On our planet we find things that surprise us quite a bit. One of them is the Sargasso Sea. It is a sea that does not bathe the coasts of any country. That is, we are talking about a sea that has no coast. It is unique in the whole world and is located in a region of the Atlantic Ocean. Its name is due to the fact that it houses a large quantity of algae of the genus Sargassum. These areas can be seen with relative frequency floating on the surface of the waters.
In this article we are going to tell you all the characteristics and curiosities that the Sargasso Sea has. If you want to know more about this sea different from the rest, this is your post.
Key features
This type of sea has an oval, somewhat elliptical shape. It is found in the North Atlantic Ocean. In the western part is the so-called Gulf Stream and east of the Canary Islands currents. It has an area of 5.2 million square kilometers, being 1.107 kilometers wide and 3.200 kilometers long. The only piece of land that exists in the interior of this sea is the Bermuda Islands.
It is characterized by being a sea with very few rough ocean currents. In other words, it is considered a relatively calm sea. It is surrounded by ocean currents that flow from north to south and from east to west. It does not experience very heavy rainfall and, therefore, has one of the highest salinity levels in the entire Atlantic Ocean. If rainfall does not replenish the seawater with fresh water, the salinity level rises to levels similar to those found in the Sargasso Sea.
Gentle winds and fairly warm and clear waters are continuously recorded. It is the Gulf Stream that prevents hot water from entering the Sargasso Sea and colder water overflows out of its limits. It has a variable depth that It ranges from 1.500 meters deep in the areas most over eras and in other areas it reaches 7.000 meters.
This sea was remotely discovered in the 15th century. Various Portuguese explorations were the ones that revealed the entire North Atlantic and discovered the Azores Islands. Christopher Columbus was the first to mention this area. He crossed it during his voyage that led him to discover the American continent. His voyage is part of the significant history of the Atlantic Ocean.
Formation of the Sargasso Sea
Because it is part of the Atlantic Ocean, this sea is associated with its formation. Its origin will be from different geological processes that have occurred in the crust of the extinct ocean Tethys. This ocean was formed through a rift in the super continent called Pangea. We remember that according to plate tectonics theory all the continents formed a large land mass called Pangea. Starting at convection currents from the terrestrial mantle the tectonic plates could begin to move and giving rise to the different seas and oceans that we know today.
This diet in the Pangea between what is now known as North America and Africa is what caused a space to open that emptied all the water of Tethys and formed the entire northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The origin of the Sargasso Sea has its place 100 million years ago.
The subsequent fragmentation of the Gondwana during the Middle Cretaceous opened the South Atlantic and the entire ocean grew during the age of the Cenozoic. From the bottom of the islands, we see waters emerging that have been affected by volcanic activity on the seabed. In this current region, the Sargasso Sea is an anticyclonic gyre in the north-central Atlantic Ocean that moves clockwise. This gyre originates as a product of all the ocean currents surrounding the Sargasso Sea and are important for understanding its characteristics.
Biodiversity of the Sargasso Sea
As it has more unique characteristics compared to the rest of the ocean, it has a rather curious and unique biodiversity. This sea has high salinity and low levels of nutrients. These environmental conditions prevent plankton from developing in sufficient quantities. We remind you that plankton is an essential part of the life of living beings and the marine food chain. Thanks to this nutrient, many species can survive. Information about this nutrient can be found in other resources on marine plankton.
The lack of plankton means there is no significant biodiversity of fish and other types of animals. For this reason, the Sargasso Sea is known as a marine biological desert. What does proliferate in abundance is sargassum, hence its name. These are floating algae that permanently remain in the ecosystem, especially in the northern part. These algae arouse great fascination among biologists, who study their impact on marine ecology.
Sargasso are forming large patches in which we can find them floating on the surface and, due to the effect of the currents turning in a clockwise direction, we can see that the materials are concentrated in the center. This is also due to their own gas-filled bladders. These areas where sargassum is stored make up more than 60 species of living beings, Among which are small crabs and fish such as bluefin tuna.
Due to the particular conditions that this sea has with respect to the rest of the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, 10 endemic species grow and inhabit among the floating algae forests. Among these endemic species we have the following: the crab Minutus plans, the shrimp Latreutes fucorum, the fish Syngnathus pelagicus, the anemone anemonia sargassensis, the mollusk Scyllaea pelagica, the snail Melanostoma lithiopa, amphipods pelagic sunampithoe y Biancolina brassicacephala y Hoploplana grubei, a flatworm.
Apart from these endemic species we can recognize another 145 species of invertebrates that live in an association with sargasso.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the Sargasso Sea and its curiosities.