{"id":18575,"date":"2026-02-20T12:20:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=18575"},"modified":"2026-02-20T15:13:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:43:51","slug":"strait-of-gibraltar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/strait-of-gibraltar\/","title":{"rendered":"Strait of Gibraltar"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Strait of Gibraltar Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Ford lit up tracking systems while sailing hard toward the Strait of Gibraltar, a move that defense watchers say \u201cdoesn\u2019t usually happen\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Strait of Gibraltar<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the body of water <\/span><b>separating Europe from Africa <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>connecting <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>Atlantic Ocean<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the west<\/span><b> with the Mediterranean Sea i<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n the east.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is located at the<\/span><b> southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Bordering Countries:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is bordered by <\/span><b>Spain <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the north and by the African country of <\/span><b>Morocco <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>Spanish enclave of Ceuta<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the south.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is about 58 km long and has a width of about 13 km at its <\/span><b>narrowest point between Morocco\u2019s Point Cires and Spain\u2019s Point Marroqu\u00ed.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> western end<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the strait located<\/span><b> between Spain\u2019s Cape Trafalgar<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Morocco\u2019s Cape Spartel<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has a width of about 43 km.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The strait\u2019s <\/span><b>eastern end,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> located <\/span><b>between <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>Rock of Gibraltar in the north<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Mount Hacho or Jebel Moussa in the south<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, has a width of about 23 km.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These two land features in the strait\u2019s eastern extremity are known as the <\/span><b>Pillars of Heracles.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Strait of Gibraltar\u2019s depth ranges from 300 to 900 m, and it forms a significant gap <\/span><b>between the high plateau of Spain<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Formation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Geological studies have revealed that the Strait was formed due to the <\/span><b>northward movement of the African Plate towards the European Plate.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>only natural link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is one of the <\/span><b>busiest waterways <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the world. Approximately 300 ships cross the Strait every day.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Until the opening of the Suez Canal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 1869, the Strait of Gibraltar was the<\/span><b> only means of oceanic access to and from the Mediterranean Sea.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An important port located on the Strait of Gibraltar is the <\/span><b>Moroccan port of Tanger-Med, near Tangier.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Water Flow and Currents:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Water flows in and out of the Strait constantly.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Atlantic Ocean <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has <\/span><b>cooler, less salty water.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mediterranean-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Mediterranean Sea<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has <\/span><b>warmer, saltier water. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This difference <\/span><b>creates strong currents<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Water from the Atlantic flows into<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>Mediterranean near the surface.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Deeper down, saltier water from the Mediterranean flows back <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">into the <\/span><b>Atlantic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This constant exchange help<\/span><b>s keep the Mediterranean Sea healthy.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indiandefencereview.com\/uss-gerald-r-ford-heads-toward-strait-of-gibralta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IDR<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Strait of Gibraltar is the body of water separating Europe from Africa and connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the west with the Mediterranean Sea in the east. Read more about Strait of Gibraltar, Depth, Width, Length, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":45948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,220,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-18575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-strait-of-gibraltar","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88970,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18575\/revisions\/88970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}