Bering Sea and Strait

▪ sea, Pacific Ocean

Introduction

Russian  Beringovo More  and  Proliv Beringa,  

 northernmost part of the Pacific Ocean, separating the continents of Asia and North America. To the north the Bering Sea connects with the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait, at the narrowest point of which the two continents are about 53 miles (85 kilometres) apart. The boundary between the United States and Russia passes through the sea and the strait.

      The Bering Sea roughly resembles a triangle with its apex to the north and its base formed by the 1,100-mile-long arc of the Alaska Peninsula in the east; the Aleutian Islands, which constitute part of the U.S. state of Alaska, in the south; and the Komandor (Commander) Islands in the west. Its area is about 890,000 square miles (2,304,000 square kilometres), including its islands. The maximum width from east to west is about 1,490 miles and from north to south about 990 miles.

      The Bering Strait is a relatively shallow passage averaging 100 to 165 feet (30 to 50 metres) in depth. During the ice age the sea level fell by several hundred feet, making the strait into a land bridge between the continents of Asia and North America, over which a considerable migration of plants and animals occurred.

      In addition to the Aleutian and Komandor groups, there are several other large islands in both the sea and strait. These include Nunivak, St. Lawrence, and Nelson islands in Alaskan waters and Karagin Island in Russian waters.

Physical features

Physiography

      The Bering Sea may be divided into two nearly equal parts: a relatively shallow area along the continental and insular shelves in the north and east and a much deeper area in the southwest. In the shelf area, which is an enormous underwater plain, the depths are, in most cases, less than 500 feet. The deep part in the southwestern portion of the sea is also a plain, lying at depths of 12,000 to 13,000 feet and divided by separate ridges into three basins: the larger Aleutian Basin to the north and east, the Bowers Basin to the south, and the Komandor Basin to the west. The sea's deepest point, 13,442 feet (4,097 metres), is in the Bowers Basin.

      The continental crust is more than 12 miles thick along the shallow shelves and in the Aleutian Islands. The thickness decreases in the slope areas, and in the deep part of the sea the crust is 6 to 9 miles thick.

      Enormous quantities of sedimentary material enter the sea annually from the land as a result of erosion of the shore. Plant and animal life at the surface also produce sedimentary material, but very little reaches the bottom, and consequently most of the sediment on the floor of the sea is from the land. Along with a great deal of silica, the bottom ooze holds a large quantity of boulders, pebbles, and gravel torn from the shores by ice and carried out to sea. In the southern part, the sediments are rich in material of volcanic origin.

Climate

      Although the Bering Sea is situated in the same latitude as Great Britain, its climate is much more severe. The southern and western parts are characterized by cool, rainy summers with frequent fogs and comparatively warm, snowy winters. Winters are extreme in the northern and eastern portions, with temperatures of -31° to -49° F (-35° to -45° C) and high winds. The summers in the north and east are cool, with comparatively low precipitation. Snow persists on the Koryak coast for as long as 8 months and on the Chukchi Peninsula for nearly 10 months, with a snow cover one to two feet thick. The annual precipitation in the southern part of the sea is more than 40 inches (1,000 millimetres), mainly in the form of rainfall, while in the northern part the precipitation is less than half as much and is mainly snow.

      Mean annual air temperatures range from -14° F (-10° C) in the northern areas to about 39° F (4° C) in the southern parts. Water temperatures on the surface average from 34° F (1° C) in the north to 41° F (5° C) in the south. The period without frosts lasts for about 80 days in the northern part of the sea, where snow is common even in the summer and maximum temperatures are only 68° F (20° C). In the southern area there are nearly 150 days without frost, and the temperature seldom falls much below freezing. January and February are the coldest months, July and August the warmest. Severe storms caused by strong centres of low atmospheric pressure occasionally penetrate the southern part of the sea.

