Everything about Straits Of Dover totally explained
The
Strait of Dover or
Dover Strait (
French:
Pas de Calais,, "Strait of
Calais",
Dutch:
Nauw van Calais or
Straat van Dover) is the
strait at the narrowest part of the
English Channel. The shortest distance across the strait is from the
South Foreland, some 6 km (4 mi) north-east of
Dover in the county of
Kent,
England, to
Cap Gris Nez, a
cape near
Calais in the
département of
Pas-de-Calais,
France. Between these two points – the most popular route for cross-channel swimmers – the distance is just 33 km (20 mi).
On a clear day, it's possible to see the opposite coastline and shoreline buildings with the naked eye.
Shipping traffic
Most maritime traffic between the
Atlantic Ocean and the
North and
Baltic Seas passes through the Strait of Dover, rather than taking the longer and more dangerous route around the north of
Scotland. The strait is the busiest international seaway in the world, used by over 400 commercial vessels daily. This has made safety a critical issue, with
HM Coastguard maintaining a 24-hour watch over the strait and enforcing a strict regime of shipping lanes.
In addition to the intensive east-west traffic, the strait is criss-crossed from north to south by
ferries. Until the 1990s these provided the only ground-based route across it. The
Channel Tunnel now provides an alternative route, crossing underneath the strait at an average depth of 45 m (150 ft) underneath the seabed.
Geological formation
The strait is believed to have been created through
erosion. At one time there was land where the strait is now, a south-east extension of the
Weald joining what is now
Great Britain to
continental Europe. The eastern end of this old longer Weald is the
Boulonnais chalk area in the
Pas de Calais. The predominant geology on both the British and French sides and on the sea floor between is
chalk. Although somewhat resistant to erosion, such erosion of the chalk can be seen on both coasts as impressive sea
cliffs, the famous
White Cliffs of Dover, and
Cap Gris Nez on the French side of the strait. This same rock provided an excellent tunnelling medium for the
Channel Tunnel.
The
Rhine flowed northwards into the North Sea as the sea level fell during the start of the first of the
Pleistocene Ice Ages. The ice created a
dam from
Scandinavia to
Scotland, and the Rhine, combined with the
Thames and drainage from much of north Europe, created a vast lake behind the dam, which eventually spilled over the Weald into the
English Channel. This overflow channel was gradually widened and deepened into the Strait of Dover. A narrow deeper channel along the middle of the strait was the bed of the
Rhine in the last
Ice Age. In
East Anglia there's a geological deposit that marks the old
preglacial northward course of the
Rhine.
However, a new study by Gupta et al. (2007) suggests that the English Channel was formed by erosion caused by two major floods. The first was about 425,000 years ago, when an ice-dammed lake in the southern North Sea overflowed and broke the Weald-
Artois chalk range in a catastrophic erosion and flood event. Afterwards, the
Thames and
Scheldt flowed through the gap into the English Channel, but the
Meuse and
Rhine still flowed northwards. In a second flood about 225,000 years ago the Meuse and Rhine were ice-dammed into a lake that broke catastrophically through a high weak barrier (perhaps chalk, or an
end-moraines left by the ice sheet). Both floods cut massive flood channels in the dry bed of the
English Channel, somewhat like the
Channeled Scablands in the USA.
Unusual crossings
Many crossings other than in a conventional vessel have been attempted, including by
pedalo,
bathtub,
amphibious vehicle and more commonly by
swimming. French law is stricter on such matters than UK law, so most such crossings originate in the UK.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Straits Of Dover'.
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