English Channel
Satellite view of the English Channel
Map of the English Channel
The English Channel (French: La Manche,
"the sleeve") is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean
that
separates England
from northern
France, and joins the North Sea to the At-
lantic. It is about 560 km (350 mi) long and
varies in width from 240 km (150 mi) at its
widest, to only 34 km (21 mi) in the Strait of
Dover.[1] It is the smallest of the shallow seas
around the continental shelf of Europe, cov-
ering
an
area
of
some
75,000 km2
(29,000 sq mi).[2]
Geography
The length of the Channel is most often
defined as the line between Land’s End and
Ushant at the (arbitrarily defined) western
end, and the Strait of Dover at the eastern
end. The strait is also the Channel’s narrow-
est point, while its widest point lies between
Lyme Bay and the Gulf of Saint Malo near the
midpoint of the waterway.[1] It is relatively
shallow, with an average depth of about
120 m (390 ft) at its widest part, reducing to
about 45 m (150 ft) between Dover and Cal-
ais. From there eastwards the adjoining
North Sea continues to shallow to about 26 m
(85 ft) in the Broad Fourteens where it lies
over the watershed of the former land bridge
between East Anglia and the Low Countries.
It reaches a maximum depth of 180 m
(590 ft) in the submerged valley of Hurds
Deep, 30 mi
(48 km) west-northwest of
Guernsey.[3] The eastern region along the
French coast between Cherbourg and the
mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is fre-
quently referred to as the Bay of the Seine
(French: Baie de Seine)[4].
Several major islands are situated in the
Channel, the most notable being the Isle of
Wight off the English coast and the British
crown dependencies the Channel Islands off
the coast of France. The Isles of Scilly off the
far southwest coast of England are not gener-
ally counted as being in the Channel. The
coastline, particularly on the French shore, is
deeply indented. The Cotentin Peninsula in
France juts out into the Channel, and the Isle
of Wight creates a small parallel channel
kn