A strait is a narrow body of water that connects two larger bodies of water.
It may be formed by a fracture in an isthmus, a narrow body of land that connects two bodies of water. Tectonic shifts can lead to straits like this. One strait that was formed by tectonic activity is the Strait of Gibraltar, the only link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Strait of Gibraltar is actually closing, as the African tectonic plate slides north. In a few thousand years, the Strait of Gibraltar will be the Isthmus of Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean will be a large, salty, inland sea.
If fractures in an isthmus are created by human activity, the straits are usually called canals. The Suez Canal was constructed in 1869 as a waterway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The Suez Canal allows transportation between Europe and Asia without having to go around the entire continent of Africa. It is an important economic strait.
A strait can also be formed by a body of water overflowing land that has subsided or has been eroded. The Bosporus, which links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, was formed this way. Land at the southwestern edge of the Black Sea eroded and crumbled, creating a strait. Although scientists know that the Black Sea was once an enclosed lake, they do not know for sure whether the Black Sea flooded into the Aegean, or the Aegean flooded into the Black Sea. The Bosporus is an extremely important strait, separating the continents of Europe and Asia. Besides two entire continents, the Bosporus also separates a single country. It splits the European part of Turkey, called Thrace, and the Asian part, called Anatolia.
Credit : National Geographic Society
Picture Credit : Google
