The Faroe–Shetland Channel is stretch of the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

lying between the two island groups of

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

and the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic archipelago, island group and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotlan ...

. The channel is a

rift basin In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...

that separates the Scottish and the Faroese continental shelves, and has a maximum depth of 1900 m, compared to the surrounding seabed which mostly lies at 200 m. It was first noted by Charles Wyville Thomson during the mid-nineteenth century. Strategically, the channel forms part of the

GIUK gap The GIUK gap (sometimes written G-I-UK) is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval choke point. Its name is an acronym for ''Greenland, Iceland'', and the ''United Kingdom'', the gap being the two stretches of open ocean betwe ...

Nature and conservation

Since 2014 two parts of the channel lying with Scottish Offshore Waters have been designated as Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas: *The Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA covers in an region of sea where the mixing of relatively warmer North Atlantic water with sub-zero deep water from the

Norwegian Sea The Norwegian Sea ( no, Norskehavet; is, Noregshaf; fo, Norskahavið) is a marginal sea, grouped with either the Atlantic Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, northwest of Norway between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, adjoining the Barents Sea to ...

leads to a diverse range of sea life in the area, including fields of slow-growing deep-sea

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

s that are a key feature of the MPA designation. The sponges, which are found on the slopes of the channel at depths of between 400 and 600 m,SNH Commissioned Report 547. p. 31. provide a sheltered habitat that supports creatures such as brittlestars,

squat lobster Squat lobsters are dorsoventrally flattened crustaceans with long tails held curled beneath the cephalothorax. They are found in the two superfamilies Galatheoidea and Chirostyloidea, which form part of the decapod infraorder Anomura, alongsi ...

s and burrowing heart urchins. Sand and gravel beds within the channel also support

ocean quahog The ocean quahog (''Arctica islandica'') is a species of edible clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Arcticidae. This species is native to the North Atlantic Ocean, and it is harvested commercially as a food source. This species is ...

, a large and slow growing clam which have a lifespan of more than 400 years and are thus considered to be amongst the oldest living animals on Earth. *The North-east Faroe–Shetland Channel MPA covers at the far northern edge of Scotland's sea area. This part of the channel is considered to be an important migratory route for marine mammals such as fin and

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus '' Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

s. This part of the channel is also of note for its geological features, which include a series of deep-water

mud volcano A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases. Several geological processes may cause the formation of mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes are not true igneous volcanoes as they do not produce l ...

es known as the pilot whale diapirs.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Faroe-Shetland Channel Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas of Scotland Oceanic trenches of the Atlantic Ocean Geology of Scotland

Nature and conservation

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography