Denmark Strait

Geographical location

The Denmark Strait is the strait between Greenland and Iceland. The cold East Greenland Current flows through that strait to the south in the Atlantic.

It is about 480 km long and at its narrowest point ( between Straumnes, the northwestern cape of the peninsula nordwestisländischen Hornstrandir, and Cape Tupinier at the Blosseville Kyst in East Greenland ) 289 km wide, connecting the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. The official IHO boundary between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic, however, runs between Straumnes and Cape Nansen, located 132 km south-west of Cape Tunipier. The removal of Straumnes to Cape Nansen is 336 km.

On the basis of the Denmark Strait is the Greenland - Iceland - threshold ( Greenland - Iceland Rise ), which separates the deep-sea basins of the Irminger Sea and the Greenland Sea from each other. There is the " largest waterfall in the world " where dash down every second about 3,000,000 m3 of cold, salty water from a depth of 600 m to 4000 m.

Battle in the Denmark Strait in 1941

During World War II a naval battle between German and British ships took on 24 May 1941 in the Denmark Strait instead, the so-called battle in the Denmark Strait. The British battle cruiser HMS Hood and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales tried to prevent the breakthrough of the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the North Atlantic ( company Rheinübung ). In the course of this battle, the Hood was sunk. The Bismarck was three days later by another British warship Association also sunk.