Where is Drake Passage located?
The Drake Passage is an intercontinental strait that connects the southern parts
Mar de Hoses, as they call it in SpanishDrake Passage, presumably first met a navigator in the early 1500s. Then the famous Spanish marine explorer Francisco de Oses went to study the southern direction: he strove to see the end of the continent of South America. Several decades later, the famous British explorer, admiral and naval captain Francis Drake sailed this strait in 1578 during the second in the world after Magellan's voyage around the world on the only frigate Pelican left from his large flotilla (later renamed the Golden Hind), with a displacement of 150 tons.
As a result, the strait received its current name thanks to Shackleton Ernest during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in honor of the English navigator.
Drake was a legendary figure in British expansion, and it was from him that the English name for the strait was derived.
The Spaniards, however, consider him a pirate.And for a reason - Drake had a penchant for capturing their treasure-filled ships. This is why most Spanish-language sources to this day still refer to the Drake Passage as Mar de Hoses.
The convergence of the seas and the graveyard of ships
The powerful Antarctic Ocean passes through the strait.circumpolar current. Storms are frequent in the strait, and here they are among the strongest on the planet - a constant westerly wind, sometimes reaching 35 m/s (126 km/h), is combined with a current from west to east, in some places reaching a speed of 15 km/h, Waves over 15 meters high are also common. Icebergs are found mainly in the southern part of the strait, moving after the current from west to east. In general, the climate is temperate, turning into subantarctic in the southern part.
The Drake Passage extends just under 1000 km. This is where the oceans meet.
What makes the Drake Passage so notorious?The most powerful currents at this latitude do not encounter resistance from any part of the land. Combined with the area's propensity for high winds, crossing the Drake Passage can be quite an adventurous affair. Fortunately, expedition ships are now equipped with stabilizers that absorb most of the vibrations.
Historically, the strait is a cemeterya significant number of ships that tried to pass it against the current and winds from the time of Magellan to the opening of the Panama Canal, which pulled over almost all coastal routes of South America. Safe navigation on the strait in relatively calm weather is only possible for very large cargo ships (eg tankers and container ships of the Panamax class), large warships (eg cruisers and aircraft carriers), and submarines.
Why is this one of the most dangerous places on the planet?
The Drake Passage is located between South America andAntarctica, or more precisely, between the Tierra del Fuego archipelago and the South Shetland Islands. The strait has a number of characteristics that make it outstanding among all other straits on Earth.
Drake Passage is the widest passage ingeographic map, and its width at its narrowest part is 820 kilometers. It is also the deepest strait on the planet, and when ships pass through it, 5 km of water seethes beneath them. It is also characterized by constant winds.
In the southern part of the globe, between 40 ° and 50 ° southlatitude there is a powerful Antarctic circumpolar oceanic current, or the current of the West Winds. This current, without encountering obstacles in the form of continents or large islands, develops a significant speed. Therefore, all ships that go through the Drake Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean have to overcome the powerful resistance of the Antarctic circumpolar ocean current, writes Travelask.
But the current is not as bad as stormy winds. Here they constantly often reach 25-30 m / s, that is, they are at the level of 10-point storm indicators.
In addition to the most powerful winds, the situation in the straitsignificantly complicate icebergs and drifting ice. The southern part of the strait from April to November (namely, at this time in the southern hemisphere is winter) is covered with ice. Icebergs often float in the south of Drake Passage in summer.
Extreme Drake Passage Crossing
If we talk about shipping in this strait, thenit is not very developed due to the above reasons. Since the Panama Canal was built, most ships use it to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and back. Well, if you need to get exactly to the southern part of South America, going around it from the south, then they use the much calmer and safer Strait of Magellan. Numerous cruise ships traveling along the routes around the world also pass through it.
However, in late 2019, a team of six managed to cross the Drake Passage in a conventional rowing boat for the first time in history.
The expedition members come from the USA, Iceland, and South Africa.and Scotland. The journey, starting from the southern tip of South America, took them thirteen days. To prevent the boat from capsizing, three people had to remain on the oars at all times, while three more had the opportunity to rest in the cramped conditions of the nine-meter vessel.
Strong winds posed a threat to life,12-meter waves and whales that could easily capsize the boat. As one of the expedition members said, the water in the Drake Passage is so cold that if a person falls overboard, he has only two to five minutes to survive.
In addition to the threat to life, the men worked inharsh conditions. Their 9-meter rowboat, called Ohana, had to be in constant motion to avoid capsizing. This meant that three men would row for 90 minutes while the other three would rest, still cold and wet.
"You're rowing in an open hold, 40-foot seathe waves splash in your face, almost icy water hits your nose,” said Colin O Brady, 34, of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, one of the six expedition members.
“It was pretty painful,” O'Brady told The Associated Press in his first interview since the trip. “By the end, we were all very thin and delirious from lack of sleep.”
The biggest challenge for O'Brady's fellow rower, Jamie Douglas-Hamilton from Edinburgh, Scotland, was the constant bombardment from the elements.
“We were hit by winds from all sides …and the sea here is very strong, because it is the roughest ocean in the world - shared a 38-year-old man - We almost capsized many times, and the problem is that the water is so cold that if you fall into the water, you have two to five minutes to get out."
Why do scientists observe and investigate the strait?
For more than 20 years, the Drake Passage has beenthe most closely observed part of the Southern Ocean. It provides a link between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and limits the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) to a narrow geographic region. Ultimately, EIR makes it the best place to measure ADC properties. Since 1993, high-quality hydrographic measurements have been taken at full depth in the Drake Passage every Antarctic summer. These intercontinental measurements are unique: no other ocean basin has such good resolution over such a long period of time.
The volume of water carried by ACT dwarfs evenGulf Stream. That is why even small changes in its properties in the future can have a profound effect on the rest of the world's oceans. The more scientists have records of this extreme location, the better their ability to detect gradual long-term changes in the ocean's natural variability.
The Southern Ocean is like no other on the planetdue to continuous navigation around the Antarctic continent. It is a channel through which heat and fresh water, as well as biogeochemical properties, are transferred between the basins of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. It also plays an important role in ocean circulation through the formation of water masses around Antarctica. Thus, it is an extremely important part of the global ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere system, which is both very sensitive to climatic influences and actively participates in them.
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