Davis Strait - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Davis Straits) Water between Greenland and Canada

The Davis Strait is a southern arm of the Arctic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis (1550–1605), who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage. By the 1650s it was used for whale hunting.

Extent

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Davis Strait as follows:

On the North. The Southern limit of Baffin Bay .
On the East. The Southwest coast of Greenland.
On the South. The parallel of 60° North between Greenland and Labrador.
On the West. The Eastern limit of the Northwestern Passages South of 70° North and of Hudson Strait .

Geology

The coast of Davis Strait in western Greenland

The Davis Strait is underlain by complex geological features of buried grabens (basins) and ridges, formed by strike-slip faulting of the Ungava Fault Zone during Paleogene times about 45 million to 62 million years ago. The strike-slip faulting transferred plate-tectonic motions in the Labrador Sea to Baffin Bay. It is the world's broadest strait.

Depth

With a water depth of between one and two thousand meters the strait is substantially shallower than the Labrador Sea to the south.

Tides

The strait is famous for its fierce tides that can range from 30 to 60 ft (9.1 to 18.3 m), which discouraged many earlier explorers.

Oil and gas

Main article: Petroleum exploration in the Arctic

US Geological Survey has estimated that at least 13% of the world's undiscovered oil deposits and 30% of the world's undiscovered gas pockets are located in the Arctic, with the seas around Greenland potentially holding large amounts of natural gas and lesser amounts of crude oil and natural gas liquids. This has led Greenland's minister and provincial council to offer a large number of off-shore concessions to potential hydrocarbon (oil and gas) extraction. The largest concessions areas are located in seas west of Greenland, primarily the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, but with several smaller concessions in the Greenland Sea in the east also.

References

"Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition" (PDF). International Hydrographic Organization. 1953. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
"90 Billion Barrels of Oil and 1,670 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas Assessed in the Arctic". US Geological Survey (USGS). 23 July 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
"Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the West Greenland" (PDF). US Geological Survey (USGS). May 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
Lisa Gregoire (15 May 2014). "Greenland pushing ahead with oil and gas development". Nunatsiaq Online. Nunatsiaq News. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
"Current Licences". Bureau of Mineral and Petroleum (Greenland). Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
"Map of exclusive hydrocarbon licences" (PDF). Bureau of Mineral and Petroleum (Greenland). February 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
"Approved Hydrocarbon Activities". Bureau of Mineral and Petroleum (Greenland). 31 October 2015. Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2016.

External links

June 2005 satellite photograph of Davis Strait from MODIS, showing meltwater ponds

v t e Straits of Nunavut
Kitikmeot Region	Alexandra Bellot Dease Dolphin and Union Franklin James Ross Rae Simpson Victoria Wellington
Kivalliq Region	Comer Evans Fisher Frozen
Qikiqtaaluk Region	Arnott Barrow Bellot Boyer Cardigan Crozier Danish Davis Desbarats Fury and Hecla Glacier Hall Hazen Hendriksen Hoppner Hudson Lady Ann Maclean Nares Pearse Penny Pullen Rice Sir William Parker Wilkins

v t e Earth's oceans and seas
Antarctic/Southern Ocean	Amundsen Sea Bellingshausen Sea Cooperation Sea Cosmonauts Sea Davis Sea D'Urville Sea King Haakon VII Sea Lazarev Sea Mawson Sea Riiser-Larsen Sea Ross Sea Scotia Sea Somov Sea Weddell Sea
Arctic Ocean	Amundsen Gulf Barents Sea Beaufort Sea Chukchi Sea East Siberian Sea Greenland Sea Gulf of Boothia Kara Sea Laptev Sea Lincoln Sea Pechora Sea Prince Gustaf Adolf Sea Queen Victoria Sea Wandel Sea White Sea
Atlantic Ocean	Adriatic Sea Aegean Sea Alboran Sea American Mediterranean Sea Archipelago Sea Argentine Sea Baffin Bay Balearic Sea Baltic Sea Bay of Biscay Bay of Bothnia Bay of Campeche Bay of Fundy Black Sea Bothnian Sea Caribbean Sea Celtic Sea English Channel Foxe Basin Greenland Sea Gulf of Bothnia Gulf of Finland Gulf of Guinea Gulf of Lion Gulf of Maine Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Sidra Gulf of St. Lawrence Gulf of Venezuela Hudson Bay Ionian Sea Irish Sea Irminger Sea James Bay Labrador Sea Levantine Sea Libyan Sea Ligurian Sea Mediterranean Sea Myrtoan Sea North Sea Norwegian Sea Sargasso Sea Sea of Åland Sea of Azov Sea of Crete Sea of the Hebrides Sea of Marmara Thracian Sea Tyrrhenian Sea Wadden Sea
Indian Ocean	Andaman Sea Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal Flores Sea Great Australian Bight Gulf of Aden Gulf of Aqaba Gulf of Khambhat Gulf of Kutch Gulf of Oman Gulf of Suez Laccadive Sea Mozambique Channel Persian Gulf Red Sea Timor Sea
Pacific Ocean	Arafura Sea Bali Sea Banda Sea Bering Sea Bismarck Sea Bohai Sea Bohol Sea Camotes Sea Celebes Sea Chilean Sea Coral Sea East China Sea Gulf of Alaska Gulf of Anadyr Gulf of California Gulf of Carpentaria Gulf of Fonseca Gulf of Panama Gulf of Thailand Gulf of Tonkin Halmahera Sea Java Sea Koro Sea Mar de Grau Molucca Sea Moro Gulf Philippine Sea Salish Sea Savu Sea Sea of Japan Sea of Okhotsk Seram Sea Seto Inland Sea Shantar Sea Sibuyan Sea Solomon Sea South China Sea Sulu Sea Tasman Sea Visayan Sea Yellow Sea
Endorheic basins	Aral Sea Caspian Sea Dead Sea Salton Sea
Others	Ocean Sea Superocean
Oceans portal Category

65°N 58°W / 65°N 58°W / 65; -58 (Davis Strait)

Categories: