Background Info:
Like the Grand Banks near
Newfoundland, the North Sea is a
major fishing and petroleum
resource. Making up less than 1%
of the world’s oceans, the North
Sea is an important economic
resource for the European nations
that bound it. It is believed by
scientists that the land that was to
become the North Sea was located
approximately two degrees south
of the equator some 350 million
years ago. During the Permian era,
some 240 million years ago, as the
land mass was migrating
northward, the crust began to
subside. Marine deposits trapped
in this and later periods formed the
crude oil and natural gas reserves
mined today. The shape of the
North Sea basin as it exists today is
the result of refinement by the
glaciation of the Ice Ages that left
deep valleys in the sea floor.
The North Sea varies in several ways
from north to south. The northern
part of the sea is larger, deeper and
is subject to greater oceanic
influences as well as to significant
atmospheric deposition than the
southern part. As it is also
surrounded by less populated and
industrialized nations, it is subject to
less pollution.
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