 100 m depth. It flows out and down the continental slope, losing salinity, until it equilibrates after mixing at a depth of about 1000 meters. The Mediterranean outflow water can be traced for thousands of kilometers before losing its identity. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (808x1000, 146 KB) [edit] Summary [edit] Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Strait of Gibraltar Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (808x1000, 146 KB) [edit] Summary [edit] Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Strait of Gibraltar Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital... Internal waves are gravity waves that oscillate due to the buoyancy force. ... In geology, a sill is a tabular, often horizontal mass of igneous rock that has been intruded laterally between older layers of sedimentary rock, beds of volcanic lava or tuff, or even along the direction of foliation in metamorphic rock. ... A simplified summary of the path of the Thermohaline Circulation. ...

Internal waves (waves at the density boundary layer) are common in the strait. Like traffic merging on a highway, the water flow is constricted in both directions because it must pass over a shallow submarine barrier, the Camarinal Sill. When large tidal flows enter the Strait, internal waves are set off at the Camarinal Sill as the high tide relaxes. The waves—sometimes with heights up to 100 m—travel eastward. Even though the waves occur at great depth and the height of the waves at the surface is almost nothing, they can be traced in the sunglint because they concentrate the biological films on the water surface, creating slight differences in roughness. The waves flow eastward, refract around coastal features; can be traced for as much as 150 km, and sometimes create interference patterns with refracted waves.^[7] Internal waves are gravity waves that oscillate due to the buoyancy force. ... Sunglint off northern Australia Sunglint is a phenomenon that occurs when the sun reflects off the surface of the ocean at the same angle that a satellite sensor is viewing the surface. ... Interference of two circular waves - Wavelength (decreasing bottom to top) and Wave centers distance (increasing to the right). ...

See also

• List of straits
• Mediterranean Basin

This List of straits is an appendix to the article strait. ... The Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around and surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Strait of Gibraltar

• Climate Control Requires a Dam at the Strait of Gibraltar — American Geophysical Union, 1997. Accessed 26 February 2006.
• Project for a Europe-Africa permanent link through the Strait of Gibraltar — United Nations Economic and Social Council, 2001. Accessed 26 February 2006.
• Map of Morocco — Multimap.com, 2006. Accessed 26 February 2006.
• (Spanish) Estudios Geográficos del Estrecho de Gibraltar — La Universidad de Tetuán and La Universidad de Sevilla. Accessed 26 February 2006.
• Solitons, Strait of Gibraltar. NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved on 2006-05-24.
• Internal Waves, Strait of Gibraltar. NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved on 2006-05-24.

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... NASA Earth Observatory is an online publication of NASA where the public can access satellite imagery and scientific information about our planet for free. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... NASA Earth Observatory is an online publication of NASA where the public can access satellite imagery and scientific information about our planet for free. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References and notes

Coordinates: 35°58′18″N, 5°29′09″W The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Preston Ercelle Cloud, Jr. ... The domain name bbc. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...