Where is Barents Sea?

About Barents Sea:

• Location:
  • It is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean.
  • It is located along the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.
• The sea was known to Vikings and medieval Russians as the Murmean Sea.
• The current name of the sea is after the historical Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz.
• Boundaries:
  • It is bounded by the Svalbard archipelago in the northwest, Franz Josef Land islands in the northeast, the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the east, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea in the west, and by the Kola Peninsula in the south. 
  • It is separated from the Kara Sea by the Kara Strait and the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. 
  • The White Sea and the Pechora Sea are two parts of the Barents Sea.
  • The White Sea is a southern arm of the Barents Sea, which separates the Kola Peninsula from the Russian mainland.
  • The Pechora Sea is situated in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea.
• Features:
  • It is a shallow sea, with an average depth of 230 metres.
  • The sea’s deepest point is 600 m at the Bear Island Trench.
  • The Barents Sea faces a subarctic climate.
  • The waters of the Barents Sea have a high salinity of 34 parts per 1,000.
  • Due to the North Atlantic drift, the Barents Sea has a high biological production compared to other oceans of similar latitude.
  • Its topography is characterized by troughs and basins, separated by shallow bank areas.

 

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Q1) What is a Marginal Sea?

Marginal seas are large, shallow bodies of water along continental edges or margins. Marginal seas include the Arabian Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Bering Sea, the Beaufort Sea, the Black Sea, the Gulf of California, the Gulf of Mexico, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Source: Underwater volcano erupting with mud, fluids from Earth's interior discovered in Barents Sea