Bering Strait

Geographical location

The Bering Strait (English Bering Strait, Russian Берингов пролив / Beringow proliw ) is a strait between the easternmost Stelle66.051295 - 169.673217 Asia and the western Punkt65.643584 - 168.122018 of the American mainland, and thus also between Russia and the United States ( Alaska).

The Strait and the south of it located Bering Sea are named after the Dane Vitus Bering, who went through the strait in 1728 as a naval officer in the Russian service.

• 3.1 Bridge Project
• 3.2 Tunnel project

Geography

The approximately 82 km wide and an average of only about 30 to 50 m deep strait connects the Chukchi Sea ( a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean ) in the north to the Bering Sea ( the northern edge of the Pacific Ocean ) to the south. It is located between the two continents and the Cape Deschnjow (Asia) in the west and Cape Prince of Wales (North America) in the east.

Through the Bering Strait, in which the Diomede Islands and Fairway rock are, runs the global date line. Only occasionally, when the temperature falls below minus 70 degrees Celsius, the Bering Strait is frozen. [ Evidence ?]

History

Early History

Beringia called - - As recently as 10,000 years ago when the last ice age came to an end, the Bering Strait was a land bridge between the two continents. This connected the two continents together so that people - could get from Asia to North America - according to currently accepted theory.

Discovery

At the end of the reign of Peter I. There was the whole of Siberia in Russian possession. The question of whether there is a land connection between Siberia and America, was still unclear. The Tsar commissioned the Danish navigator Vitus Jonassen Bering therefore, to clarify the facts. Bering crossed Siberia in 1725 by land and reached the Kamchatka Peninsula. In 1728 he sailed out from here to the north, reaching the Arctic Ocean without being encountered on land. On August 15, 1728, however, Bering due to bad weather was on the discovery trip and returned to 67 ° 18 'north latitude. He was later named after him strait indeed already traversed, recent evidence that there is no land connection between Asia and North America, he remained guilty. This was one reason that the Second Bering Kamchatka expedition departed five years later, which is also known as the Great Northern Expedition ( 1733-1743 ).

As part of this expedition discovered the German historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller, member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Bering in 1728 that was the first navigator by no means, who had crossed the Bering Strait. In the archives of Yakutsk firm, he has found evidence that even 80 years before the trappers and traders Semyon Deshnjow had passed through with his people the strait between the two continents. This was 1648, the Eastern Cape, which went from the North Siberian river Kolyma named after him Deschnjow Cape, around through the Bering Strait to the Anadyr to exploit the untapped hunting here.

See also: Arctic Circle

Projects

Bridge project

Some architectural designs were submitted for bridges across the Bering Strait. This is a 85 km long bridge to be built, which is so sure that it can withstand temperatures below -70 ° C and severe storms. On the bridge is to be built a two-lane road. Inside there will be pipelines and a railway line for high -speed trains. The project is very uncertain, as the Bering Strait is considered quite uncertain about the weather, and the coasts are also not connected to the road network of Asia and North America.

Tunnel project

A French engineer proposed in 1905 for the first time in front of a 100 km long tunnel. Tsar Nicholas II agreed, but the First World War and the October Revolution were the project to fail.

In April 2007, an economic project for tunneling the Bering Strait was announced. The entire project should be realized in ten to 15 years and is estimated at 65 billion U.S. dollars. The tunnel would have been doing a length of 104 km.

The Russian Transport Minister Nikolai Aksjonenko had estimated the chances of this project to realization already on 22 January 2001 with the words "Rather to Mars than to Alaska " as very low. The problem is not only the tunnel under the Bering Strait, but also that on both sides of more than 1,000 kilometers rail link would have to be built on permafrost (see Arctic Circle Railway ).

Importance for the global climate

The Bering Strait separates little salty waters of the Pacific from the salt -rich Arctic Ocean, which is on the other side of the pole with the Atlantic Ocean in conjunction. Is it ( as currently ) open, flows into the upper layers of Pacific water through the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean, while more saline bottom water flows into the Pacific. This exchange has serious consequences for the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic - less salt in the Atlantic the Gulf Stream slows considerably, since the drop in the waters near Greenland is only effected in that water cools and moves into the depth; the heavier ( salty ) water is, the more surface water decreases. Only by constantly flowing warmer water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean as the Gulf Stream in the north to thus bringing Europe on temperatures and precipitation values ​​that are significantly higher than those of the North American and Asian regions to the same latitudes. A further decrease of salinity in the North Atlantic - for example, by melting of the inland ice in Greenland - could even prevent this process completely and bring the Gulf Stream to standstill, making the climate in Europe would probably cool and dry.

Conversely, a closing of the relatively shallow Bering Strait, as occurred in the geological past by continental movements and / or a lower sea level that the salty North Atlantic and the Gulf Stream is accelerated. The initially higher temperatures of Greenland result. However, since thereby mist formed, which leads to more snowfall, itself radiating white surfaces form. This in turn has a cooling especially in the north and a further formation of ice result, which can trigger a new ice age.

It is believed and also confirmed by simulations that the cycle of ice ages and warm periods, the Earth is going through since about 55 million years ago was caused by this effect, or at least reinforced. However, to date only " either-or simulations " by expected (open or closed). What does a partial closure or maximum open flow, has not calculable.

A bridge ( partly due to dams ) could in any case have long term a significant impact on the currents in the Bering Strait, and thus on the global climate.