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Water Bodies in News NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 PRESENTS SUPER 40 SERIES TOP 40 PDFS FOR UPSC PRELIMINARY EXAM 2019 BOOKLET NUMBER – 9 WATER BODIES IN NEWS VIJAYANAGAR BRANCH: #3444, ‘KARMA KOUSHALYA BHAVAN’, CHORD ROAD, OPPOSITE TO ATTIGUPPE METRO STATION, VIJAYANAGAR, BANGALORE – 540040 JAYANAGAR BRANCH: LUCKY PARADISE, 2ND FLOOR, 8TH F MAIN ROAD, 22ND CROSS, OPPOSITE TO ICICI BANK, 3RD BLOCK, JAYANAGAR, BANGALORE -560011 1 | P a g e NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 WATER BODIES IN NEWS ROSS SEA The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land. It derives its name from the British explorer James Ross who visited this area in 1841. To the west of the sea lies Ross Island and to the east Roosevelt Island, while the southernmost part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, and is about 200 miles (320 km) from the South Pole. A hyperspectral camera and snow gardens have become tools in learning how Antarctic sea ice algae will likely respond to climate change. Algae are like the grass of the Ross Sea and they are eaten by krill, which are eaten by fish, which are eaten by penguins and seals, and so forth through various food webs. To understand how climate change will affect Ross Sea's life, algae are a good place to start because changes that affect them also affect larger species. WEDDEL SEA The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast, Queen Maud Land. To the east of Cape Norvegia is the King Haakon VII Sea. Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent, massive ice shelf field, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf . 2 | P a g e NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 The sea is named after the Scottish sailor James Weddell, who entered the sea in 1823 and originally named it after King George IV; it was renamed in Weddell‟s honour in 1900. Recently, a large section of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica, which is home to the British Antarctic Survey‟s Halley Research Station, is about to break off in the coming months, forcing the research station to be relocated to a safer area. Measuring a massive 1,500 square kilometers, making it twice the size of New York City, the Brunt Iceberg will break away from the ice shelf within the coming months. However, the process of this separation started as far back as seven years ago, beginning as two large cracks. As for the Brunt Ice Shelf, it is a large floating area of ice approximately ranging from 150m to 250m thick, composed primarily of freshwater ice. Part of the Weddell Sea, the ice shelf comfortably sits on top of the Weddell Sea. SOUTH CHINA SEA The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Karimata and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). The area‟s importance largely results from one-third of the world‟s shipping sailing through its waters and that it is believed to hold huge oil and gas reserves beneath its seabed. Cabbage strategy is also called as „salami-slicing‟ strategy. Under this strategy, a contested area is surrounded by multiple security layers to deny access to the rival nation and is claimed subsequently. As per the observers, China has been pursuing this strategy against her neighbours for a long a time. 3 | P a g e NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 In the early January 2018, the Philippines expressed her displeasure over the construction of an apparent airbase on a man-made island in the South China Sea by China. The protest resonates with that of similar anguish expressed by other maritime neighbours of China in the recent past over Beijing‟s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and their subsequent militarization as part of the cabbage strategy. It is against this backdrop, it is pertinent to know what is the cabbage strategy, how China is using it to expand its maritime boundaries in the South China Sea and how the growing China‟s presence in the South China Sea will adversely impact India‟s interests in the region. ARAL SEA The Aral Sea was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda Regions) in the north and Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. 4 | P a g e NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 The name roughly translates as “Sea of Islands”, referring to over 1,100 islands that once dotted its waters; in the Turkic languages aral means “island, archipelago”. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, Aral Sea in Uzbekistan has shrunk by 90% in recent decades and is now the site of a huge planting project. RED SEA The Red Sea (also the Erythraean Sea) is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. To the north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez (leading to the Suez Canal). The sea is underlain by the Red Sea Rift which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The salinity of the Red Sea is greater than the world average, approximately 4 percent. This is due to several factors: o Lack of significant rivers or streams draining into the sea. o Limited connection with the Indian Ocean, which has lower water salinity. o High rate of evaporation and very little precipitation. The six countries bordering the Red Sea proper are: o Saudi Arabia o Yemen o Egypt o Sudan 5 | P a g e NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 o Eritrea o Djibouti CASPIAN SEA The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world‟s largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is in an endorheic basin (a basin without outflows) located between Europe and Asia. The Caspian Sea is bordered on the northwest by Russia, on the northeast by Kazakhstan, on the west by Azerbaijan, on the southeast by Turkmenistan, and on the south by Iran. It is classified as both a sea and a lake, and it is the largest enclosed inland body of water in the world. It is surrounded by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. MEDITERRANEAN SEA The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. In addition the Gaza Strip (“Palestine” has been associated with the geographical area that currently covers the State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia have coastlines on the sea. 6 | P a g e NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 PERSIAN GULF This inland sea of some 251,000 square kilometres (96,912 sq mi) is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz; and its western end is marked by the major river delta of the Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Its length is 989 kilometres (615 miles), with Iran covering most of the northern coast and Saudi Arabia most of the southern coast. The Persian Gulf is about 56 km (35 mi) wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are overall very shallow, with a maximum depth of 90 metres (295 feet) and an average depth of 50 metres (164 feet). Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are (clockwise, from the north): Iran; Oman‟s exclave Musandam; the United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Qatar, on a peninsula off the Saudi coast; Bahrain, on an island; Kuwait; and Iraq in the northwest. Various small islands also lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region. 7 | P a g e NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 09) CONTACT: 9632334466 8 | P a g e .
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