Bass Strait
Geographical location
The Bass Strait (English Bass Strait ) is a strait that separates Tasmania from the Australian mainland. It is bordered on the Australian side of the state of Victoria. It connects the Indian Ocean to the west to the Tasman Sea in the east. The first European who discovered the strait, Matthew Flinders Flinders was in the year 1798. Named it after his ship's surgeon, George Bass.
The strait is about 240 km wide at its narrowest point, the average water depth is only about 50 m. Due to their small depth she fell in the last ice age dry because of the falling sea level and formed a land bridge.
Shipping
Like the other waters around Tasmania, it is particularly well known for their small depth and for its rough seas. In the 19th century here, many ships were lost. In 1848, a deal Iceland therefore lighthouse was built to support the ships on the eastern part of the strait. On the west side there were up to the completion of the Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse in 1859 and the construction of a new lighthouse at Cape Wickham at the northern end of King Iceland 1861 no navigation aids.
Strong currents between the Southern Ocean and the Tasman Sea make for difficult navigation conditions. At the Australian and Tasmanian coast as well as on the islands in the street, there were hundreds of shipwrecks. Only stronger steel ships and modern navigation methods have the risk reduced significantly. Many ships, including some fairly large, disappeared without a trace or leaving only a few remnants. Despite myths and legends of pirates, robbers beach and supernatural powers similar to those of the Bermuda Triangle disappearances of ships is due to the rather treacherous combination of wind and current conditions, and the numerous, located partly submerged rocks and reefs.
Islands
In the Bass Strait are over 60 islands. These include the West King Iceland, Three Hummock Iceland, Iceland and Hunter Robbins Iceland. In the southeast the road the Furneaux Group lies with over 50 islands in the northeast, the Kent Group, Hogan and Curtis Iceland Iceland.
Resources
In the Bass Strait, there are oil and gas fields. Known as the Gippsland Basin eastern field was found in the 1960s and is about 50 km off the coast of Gippsland. Oil and gas pass via a pipeline for further processing after Longford, Western Port, Altona and Geelong, but also by tankers to New South Wales. The western field, known as the Otway Basin was discovered in the 1990s offshore near Port Campbell and is since 2005 also exploited.
See also: Australian Worldwide Exploration ( Australian company that operates oil and gas platforms)