Argentine Sea
The Argentine Sea is the name given to the epicontinental sea and coastline of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the southern tip of South America. The name "Argentine Sea" it does not refer to the maritime spaces where Argentina effectively exercises sovereignty or jurisdiction. Geographically, the limits of the Argentine sea, as they were delimited by the National Commission of the Outer Limit of the Continental Platform (COPLA), include from the mouth of the estuary of the Río de la Plata to the north (parallel 35º South) to the Isla de los Estados to the south, and from the Argentine coast to the isobath of 200 meters depth including the Malvinas Islands. Its width varies between 210 kilometers off Mar del Plata and 850 kilometers at the latitude of the Malvinas Islands. The coastline extends for 4,725 km. To the east of the Argentine sea lies the even larger and much deeper Argentine basin. The Argentine sea has an approximate extension of 1,000,000 km².
The Argentine sea extends beyond the exclusive economic zone defined by Argentina in its American continental portion, Antarctic and the islands of the South Atlantic Ocean, including part of the Namuncurá or Burdwood bank (approximately 56º 30' south).
Definition
The Romanian explorer Julio Popper was the first to use the name Argentine Sea, when in 1891 he published a map called Tierra del Fuego according to the explorations carried out by the engineer Julio Popper (1886- 1891). Popper called the Argentine Sea the following:
(...) the unnamed sea extension that bathes the southern end of the Republic and extends from the island of the States after Hornos and from the Beagle channel to the Atlantic Ocean.
The name was extended shortly after to include all the Argentine continental coasts. The area mentioned by Popper, which was the area in the southern zone of Tierra del Fuego, received the name of the Southern Zone sea as a consequence of the approval of the Peace and Friendship Treaty between Argentina and Chile in 1984, but it continues to be frequently included as part of the Argentine sea.
Dispute with the UK
The International Hydrographic Organization has not included the Argentine sea in its publication Limits of ocean and seas of 1953, and its existence as such is rejected by the United Kingdom, a country that with Argentina maintains a dispute over the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands. Outside of Argentina, in countries where maritime cartography with names in English predominates, the name Mar Argentino is little used and the region is simply referred to, ignoring the specific physical limits of the Argentine sea, as one more part of the Atlantic Ocean. in its southern section.
In 2009, during the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (CONVEMAR) the coordinates of the limits of its continental shelf, which covers an area of 1,782,500 km²,[citation needed] equivalent to more than half of the emerged territory. The delimited area also corresponds to the area in which the Malvinas and Aurora, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands are located, over which Argentina maintains a sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom. In March 2016, while Mauricio Macri was in office, the United Nations unanimously approved the Argentine petition.
Features
It is a sea of great economic wealth, both in its waters (fish resources, plankton, crustaceans, cetaceans, shellfish, algae, potential tidal energy) and in its subsoil (hydrocarbons). Sunlight penetrates the deep sea to approximately 200 m deep and this, with its corresponding photosynthesis, favors the existence of a rich underwater flora that is usually the first multicellular link in the trophic chain and marine biocenosis. Such a biocenosis favors in the Argentine Sea the abundance of benthos and plankton (phytoplankton and zooplankton) and, concatenated, the proliferation of fish, cetaceans and other forms of multicellular marine life (including true forests of algae such as the "kelp&# 34;), which provide or can provide excellent proteins and also trace elements such as sodium, calcium, iodine, selenium, etc.
On the cliffy coasts there are varieties of limpets and mussels, octopus and grouper, as well as clams, king crabs, starfish, crabs and sole. Seabirds, especially penguins and cormorants, also find places of refuge and nesting on these coasts. The stony coasts are the favorites of sea lions and elephant seals to have their young there. In 1935 the Catalogue of the Ichthic Fauna of the Argentine Sea was prepared, which made a taxonomic record of 261 species.
Immediately to the east of the Argentine sea, the depth increases abruptly, the land falling almost vertically by a slope cut at certain points by some submarine canyons, remains of ancient rivers that existed during the glaciations, when a large part of this sea was emerged.
Below the slope is an immense abyssal plain that covers a large part of the South Atlantic, internationally known as the Argentine basin.
Ocean currents
The Argentine Sea has a cold and slightly saline current called Subantarctic Shelf Water, which flows northeast until it meets the waters coming from the Brazilian shelf (Subtropical Shelf Water), forming the Subtropical Shelf Front. This front is the preferential place for the export of shelf waters to the open ocean.
The platform is characterized by having a barotropic structure, which means that the entire column of water moves in the same direction. The intensity of the current on the platform varies depending on the local winds.
In the extreme east of the Argentine Sea is the Malvinas current (whose nucleus follows the 200 m isobath), which is an extension of the Antarctic Circumpolar current.
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