Railsback's Some Fundamentals of Mineralogy and Geochemistry
Straits I: width and depth
100
500
1000
5000
10,000
5000
Southern Ocean straits
Connections to or between basins
with at least some oceanic crust
10,000
10,000
Atlantic-Indian
Pacific-Atlantic
Connections to bays, gulfs, and seas
with only continental crust.
This overview is divided into larger and
smaller straits in Parts II and III.
5000
(Drake Passage)
Atlantic-Arctic
Pescadero Trough to
Gulf of California
or Sea of Cortez
Florida Straits and
Yucatan Channel
to Gulf of Mexico
Pacific-Indian strait
(Palau Atauro - Alor)
1000
Indian-Pacific
1000
De
Strait of Sicily between
western and eastern
Mediterranean Sea
th
=
Strait of Gibraltar
to Mediterranean Sea
W
id
th
=
De
pt
h
W
id
00
Mouth of Gulf of Carpentaria
Mouth of Gulf of Thailand
De
x
0
0,
00
W
id
th
=
0
x
De
pt
h
1.0
5
Suez Canal: depth = 24 m; width = 205 m (0.205 km), with no locks.
Panama Canal to 2016: depth = 12.6 m; width = 33.5 m (0.0335 km), with locks.
after 2016: depth = 18.3 m; width = 55 m (0.055 km), with locks.
10
10
Pacific-Indian (Torres Strait)
50
100
Width
plotted
is at the
narrowest
passage in
in the strait; depth
is deepest point along
that narrowest passage.
=
W
id
th
,0
0
10
Gulf of Ob
Non-connection to Caspian Sea
pt
h
10
pt
h
De
x
0
th
Bosporus strait to Black Sea
10
0.0
0.0 0.5
100
50
Mouth of White Sea Pacific-Arctic:
Bering Strait
10
=
Mouth of Bo Hai
Danish straits
(mostly Great Belt)
to Baltic Sea
W
id
50
Pacific-Indian:
Strait of Malacca
Korea Strait and Tsushima Strait
to Sea of Japan or East Sea
x
De
x
10
W
id
th
=
Pacific-Indian:
Sape Strait
Sea level
during
Pleistocene
glacial
maxima
Mouth of
Bay of Fundy
Foxe Channel
to Hudson Bay
Strait of Hormuz
to Persian Gulf
or Arabian Gulf
Pacific-Indian: Lombok Strait
100
500
Bab-al-Mandeb
to Red Sea
pt
h
500
Ba
s
of ins
th th
Te e M at
th e are
ya so r
n zo em
se ic n
aw -a an
ay ge ts
Depth of strait (m)
pt
h
Strait of Otranto
to Adriatic Sea
Connections
seemingly
most critical to
deep ocean
circulation
500
Width of strait or channel (km)
1000
5000
10,000
LBR SFMGStraitsPartI01.odg 5/2014