Such an amazing natural phenomenon as the Sargasso sea has been the focus of scientists’ attention for several centuries. And even though it has long been known how and why it was formed, it does not become less amazing. Unfortunately, that’s almost impossible to take a look at it with your own eyes, unless you’re a professional sailor.
Top facts about Sargasso sea
- There’s no wind above water. The reason is simple — there’s a zone of high atmospheric pressure here. In the era of sailing ships, such calm was really deadly. That’s why the Sargasso sea had a very bad reputation for ages, it was even called the “ship eater”.
- The area of the Sargasso sea is approximately 8 times larger than the area of France. However, this is approximately only— an exact area of this sea depending on the ocean currents.
- This is the only sea on Earth that has no shores.
- The water temperature in the Sargasso sea is never lower than 18С degrees (+64F degrees).
- Its water mass rotates clockwise slowly but continuously, full of algae and other life forms.
- The first European to visit this amazing place was the famous Christopher Columbus.
- Algae mass in the Sargasso sea is more or less dependent on the month. Their total mass ranges from about 5 to 11 million tons.
- Sea currents bring here a lot of debris from different parts of the ocean, and nowadays there has formed a real garbage island.
- The water level in the Sargasso sea is higher than in the ocean around 1-2 meters. The reason for this phenomenon is clear enough: ocean currents bring a lot of water here.
- Eels living near the shores of Europe and the United States swim to lay roe here, despite the fact that they spend about 3 years on this journey.
- The diversity of life in the Sargasso Sea is much lower than in any other. There’s a lot of biomass, but the number of different life forms living here is low.
- However, there are already found about 2 thousand unique microorganisms, previously unknown.
- The depth of the Sargasso sea is from 4 to almost 7 kilometers (from 2,5 to 4,3 miles).
- The famous and mysterious Bermuda triangle is also situated here.
- The only species of large algae living here is the sargassum.