Hydrology

      Practically all of the Bering Sea water comes from the Pacific Ocean. The salinity of the surface water is relatively low, 31 to 33 parts per thousand; in the deeper parts of the sea the salinity increases to 35 parts per thousand near the bottom. In winter the northern portion of the sea is covered with ice, and even in summer the water below the surface retains a subfreezing temperature. The structure of the Bering Sea waters in general is subarctic, characterized by the presence in summer of a cold intermediate layer with warmer waters above and below. During the summer the surface water is heated, but a considerable layer of water that was cooled during the winter remains cold and is known as the cold intermediate layer. The maximum thickness of this intermediate layer is about 475 feet in the northern part of the sea and as much as 280 feet in the south. Underneath this layer is one that is slightly warmer, below which lie the colder bottom waters. In the northern and eastern shallow regions of the sea, only two upper layers develop: surface water and a cooler intermediate layer.

      Warm oceanic waters from the south enter the Bering Sea through the numerous straits of the Fox Islands, through the Amchitka and Tanaga passes, and to a great extent through the Blizhny Strait between Attu and Medny islands. The Attu, Tanaga, and Transverse currents carry the warm water to the northwest. The Transverse Current, proceeding along the Asian continental slope in the direction of Cape Navarin, branches in two: one branch forms the Lawrence Current moving northward, and the other joins the Anadyr Current, which in turn gives birth to a powerful Kamchatka Current that governs the southward movement of the Bering Sea waters along the Asian coasts. Near the Alaska coast the general direction of the water is to the north, a factor responsible for the less severe ice conditions in that part of the sea as compared with the western part. Some of the Bering Sea water passes through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, but the bulk of it returns to the Pacific. The deep Bering Sea waters rise gradually to the surface and return to the Pacific as surface waters. Thus, the Bering Sea is an important factor in the general circulation of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean waters. The rise to the surface of oceanic waters rich in nutrient salts gives the sea a high biological productivity.

Economic aspects

Biological and mineral resources

      The existence in the Bering Sea of the cold intermediate layer separating the deep waters, which are rich in nutrient salts, from the upper photic layer (i.e., the layer exposed to sunlight) results in two growths of floating plant life during the year. The first growth occurs in the spring after the mixing of waters in winter, and the second during the autumnal mixing, when the cold surface waters descend and the deeper waters come to the surface while there is still sufficient sunlight for plant growth.

      This floating plant life consists of some 160 species, of which the most common are diatom algae. The largest concentration of diatoms have been found in the shallow part of the sea. Diatoms are the principal producers of organic matter, and they are consumed by small copepods (microscopic crustaceans), which in turn become the food of fish and mammals. On the continental shelf there are vast quantities of mollusks, echinoderms (particularly sea urchins and starfish), and barnacles. Also abundant on the shelves are sponges, marine worms, and crustaceans. In the southern regions, down to depths of 100 or 130 feet, populations of giant brown algae grow like forests on the rocky bottom. There are about 200 species of algae, some reaching lengths of 200 to 300 feet.

      The Bering Sea has more than 300 species of fish, including 50 deep-sea species, of which 25 are caught commercially. The most important among them are salmon, herring, cod, flounder, halibut, and pollack. The islands are breeding grounds for the fur seal and the sea otter. The northern areas are inhabited by the walrus, seal, and sea lion. Several whale species, notably gray whales, migrate to Bering waters to feed during the summer. Intensive fishing in the last half of the 20th century has drastically reduced some of the most valuable fish species, and this has led to greater exploitation of less commercially valuable species.

      Oil and gas deposits are believed to exist under the Bering Shelf and along the margin of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The extent of potential reserves, however, is unknown.

Navigation

      The Bering Sea is considered to be one of the most difficult bodies of water to navigate. Winter storms are frequent and severe, often coating the superstructures of ships with ice. Wave heights may exceed 40 feet. Added to these hazards are powerful tidal currents in many parts of the sea and fog, rain, and floating ice in the north. In winter the northern area is covered by ice fields about 4 or 5 feet thick, with hummocks in some places more than 100 feet high. At its maximum extent in April, the ice reaches as far south as Bristol Bay and the Kamchatka coasts. Melting begins in May, and by July there is no ice in the sea except for drift ice in the Bering Strait. Nonetheless, the sea contains important shipping routes for the Soviet Far East, including the eastern terminus at Provideniya on the Chukchi Peninsula for the northern sea route to Arkhangelsk in the west.

Study and exploration

      The Bering Strait and the Bering (Bering, Vitus) Sea were first explored by Russian ships under Semyon Dezhnyov (Dezhnyov, Semyon Ivanov), in 1648. They are named for Vitus Bering, a Danish captain who was taken into Russian service by Peter the Great, in 1724. He sailed into the strait four years later but did not see the Alaskan coast, although he discovered the islands of St. Lawrence and Diomede. In 1730 the strait was charted for the first time by Mikhail Gvozdev and Ivan Fyodorov. Bering sailed again in 1733, leading a large expedition from St. Petersburg along the northern coast of Siberia, and he reached the Gulf of Alaska in the summer of 1741. He reconnoitred the southwestern coast of mainland Alaska, the Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutians, but misfortune befell him, and he perished in that year along with many of his men. In 1780, Russian merchants founded a private company to trade in fur-bearing animals in northwestern America. A geographic study of the Bering Sea was made at the end of the 18th century and was supplemented later by hydrographic studies.

      Deep-sea studies were begun in 1827 by British explorers. Extensive work was also done by a U.S. group aboard the American research vessel Albatross in 1893–1906. Since then the sea has been systematically studied by Soviet, American, and Japanese investigators. Some of the most detailed study was undertaken by the Soviet vessel Vityaz in a series of expeditions undertaken in the 1950s and '60s.

Aleksandr Petrovich Lisitsin Arkady Vladimirovich Alekseev Konstantin Trifonovich Bogdanov

Additional Reading

Valuable general works on the Bering Sea include P.L. Bezrukov (ed.), Geographical Description of the Bering Sea: Bottom Relief and Sediments, trans. from Russian (1964); David M. Hopkins (ed.), The Bering Land Bridge (1967); A.P. Lisitsyn, Recent Sedimentation in the Bering Sea (1969; originally published in Russian, 1966); L.K. Coachman, K. Aagaard, and R.B. Tripp, Bering Strait: The Regional Physical Oceanography (1975); and relevant sections in Yvonne Herman (ed.), Marine Geology and Oceanography of the Arctic Seas (1974). Maps of the Bering Sea floor produced by the United States Geological Survey can be found in B.A. McGregor and G.W. Hill, “Seafloor Image Maps of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone,” Hydrographic Journal, 53:9–13 (1989); and Herman A. Karl, J.V. Gardner, and Q. Huggett, “GLORIA Images of Zhemchung Canyon and Bering Channel-Fan System, Bering Sea,” U.S. Geological Survey Circular, 998:147–151 (1987).Issues of climatic variation over the Bering Sea are discussed by Tina Wyllie-Echeverria and Warren S. Wooster, “Year-to-Year Variation in Bering Sea Ice Cover and Some Consequences for Fish Distributions,” Fisheries Oceanography, 7(2):159–170 (1998); and G. Shaffer and J. Bendtsen, “Role of the Bering Strait in Controlling North Atlantic Ocean Circulation and Climate,” Nature, 367(6461):351–354. L. Marincovich, Jr., and A.Y. Gladenkov, “Evidence for an Early Opening of the Bering Strait,” Nature, 397(6715):149–151 (Jan. 14, 1999), is an important, albeit brief, geological study. Analyses of the potential of the Bering Sea as a hydrocarbon resource include M.A. Abrams, “Geophysical and Geochemical Evidence of Subsurface Hydrocarbon Leakage in the Bering Sea, Alaska,” Marine & Petroleum Geology, 9(2):208–221 (1992); and Mahlon C. Kennicutt II, James M. Brooks, and Thomas J. McDonald, “Origins of Hydrocarbons in Bering Sea Sediments—I. Aliphatic Hydrocarbons and Fluorescence,” Organic Geochemistry, 17(1):75–83 (1991). Intriguing thoughts on the history of human occupation of Beringia are offered by Don E. Dumond and Richard L. Bland, “Holocene Prehistory of the Northernmost North Pacific,” Journal of World Prehistory, 9(4):401–451 (1995).Peter J. Davies

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